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about: Regina Weinreich

Category: Music

  • Texas in Paris: The Odd Couple at Saint Peter’s

    Paris may be exotic to many, but two visitors touring with their music in 1989 had opposite takes: for Osceola Mays, (Lillias White) untrained singer from Dallas formed by gospel at church and a history of slavery, Paris was a place that did not discriminate for her color. She never wanted to leave. For John…

  • Bettye Lavette: Worthy at the Café Carlyle

    Wiry and wise to life’s vicissitudes, soul singer Bettye Lavette took the stool at the Café Carlyle, commanding from that small perch a powerhouse of songs featuring her new album, Worthy. Building up to the title song, Lavette’s set included tunes from Bob Dylan (“Unbelievable”), Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (“Complicated”), John Lennon and Paul…

  • Cuba Arts Journal: Island in Flux

    The parting shot as we left Miami for Cuba last week was NBC’s Brian Williams reporting from Havana. Talks were under way, and news crews were on it. Andrea Mitchell was spotted crossing the Hotel Nacional’s grand lobby. Everyone wanted to know how President Obama’s move to finesse diplomacy would land. Already the word was…

  • Cheyenne Jackson Celebrates Sobriety at the Café Carlyle

    The big question when it comes to Cheyenne Jackson is whether or not the intimate cabaret stage is enough of a venue for this dynamic multi-talented performer who does Elvis complete with swiveling hips. At last night’s opening at the Café Carlyle, this Broadway star finessed the space with flair; you would think he was…

  • Moving “Merch:” (t-shirts and CDs) Sandra Bernhard at Joe’s Pub

     “We like to make it intimate here at Joe’s Pub,” says Sandra Bernhard, illustrating her trademark penchant for frank talk, “You don’t need that Broadway Waspy Albee bull–.” Arriving onstage in a sequined Suzy Wong number and silver go-go boots, Bernhard sings, “Where am I going?,” delighted that she’s right here, accompanied by her long…

  • Meryl Streep Casts a Spell: Into the Woods

    Missing from Monday’s lunch at The Leopard, Meryl Streep, wicked as an ugly witch in Rob Marshall’s movie adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods, was on a train returning to the city from the Kennedy Center Honors. No matter. James Corden, who plays The Baker in the film’s intertwining fairy tales, spontaneously fielded…

  • Sting’s The Last Ship: The Prodigal Son Returns

    If you’ve attended any of the packed previews of The Last Ship at the Neil Simon Theater, you may have noticed its originator and composer Sting lurking about. At your surprise to see him, he exclaims, “It’s my baby!” Indeed, this musical, with book by John Logan and Brian Yorkey, under Joe Mantello’s direction and…

  • Buster Poindexter Returns to the Café Carlyle

    How cool is Buster Poindexter? The alter ego of David Johansen of New York Dolls fame, Poindexter is VERY cool. A seasoned lounge singer, he sports a pompadour, a wavecrest that may stand erect using a formula once shared by Bello the Clown: a mix of Rogaine and Viagra. A pencil thin mustache grazes his…

  • Molly Ringwald: Flirting at the Café Carlyle

    “I’m an actress,” exclaims Molly Ringwald on opening night of her Café Carlyle cabaret act, as if we could forget. Playful, she suggested we forego formalities and all the clichés of lounge singers, and end her set of classics from the American songbook by pretending to walk offstage, to be followed by resounding claps and…

  • Rita Wilson Riffs on Taking Risks at Café Carlyle

    Rita Wilson told a funny story about having worked with Bobby Short, resident star singer pianist at this special supper club back in the day. “It was a commercial,” she laughed and sang a few notes from the Charlie ad, and we never really met. That was my brush with greatness.” That statement seemed odd…

  • Jeff Goldblum at Café Carlyle: Name That Tune

    Jeff Goldblum wears a pork pie hat and wide grin in his Café Carlyle debut, even when heckled by a man who wanted less talk and more music. But the performance, in which he acts as quiz show host, pianist and front man for the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, a grand name for a jazz ensemble,…

  • Keep On Keepin’ On, Alan Hicks’ First Film Screens at the Hamptons International Film Festival Summerdocs

    The documentary’s catchy title, Keep On Keepin’ On, comes from the legendary trumpeter Clark Terry, now 94, a line he uses to inspire young musicians: Justin Kauflin, a blind pianist composer he’s nurtured, could not attend the special Summerdocs screening at Guild Hall in East Hampton on Friday night. Now in Los Angeles recording an…

