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Entrance to Kurant Wine Bar. Photo credit: Sora Vernikoff
New York Restaurant Reviews
Sora Vernikoff

Kurant Wine Bar

I raved about Amy Babic’s Copinette, a restaurant renowned for its amazing American cuisine with French influence. It was time to try her second restaurant Kurant Wine Bar located at 1091 2nd Avenue between 57th and 58th Street in Manhattan.

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Bille Recce. Photo from 54Below.com
Cabaret
Edward A Kliszus

Now More Than Ever: The Songs of Billy Recce

Recce is a prolific composer and lyricist who knows his audience. His banter, sarcasm, wit, and humor are well received. He’s fresh, relevant, irreverent, and quick to lampoon those whose actions he reproves. He is rebellious and reflects his views through an evolution of personal expressions through song. His abilities are diverse. He expresses himself in a mode of his choice best suited to empower his message.

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Banner for Broadway's Next Hit Musical. Courtesy 54 Below
Musical Theater
Edward A Kliszus

Broadway’s Next Hit Musical

The audience gaped in wonderment and amusement at the singing, clever gestures, affectations, jokes, and exploitation of the hilarious, sometimes disjointed clues that inspired the scenes. The performers complete these tasks on the fly.

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1945 Press Photo of the music-writing team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Public Domain.
Music Reviews
Edward A Kliszus

Oscar Hammerstein Young Solo Contest

Hammerstein’s legacy lives on, not only because the musicals and films he touched continue to draw audiences but because of the work of the Oscar Hammerstein Museum & Theatre Education Center (aka OHMTEC). This not-for-profit 501c3 organization is currently soliciting donations to purchase Hammerstein’s former home Highland Farm in Doylestown PA to serve, as noted on their site, as a “creative epicenter to make it accessible to people the world over.”

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The Cast of Potus. Photo credit: Paul Kolnik
Broadway
Elizabeth Ann Foster

POTUS at the Shubert

The President has blurted out another gaffe, and everyone is scurrying to fix his latest blunder. Sound all too familiar? Well, in this case, it takes more than his wife and favorable news reporters to cover up this mess. It’s so bad that the care of seven women is needed for damage control.

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Mrs. Doubtfire cast photo. Courtesy mrsdoubtfirebroadway.com posted on OpeningNight.Online
Broadway
Elizabeth Ann Foster

Mrs. Doubtfire

The brother Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell created the book and are back at it again to make music and lyrics of pure unadulterated fun. Mrs. Doubtfire at the Stephen Sondheim theater is an update of the 1993 film starring Robin Williams, but funnier and more entertaining.

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Courtesy JaneAngerPlay.com
Off Broadway
Edward A Kliszus

Jane Anger

Jane Anger is hilariously funny. Witticisms, cleverness, plays on words, malapropisms, and sparkling non sequitur rants abound along with a dash of the spirit of Monte Python and Mel Brooks, a touch of Abbott and Costello, and the cast’s superb timing that make it work.

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Eliane Elias and bassist Marc Johnson. Photo: Roy Borghouts photography
Jazz
Edward A Kliszus

Eliane Elias

Elias’ own warmth, smile, and gentle narratives of her homeland drew anticipation for the music we were about to experience. As she introduced each song, she frequently connected interesting anecdotes about the song’s setting, rhythm, composer, and lyrics. She inexorably drew the audience into the virtual world of each song, inspiring sentimental musings about the dance, beauty, charm, and romance of Brazil.

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Off Broadway
Victoria L. Dammer

Queens Girl in the World

Curry transformed herself into a litany of characters in Queens Girl in the World, projecting the mannerisms of people who influenced her.

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