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- David Amram: The First 95 Years at Dizzy’s Club
Category: Cabaret
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Photo: David Andrako “You’re just too good to be true,” goes the lyric of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” a signature hit for John Lloyd Young. Now in his eighth residency at the Café Carlyle, the line, the first of the night, also describes his dreamboat performance. Some men just don’t get old: Dark…
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John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey hit the Café Carlyle stage singing– that is Jessica sang Paul Simon’s “American Tune” accompanied by John on the guitar. At this point, as regulars at the Café Carlyle and so familiar on NPR with their highly entertaining Radio Delux, first names are in order for this couple, married in…
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Photo: David Andrako Warming up with “When You’re Smiling,” the charismatic, jazzy backup band for Jane Lynch and Kate Flannery cued the Café Carlyle audience: we were set for a night of music and laughs. The “Two Lost Souls” came onstage, like a pair of Chaplinesque hobos, foils of one another, and funny. Reaching up,…
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As the tributes to Aretha Franklin’s extraordinary career and legacy attest to the number of people she touched, and her incredible song list awakens our memories of decades of indelible music, it is good to remember her as a natural woman. Not only because she sang the song Carole King and Gerry Goffin wrote for her,…
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As noted in the past: It is a truth widely held, that ladies who lunch are wont to shop. And so a fashion show to benefit the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation has become an annual luncheon event. The options for lavish spending were displayed at Susan Gutfreund’s apartment in May, featuring models wearing Jason…
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Beloved Broadway and television star Linda Lavin plays the Café Carlyle as if she is the most gracious host, inviting guests into her living room for an intimate soiree. One of those guests on the night we attended was Hal Prince who directed her in Candide, a reminder that though she’s known more for dramatic…
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Introducing her song, “Popular,” on her opening night at the Café Carlyle, Megan Hilty quipped, ““Wicked” is about a beautiful blond who helps others.” Tweaking the theme of the popular Broadway musical, making her Glinda the star, was a glimpse into the humor and charm Hilty brings to her intimate supper club act. At the…
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Playwright Edward Albee wrote many plays and won the Pulitzer Prize for three of them. When I asked him about these honors, he replied, “You never know why you get them, and why you didn’t.” Anyone who sees Three Tall Women from 1994, now elegantly revived at the Golden Theater, will understand why this three-hander…
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“I love you,” Judy Collins, a vision in white from mane to silvery toe, shouted out to Clive Davis, and to everyone present at the Café Carlyle for opening night of her enchanting show. She calls the evening “A Love Letter to Sondheim,” but her range of feeling, and vocals, encompasses all, even in her…
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For his run at the Café Carlyle this week, John Pizzarelli focuses on one of his inspirations, Nat King Cole, who would be 99. On guitar and vocals, John fronts an outstanding band of jazz musicians: Mike Karn on bass, Konrad Paszkudski on piano and “the sheriff” Andy Watson on drums for standards including “Paper…
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“Music, champagne, dancing—wonderful things that make you forget, until you find something to remember,” Ute Lemper laughs dramatically perched on a barstool close to the Café Carlyle’s grand piano, skin showing through her skirt’s slit. She chides the audience, “Stop looking at my legs. They are not that good. I just know what to do…
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A Valentine’s Day tradition at the Cafe Carlyle, John Lloyd Young’s dreamy tenor conjures romance better than a box of chocolates. Some men just don’t get old: Dark glasses cannot hide John Lloyd Young’s dimple-chinned prom date good looks, but then again, his music does not age either. As he says about “Sherry” from Bob Crewe…
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For her new show at Joe’s Pub, the latest in her New Year’s tradition of guiding her fans into the future, Sandra Bernhard has turned “Sandyland” into “Sandemonium,” registering our current political times. As she told me in a recent phone conversation, her new Sandy show, from December 26 through 31, is a nod to…
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Guitarist John Pizzarelli and singer Jessica Molaskey are man and wife, and married in music. Headlining the Café Carlyle this week, their act is a sublime mix called “The Little Things You Do Together” after a Stephen Sondheim tune; they perform standards such as Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields’ “A Fine Romance,” a Joni Mitchell…
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A riveting, bejowled Woody Harrelson occupies the screen making LBJ something he wasn’t: a most charismatic president. Insecure, politically ambitious, Johnson became president under abject circumstances: the presidency was thrust upon him when JFK was assassinated. He wanted the job, but not that way. His personality, his conflicts with Bobby Kennedy, well played by Michael…
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Rita Wilson brings charm, confidence, and the comforts of relaxing with a close girlfriend to her supper club act at the Café Carlyle. “Tonight is going to be about relief from the world,” she says, and you believe her, because her lively combination of country and rock music is appealing, and because with all her…
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Duncan Sheik, composer of the musical, Spring Awakening, a huge hit on Broadway in 2007, takes the Café Carlyle stage this week for a brief run of his original songs. You may remember, the musical is based on a 19th century play about teens discovering their sexuality, portraying rape, suicide and abortion. “If you think…
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Laura Osnes is the consummate performer for large Broadway musicals, and at the Café Carlyle this week, she scales back her American sweetheart persona to the intimate stage, accompanied by Ted Sperling’s piano and extensive lore, and scene partner Ryan Silverman, amping up her considerable charm. The program entitled “Cockeyed Optimists: The World of Rodgers…
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You know what they say about show business! At Cipriani 42 Street this week the American Theater Wing celebrated its first 100 years with a great show. Tony Bennett took the stage, to speak the Wing's praises. Broadway stars Brian Stokes Mitchell, Norm Lewis, Rebecca Luker, Beth Malone, Natalie Cortez, Howard McGillin, and Santino Fontana…
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Herb Alpert and Lani Hall, partners in music and marriage for 43 years, still have that “Look of Love.” While he plays his sweet trumpet, bringing in the crowd at the Café Carlyle an entertaining night of his greatest hits, Lani Hall sits beside him, her big eyes trained on him, head and body grooving…
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Sophie B. Hawkins is the real deal: she composes her own songs and sings her heart out. At Café Carlyle, she channels Janis Joplin, whipping her mane around for a medley of “Ball & Chain /Piece of my Heart,” and goes nasal for Bob Dylan’s “I Want You.” Promising only one cover, she performs George…
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Touring with her father Tony Bennett since she was a little girl, Antonia Bennett learned a thing or two about performing. For her impressive debut at the Café Carlyle, she sings classics from the American songbook backed by a first rate jazz band, with Spike Wilner on piano, especially good on a jazzy “Tea for…
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Broadway musical legend Chita Rivera takes the narrow strip of stage at the Café Carlyle, maneuvering her sequined body strategically so she won’t end up in your vodka tonic. Nobody moves like Chita Rivera. The consummate showwoman, she gives a great, not to be missed night, starting with “A Lot of Living to Do.” For…
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The inspiration for Suzanne Vega’s show at the Café Carlyle is decidedly literary, the Southern writer Carson McCullers, author of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and Ballad of the Sad Cafe. Vega, a consummate songstress known for her signature songs, “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner,” crosstown and far from the Carlyle on 112th Street and…
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Some men just don’t get old: Dark glasses do not hide John Lloyd Young’s prom date good looks. He may be hiding from his girly fans’ swoons, but on the night we attended his Café Carlyle run, the audience was passionate about another side of this Jersey Boys’ career, his efforts to lobby for arts…
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