  • Vaneese Thomas: Launching “Blues for my Father” at the Cutting Room

    Just after the Father’s Day weekend, when Vaneese Thomas sang backup for Aretha Franklin at sold out shows at Radio City Music Hall, the singer had a launch for her new album, “Blues for my Father.” Her father was Rufus Thomas, a great singer who worked as a d.j. at a local radio station in…

  • Megan Hilty at the Café Carlyle

    The television series Smash may have ended, too abruptly for some, but its memory lingers. At center in the first season, Smash featured the competition between two very talented young women to bring Marilyn Monroe to life in a new musical. Megan Hilty as Ivy Lynn effortlessly looked the part. Last night the Cafe Carlyle…

  • Pre-Tony’s Broadway Tasting: Stars in the Alley

    Even before I got to Schubert Alley, a tad late of course, the sounds were rocking Broadway. Audiences were treated to a free sampling of numbers from the best of the best accompanied by a terrific orchestra, before the performers, dressed in street clothes departed for their respective shows, just in time to gear up…

  • Steve Tyrell’s Nod to “Beautiful” at the Café Carlyle

    Now in his tenth year performing at the Café Carlyle,Steve Tyrell started his set this week wondering why audiences rarely ask for songs by the songwriters’ names, only by the crooners who made them famous. And so began a show organized around a history of the American songwriter: “Taking a Chance on Love,” Vernon Duke’s tune with John LaTouche…

  • Sam Moore’s Tribute to Martin Luther King/ SeriousFun Gala Remembers Paul Newman

    It might have been your typically rousing Sam Moore concert at City Winery this week, featuring the Soul Man’s classic repertoire, starting with  “Let the Good Times Roll,” “Knock on Wood,” “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” “Hold On [I’m Coming],” and with two young women he met at a concert, “Something is Wrong with My Baby.”…

  • Shirley Jones at the Café Carlyle: People Will Say We’re in Love

    The Partridge Family mom took center stage at the Café Carlyle this week, singing classics from the American musical theater, and recounting anecdotes from a life well lived. At nearly 80, yes, she does reveal her age exaggerating upward, Shirley Jones sounds and looks great. In Oscar week, with a stunning June Squibb nominated for…

  • William S. Burroughs’ Centennial Year in American Cities, and One Serendipitous Photo at the Morgan Library

    When William S. Burroughs died in August 1997 at age 83, he was the last of the seminal beat writers to go. Jack Kerouac died in 1969, and Allen Ginsberg in 1997. Some argue that Gregory Corso who died in 2001, should have enjoyed that status too. Despite Burroughs’ known heroin use over many years,…

  • k.d. lang in After Midnight

    Canadian pop and country singer k.d. lang took over the role originated by Fantasia Barrino in the exuberant Broadway revue After Midnight this week. Channeling Tony Bennett, who came by the Brooks Atkinson Theater to hear her on opening night, lang performed “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” “Stormy Weather,” “On the Sunny Side of the…

  • Josh Groban’s Master Class on HBO

    For the 18th edition of YoungArts on HBO, Josh Groban, the youngest ever to give such a class, challenges three YoungArts alumni to write a song in two days. Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon, Academy Award winning documentarians, follow the creation and ultimate performances of the SB3 (Super Baby 3), Miranda Scott Johnson, David Stewart, Jr.,…

  • Harry Belafonte Makes History at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards

    In 1935, at age 5, Harry Belafonte saw his first movie, Tarzan, and knew he never wanted to be one of those people from Africa. This bit of personal history was the entry point for the 87-year old performer and activist, putting the achievement of Steve McQueen, the British director of 12 Years a Slave…

  • Marvin Hamlisch Loved Sweets

    The entertaining PBS portrait of composer Marvin Hamlisch, aptly titled, “What He Did For Love,” provides the music, his method for creating it, and the man. Fortunately for producer Dori Berinstein, and for us, Hamlisch was often photographed and the footage of him performing, accepting awards, Pulitzer, Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, so much a part of…

  • The Hustle in American Hustle Music: An Interview with Susan Jacobs

    The French provincial brocade couches in Carmine and Dolly’s Camden, New Jersey house in “American Hustle” tell you what you need to know about the characters’ domestic life. But the “American Hustle” soundtrack goes far to define the movie’s con artists’ ethos; for example you hear The Jefferson Airplane’s classic “White Rabbit,” but it’s not…

  • Caroling with Darlene Love, Lisa Fischer, and Judith Hill

    Christmas came early this year. First there was the gift of the documentary “20 Feet from Stardom,” now shortlisted for the Best Documentary Oscar. Then, there were the celebrations: the most recent on Thursday night at the Edison Hotel’s Rum House featuring cast members, Judith Hill and Lisa Fischer, accompanied by pianist Robbie Kondor for Christmas carols.…