I had the opportunity in December to see Steven Maglio at The Cutting Room for a second time. I reviewed his show for Theater Pizzazz last year. (Read HERE). Steve invited me back, and when I saw Tom Cotter would be his opening act, I couldn’t resist! I was lucky to be in the audience when Tom did the tightest “tight three” I’ve ever seen, at his audition for America’s Got Talent a dozen years ago. I was floored, and immediately connected with him on Facebook. Tom went on to come in second place for the entire season – behind a dog act! Trust me, the dogs couldn’t tell a joke.
Tom Cotter’s set was quite funny, if a little looser than his AGT material, and he played off the audience well. It was great to see him in person again.
Steven was in excellent form, and included a number of different songs than the previous show. He’s always a great act, and if you love Sinatra like I do, he does a great job of capturing the energy of a Sinatra show with a big-band sound. While Steven doesn’t effect an impression, his voice naturally has a similar timbre and his phrasing is quite influenced by the Chairman’s. The charts are all vintage Nelson Riddle and Billy May, et al.
Steven does his weekly Sinatra show at the Carnegie Cigar Bar. I’ve seen it once. That show, he claims, is the same every week, including the jokes, though there’s a loyal fan who has seen it dozens of times. The Cutting Room show changes each month, with Steven mixing in songs by other singers of Sinatra’s time, albeit with arrangements that Sinatra would have been quite comfortable singing.
Definitely catch Steven Maglio at either The Cutting Room or, if you don’t mind tobacco smoke, at the Carnegie Cigar Bar.
This was meant to be a livestreamed and videotaped performance, in addition to the live audience at Don’t Tell Mama for the monthly event. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, there’s no video and no photos available. So you had to be there.
Here’s my write-up:
I only encountered Susannah McCorkle once, well before I even knew about the cabaret scene, at an event at the 42nd Street Automat produced by WNEW-1130 radio sometime in the early 1980s. Jonathan Schwartz played her regularly. Her rendition at the event was the first time I’d ever heard anyone sing “Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year.”
It was quite a coup for Jerry Osterberg to get Allen Farnham, who is currently in the pit for The Lion King on Broadway, as the musical director and accompanist today. He had to leave early for that show.
Danny Bacher is a funny and talented singer and master of the soprano sax (or as Jerry called it, a flute). Danny likes to throw in funny little asides in the songs. He started the verse to Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s “Accentuate the Positive”, singing “Gather ‘round me, everybody…. But not too close.” On “You Go To My Head,” with a bossa beat, he sang, “So I say to myself…. Self?” He brought up Lucy Wijnand for a duet on Johnny Mercer’s “At the Jazz Band Ball,” then finished with Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “How Insensitive,” with Lucy on vocal. Lucy is a fresh-faced young woman whose voice is reminiscent of Sarah Vaughn when she uses her lower register. I learned later that, to no surprise, Vaughn is a big influence on Lucy. A lovely “I’ll Take Romance” (Ben Oakland/Oscar Hammerstein II) had a light swinging rhythm with a bridge played as a waltz. Lucy introduced Rodgers & Hart’s humorous “I Wish I Were In Love Again” with the rarely sung verse, and finished big.
Gabrielle Stravelli is always a delight. She sings with a twinkle in her eyes, radiating joy as she masterfully sings and swings. Gabrielle sang the verse to Gershwin’s “They All Laughed,” which I’d never heard before, then taking us on a fun adventure with her versatile voice.
Gabrielle shared that the first jazz standard she’d ever been introduced to was “Skylark” (Hoagy Carmichael/Johnny Mercer), and sang the ballad beautifully. She ended her set with the funny Dave Frishberg song “My Attorney Bernie.”
Broadway and jazz artist Aisha de Haas was another great get by Jerry. She sang a sultry “Lover Man” (Jimmy Davis/Roger Ramirez/James Sherman). She sang a song she first learned from the record her aunt (Geraldine Bey) made with her group, the Bey Sisters, “Every Time We Say Goodbye” (Cole Porter), with the verse. The line “How great the change from major to minor,” one of my favorite phrases from any song, felt especially poignant in her hands.
