Spring has sprung and so have the multi talents that fill the cabarets and clubs in New York City. The venues are overflowing with talent. Someone for everyone!       By Sandi Durell   *Always check the club calendars for complete listings and for schedule changes.   Feinstein’s/54...

      By Myra Chanin   Bob O’Hare grew up in New Jersey, attended a Catholic High School and College and then, thought he’d always been interested in musical theater and had starred in regional and summer stock productions including Stop the World, The Roar of Greasepaint,...

    By Myra Chanin   On Monday night, March 27, 2018, Ricky Ritzel stepped up to the microphone at B. B. Kings and gratefully and gracefully accepted the 2018 Manhattan Association of Cabaret Award for Best Recurring Cabaret Series for the THIRD YEAR IN A ROW! Ricky Ritzel’s...

  By Ron Fassler   If a solo cabaret show is to be devoted to a lyricist who came out of what is now lovingly known as “Broadway’s Golden Age” (1943-1959), you can’t do much better than to craft such an evening on the works of Alan Jay Lerner. And when that soloist is a lovely...

    by Matt Smith   “…Every step I take / Those I ventured long ago / Those I’ve yet to make / Things were so much different then / As they’ll never be again.” Such is the emotional center of Renee Katz’s Winter Awakenings, which found the golden-voiced songstress back at...

   By Sandi Durell    Now’s the time to check out some of the tried and true cabaret rooms brimming with talent, and some new spaces that are making a name for themselves. Talent, talent everywhere! And lots of Woman Power! Always check the club calendars for complete listings and for...

    by Lisa Joy Reitman-Dobi   Monday night January 29 was anything but dark at Don’t Tell Mama.  The big room was teeming with talent and camaraderie.  One would expect nothing less when Bobbie Horowitz is the emcee and the show is It’s Just a Number.   Bobbie is in...

    One of the long running and inspiring cabaret series is credited to Bobbie Horowitz who has been honoring people over age 50 thru 80+, those who have created something new and fabulous in their lives. She is the recipient of a MAC Award two years in a row as ‘Best Emcee.’ Bobbie...

    By Sandi Durell   The beginning of another year! Wishing everyone a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year. The clubs and cabarets are brimming with talent. . . something for everyone. Get thee out to nightlife in New York City! Always check the club calendars for complete listings and...

    By Marilyn Lester   Often, when an Irish American returns to the auld sod and discovers ancestral roots, a kind of possession takes place. Such has been the case with singer-actress Moira Danis. A visit to Ireland a decade ago set her on a trail of discovery, with Celtic...

  by Lisa Reitman-Dobi   The lights dimmed, the music rose and Richard Holbrook took the stage. I scribbled the following: “Starry eyed as boy xmas, child’s sense of wonder, look at his face, bottle that!” The latter refers to the way his eyes twinkled, his countenance lit up and...

  By Sandi Durell   On a recent Saturday November 25 early evening, two-time Bistro Award Winner Vickie Phillips was on stage at Don’t Tell Mama plying her art form; something she’s been doing for many years as an actress and singer. As a storyteller, Vickie is at the top of her...

    By Myra Chanin   A more then reasonable facsimile of Liza! with a Z (who in street clothes answers to the name of actor/writer Rick Skye) has returned to Don’t Tell Mama as the host of her monthly variety show, Bazaaz! with three A’s, accompanied by working hips, kneecaps...

    by Susan Hasho   Ruth Carlin’s latest show is Kaleidoscope Eyes at Don’t Tell Mama. Her first song was “Who Will Buy” (Lionel Bart) simply sung, phrased in her own singular fashion, followed by the folksy “Love Song” (Bruce Cockburn), “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”...

    By Sandi Durell   If you’re missing country music and that yahoo and hee haw that make your spine tingle, go no further than to Dean Benner’s next performance at Don’t Tell Mama on November 19 at 6 pm. This is Dean’s fourth show since 2011 and in honor of his latest CD...

    By Sandi Durell   The 28th Annual Mabel Mercer Cabaret Convention is over, the interruption caused by the closing of the Metropolitan Room has left a major gap in the community as we await word on another location and opening date, as performers scramble to find time slots in...

    by Matt Smith   “Of all the energies that drive us, there is only one that can never be transcended into negative actions toward others, and that is the energy of compassion.” — Dr. Howard A. Rusk We’re just three songs into Renee Katz’s solo show, Never Been Gone. The...

    By Myra Chanin   On or about 8:30 pm on the last Friday (occasionally the last Thursday) of every month (except December) since July of 2015, a beaming companion and I have departed Don’t Tell Mama, the iconic Cabaret Multiplex-cum-restaurant-cum-piano bar on West 46th...

  by Magda Katz   Andrea Wolff brought her new show “Prisoner of Love” to Don’t Tell Mama this past Saturday night. She opened with the haunting Kander and Ebb’s “Colored Lights” and took the audience on her romantic journey through well chosen songs. Other well...

  By Marilyn Lester   Jillian Laurain bills herself as a concert artist, but she’s so very much more. She is a consummate performer in the style of which it can be said, “they don’t make ‘em like that anymore.” Laurain is a diva in the purest sense of the word – a singer of...

    By Myra Chanin     I have attended almost every single one of the now going on three years’ worth of Ricky Ritzel’s Broadway’s and always depart in varying states of exhilaration and with the same question floating through my brain. Can Ricky ever again equal or...

      By Sandi Durell   Alas, the heat and lazy days of  summer will soon end as Fall descends and beautiful multi-colored leaves will start to fall – Autumn in New York . . . But, as always, we can rely upon the many club venues and performers to bring their own kind of heat...

  By Myra Chanin   Renee Katz steps on stage at Don’t Tell Mama with a beaming smile on her face and a soul brimming with joy and confidence. “Never Been Gone” is her first one-woman first show in almost two decades. She considers herself lucky despite events that indicate the...

     by Sandi Durell    Summer in the City can be quite a treat if you’re looking for some good talent in the cabarets and clubs. Talent abounds . . . and whatever the temperature, you’ll be feeling just right listening to many of the best in town.   Here’s a short list of some...

        by Myra Chanin   Ira Lee Collings, an 81-year-old imp who blends Maurice Chevalier’s charm with Jimmy Durante’s conviviality, calls himself a Gay Geezer. Collings may have a “gay” sexual orientation. Nowadays who doesn’t? But as a performer he’s also gay in...