At Monday Night Jam, a Firm ‘Foundation’ for Jazz
BY NICOLE JAVORSKY | Billy Kaye climbed the stairs, made his way to center stage, and stood at the mic. “We are waiting,” he said, pausing to great effect, “for the host.” An audience member quipped, “You’re the host!” Without skipping a beat, some others took up the refrain. The chant, though a joke, expressed […]
‘Unatamed!’ Sings the Praises of Opera’s Wild Side
BY TRAV S.D. | No matter what you do in life, you’ve got to start somewhere. If you’re an opera singer, that may not be so easy. The dell’Arte Opera Ensemble hopes to address that. From Aug. 12-27, the company will bring its 15th Annual Summer Festival (this year titled “Untamed!”) to downtown performance behemoth La […]
Empress of Pop Sings City Center
BY DAVID NOH | Diana Ross — diva of divas, from a day when the real thing existed — is coming to town! On April 24 – 29, she will be in residence at City Center for a series of concerts that will give both old and new fans a chance to revel in all […]
Things to Celebrate from 2016
BY DAVID NOH | And so, 2016 ends with both a bang (of the most unsettling proportion with the incoming POTUS’ myriad threats) and a whimper (all of us, in reaction), yet Manhattanites who have been out on the town this year had plenty to treasure in live performances that blessed this city. Here are the […]
Timeless Judy Blue Eyes’ Vision of What Keeps Us Around
BY DAVID NOH | As reassuring, endlessly rewarding, and lovely a New York presence as the Statue of Liberty herself — whom she somewhat resembles today in her classic profile — Judy Collins is returning to the Café Carlyle to bewitch us with her ever-uncanny voice, which seems to possess all the vast plains and […]
Songs of the Empty Nest
BY DAVID NOH | The incandescently ebullient Christine Ebersole has returned to the Café Carlyle with a new show she describes as “radically different from the last one I did at 54 Below, which was more rock-oriented. This one has material that is more classical, lots of standards like ‘After the Ball’ and ‘When I […]
Star Broadway Composer David Yazbek Takes the Stage
BY DAVID NOH | When I met my favorite living musical composer, David Yazbek, at the June 21 press preview at 54 Below for its upcoming shows, I reminded him that once upon a time — really, not so very long ago — crossover hits from Broadway could often be found at the top of […]
Savion Glover’s Steps, If Not His Feet, Light Up “Shuffle Along”
BY ZITA ALLEN | When “Shuffle Along or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All that Followed” opens at the Music Box Theater on April 28, it won’t be tap wizard Savion Glover’s first time on Broadway. Glover’s signature style has dazzled the eye and boggled the mind ever since he debuted at […]
Remembrance of Opera Companies Past
BY ELI JACOBSON | New York’s surprisingly strong snow storm on January 23 forced cancellation of two of the six performances of “Tosca” scheduled for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater by the newly formed NYCO Renaissance company. Roy G. Niederhoffer, a former board member of the original NYCO, organized and bankrolled NYCO Renaissance and […]
Jazz Dances on Film
BY PAUL SCHINDLER | The Museum of Modern Art, in a retrospective created by the museum’s film curator Dave Kehr and dance critic Deborah Levine, is presenting “All That Jack (Cole),” a look at the career of one of Hollywood’s most influential choreographers. In a film career that ran from 1945 until 1960, Cole (1911-1974) […]