Aisha finished her set with the jazziest song of the show, Cole Porter’s “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To.”
Danny and Lucy returned for a great old-school duet on “Thanks For The Memory” (Ralph Rainger/Leo Robin), after which Farnham had to dash off to The Lion King.
The final artist was Mark Nadler, who shared with us that Susannah was one of his closest friends. He became visibly choked up speaking about her. He made it clear how fun she was to be with, and that in their first encounter, Susannah, then writing an article about Irving Berlin for American Heritage, found Mark at a show and asked him, “Why is Irving Berlin indispensable to you?”
Mark is a great showman with considerable ability. For Irving Berlin’s “Isn’t This A Lovely Day,” he made the piano sound like it was raining while singing “Let the rain pitter-patter.” He brought back Gabrielle Stravelli for an adorable duet of “Two Sleepy People,” infusing great humor through their bon mots, phrasing and body language, turning the lovely couple of the song into what might be described as “two creepy people” who smile at one another through clenched teeth.
Mark played Billy Strayhorn’s “Something to Live For,” which had erroneously been credited to Ervin Drake in the program. “How thrilled would Edith have been to know she was married to a short, black, gay man?”
For the final number of the program, Mark recreated Susannah McCorkle’s arrangement of “There’s No Business Like Show Business” (Irving Berlin). Normally a fast, happy tune that glamorizes even the hard parts of show business, here it is a tour de force of tragedy and irony, pathos and tears, with the song becoming a metaphor for surviving failure. From its rubato opening to the big finish that let us know it’s going to be okay, and let’s go on with the show, Mark’s stunning, dramatic interpretation of Susannah’s arrangement was simply spectacular.
Bravo, brava, bravissimo, bravissima…. Fini!
The American Popular Song Society Skylark: Remembering Susannah Don’t Tell Mama 343 West 46th Street, NYC
Marissa Mulder returned to Birdland Theater for her in-person show since February 2020. With Jon Weber as her pianist and musical director, and Mike Rosengarten on guitar, Marissa presented the music and story of John Prine, the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter who was an early victim of COVID-19 in 2020. Marissa, a luminous strawberry blonde who radiates her joy in her singing as with everything she does, was in fine voice, interpreting Prine’s songs with great skill and feeling. Marissa, whose specialty is theme shows written around the deep-dive material of heralded singer-songwriters whose names are more well-known than their catalog, like Tom Waits, and new interpretations of Lennon and McCartney songs, brought that same approach to giving a virtual Master Class in John Prine, who had a knack for writing deep and whimsical songs that were especially acclaimed by other songwriters, such Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan and the late Nancy Griffith. Marissa has a gentle, nearly girlish sound that is often compared to that of the late Blossom Dearie, and is perfect for the material. The arrangements of these deceptively simple songs were terrific, with Weber and Rosengarten creating just the right melodic lines and tension for the material while allowing Marissa to shine.
Marissa opened with “Paradise,” the first song he sang to his father. Her own father was in the house.
“Souvenirs,” the show’s title song, was a tune Prine always dedicated to his brother, even singing the song to his dying brother on his deathbed. Some of Prine’s best material was written when he was a postal carrier in Mayberry, Illinois. He made his big break after film critic Roger Ebert caught his show entirely by chance and wrote about the “Singing Mailman.” Marissa’s family was in attendance from Syracuse, and she apologized to her dad from the stage after quoting Prine’s “F bomb” before launching into his “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore.”
For “Sam Stone,” Weber and Rosengarten, using ringing harmonic tones, created a delicate backdrop for Marissa to deliver a powerful message as relevant in the aftermath of the Afghanistan conflict as it was when our troops came home from Vietnam. The question asked, really, is “For what?” We learned that Johnny Cash changed the controversial phrase that “Jesus died for nothing” when he recorded the song, something Prine said was really the entire point. On “Speed of “The Sound of Loneliness,” Marissa was at her most vulnerable. With just Rosengarten providing a fingerpicked guitar, Marissa inhabits the song and its sorrow.
When was the last time you heard a song about a boy and an elephant? “Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone,” about a former child star whose career reached its zenith with his first film, “Elephant Boy.” The song is at once poignant and funny, with lines like “𝑆𝑎𝑏𝑢 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑎𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑛𝑘. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑖𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑡’𝑠 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑛𝑘.”
Marissa followed “Sabu” with another very clever song, “Dear Abby” is a collection of letters to Dear Abby and her responses (all written by Prine). Marissa was delightful singing lyrics like “𝑆𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑒𝑑, 𝐵𝑒𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑,” and informed us after the song that someone sent one of the stanzas to the actual “Dear Abby,” who wrote that the writer clearly needed a psychiatrist.
Marissa sweetly sang “Angel From Montgomery,” most famously covered by Bonnie Raitt, who said that Prine was “probably the closest thing for those of us that didn’t get the blessing of seeing Mark Twain in person.”
After telling a funny story about Prine’s goldfish that he loved so much he had it mounted, Marissa performed Prine’s uptempo song, “Please Don’t Bury Me,” about his own imagined death, recorded 20 years before. “𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑏𝑢𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑, 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑛. 𝐼’𝑑 𝑟𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑐𝑢𝑡 𝑚𝑒 𝑢𝑝 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑.” The humorous lyrics took on a bittersweet poignancy, now that Prine is really gone. This would have been her final song, but Marissa performed an encore on “In Spite of Ourselves,” with just Mike Rosengard on guitar. It was a terrific cap to a delightful show.
Marissa Mulder Souvenirs, A Tribute to the Songs of John Prine Birdland Theater 315 West 44th Street, NYC
Rob Kevlin is a young man with a fine, powerful lyric baritone. At 54 Below on September 24, 2021, Kevlin presented his Silver Screen Serenade. Rob was supported by a trio of excellent musicians, led by musical director and pianist Yaron Gershovsky (the longtime musical director and accompanist for The Manhattan Transfer), along with Boris Kozlov on bass and Clint de Ganon on drums.
Kevlin entered the Feinstein’s stage in a flashy blue jacket with black shirt and slacks, and a white Panama hat, which he removed after the opening medley of “Sway” and “Besame Mucho.” He presented a series of songs whose only connection was that they were introduced or used in movies. The monitors on either side of the stage were used to good effect to present still shots and clips from the movies he referenced. With little in the way of patter or personal stories to let the audience know his connection to the music, or to really get a sense of Kevlin outside of his songs, the show felt to be more of a Las Vegas lounge show than an intimate cabaret.
Kevlin sang “Can’t Help Falling In Love” from the Elvis Presley movie “Blue Hawaii.” After rocking it on “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” which was used in the Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” he performed Peggy Lee’s “Fever,” which he did not mention was also a big hit for Elvis. He really showed his vocal prowess on “Somewhere” from West Side Story, which made the most of his classically trained voice. Perhaps Kevlin’s strongest piece was “If I Were a Rich Man,” from “Fiddler On the Roof.” Here, he got a little more personal, telling us it was the song he sang at his bar mitzvah. He encouraged the audience to join him on parts, which lifted the energy in the room.Some choices were puzzling. Rob introduced two “Sinatra songs” as if they came from Sinatra movies. Frank Sinatra did introduce many songs in his films, some written expressly for him. Here, Kevlin performed “The Way You Look Tonight” and “New York, New York,” with arrangements similar to the Sinatra hit records. However, these are not Sinatra movie songs at all, but songs introduced by Fred Astaire in “Swing Time” (1936) and Liza Minelli in “New York, New York” (1977), respectively.
Closing with “The Prayer” and “This is Me,” Kevlin showed that he has power and range, and can also sing with sensitivity.
Kevlin is of Russian heritage, with a Russian-born wife, and brought a large contingent of his Russian family with him. Perhaps because of this influence, Kevlin has what sounds like a tinge of a Russian accent when he sings, though not when he speaks. He has the talent. With a good show director to steer him, his future shows may reach the hearts, as well as the ears, of his audience.
Rob Kevlin Silver Screen Serenade Feinsteins/54 Below 254 West 54th Street, NYC
Eve Marie Shahoian is a woman who is simultaneously a newcomer and an old hand. She was a child star who made her debut singing opera at age 8 on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and who toured with Liberace. She had long ago put away her show biz trunk in favor of marriage and motherhood, but in recent years, with her kids grown, Eve Marie has returned to performing. She first played New York several years ago with shows at The Green Room 42 and Birdland Theater. (I had a guest spot in the Birdland show two years ago this month.)
The show was entitled “Take Me to The World,” though there wasn’t an apparent thread to the song choices, with Eve Marie singing from several distinct genres of the American Popular Songbook, from Gershwin to Sondheim, and several excellent pop ballads written by Eve Marie herself. The songs showed off Eve Marie’s versatility of singing standards from as early as the 1920’s and 30’s, show tunes and movie songs from the 60s and 70s, and songs from recent years, as well as her own modern love songs.
Eve Marie was accompanied by her musical director, Jon Weber, one of the best accompanists in the business, known for his eidetic memory of music and musical trivia as much as for his first-rate chops and interpretative abilities. She opened she show with an uptempo arrangement of Irving Berlin’s 1926 “Blue Skies,” one of the most covered songs in history. Eve Marie then moved forward to the 1971 “Pure Imagination,” the Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse song from “Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.” The song was performed as a ballad, though it briefly switched to a breezy jazz tempo for a couple of measures towards the end of the song.
A deft medley of “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” “When You’re Smiling” and “What a Wonderful World” showed off Eve Marie’s range as a balladeer and jazz stylist. These songs were written in 1930, 1928 and 1967, respectively. Jon Weber, known as a walking Wikipedia of music and birthdays, didn’t let us down here, pointing out that it was the 117th birthday of lyricist Dorothy Fields, who wrote the first song of the medley.
At this point, Eve Marie briefly told her story of achieving her very early childhood goal of singing on television and leaving entertainment to raise a family. Eve Marie then introduced two of her original songs, “Waiting for You,” which was on two of her albums and received a Billboard Award, and “If You Were a Melody,” a pop ballad dedicated to her children, one of whom was in attendance.
Singing a capella is a skill not every singer has. For the 1929 “More Than You Know,” Eve Marie sang the entirety of the double verse sans accompaniment. Her rendition of Caro Emerald’s 2010 light swing tune “That Man” was quite a bit of fun, with Jon Weber playing “body percussion,” using his hands and abdomen in place of a drum.
Eve Marie then brought up her special guest, the acclaimed jazz and cabaret singer Nicolas King, for a duet and two solo numbers. Eve Marie and Nick have in common the rather unusual credits of being childhood stars who were both on The Tonight Show at age 8 (Nick with Jay Leno). Nick came singing from his seat in the audience to join Eve Marie on stage for their duet on the 1932 Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler classic “I’ve Got The World on a String.” Nick followed with a two-song set, first with Sondheim’s “Children Will Listen” from “Into the Woods,” then James Taylor’s 1977 “Secret of Life.” Nick has extraordinary jazz chops and voice control, and the ability to deliver a song in an intimate cabaret room that can only be gained from years of experience, made all the more impressive by his youth, at only 32 years of age.
Eve Marie returned with Stephen Sondheim’s haunting “I Remember,” beautifully sung and with great emotional connection to the material. To close her show, she sang George and Ira Gershwin’s 1926 “Someone to Watch Over Me,” including the verse, which is not always heard, and then “Thank You For The Music,” the ABBA song from “Mama Mia,” the lyrics to which could be her life story.
Eve Maria Shahoian has a beautiful voice and the ability to sing pop, jazz and opera – she showed off her opera skills here and there, almost to let the audience in on the fact that she can exercise that option at any time, if needed. If she has any weak spots at the moment, it’s in her command of the stage and her occasional attempts at scat singing. The scatting came across as a bit of “scat by numbers.” Some of the best scat singers often have the entirety of their scat planned out, but are so adept that you’re certain they’re creating this on the spot. Her stage presence at the outset was slightly undermined by a bit of tentativeness, possibly due to the small and spread-out audience in the larger room at Don’t Tell Mama. This shifted the moment she opened her mouth and shared her gift. However, she has nothing to not be confident about. She has all the skills and experience that will make for a successful second career in entertainment as she moves forward.
