Ted Koehler News

In her recent cabaret show, More Than You Know (November 23 at The Triad's Stage 72), Arlene Wolff continued a comeback that has been 50 years in the making (which started last November when she performed at the Waterwheel Café in Milford, PA). Revisiting her youth and those turbulent political years, Wolff offered up a smorgasbord of delectable “Tales from the City” over a two-hour long concert of some 22 songs, presented in a two-act format with one intermission . . . Relying on an impressive repertoire of standards, Wolff vocally revisited the classics with a smoldering propensity, impeccable phrasing and articulation--never once dropping a lyric.

Chorus pro Musica (CpM), under the direction of Jamie Kirsch, commences its 2015-16 season at 8 p.m. on November 7 at First Church Cambridge with a program, With Strings Attached, that features choral works highlighting the special connection between stringed instruments and the human voice.

Marcus Goldhaber wears his mantle lightly. Emulating such as Chet Baker, Hoagy Carmichael, and Fred Astaire—those artists who most often sounded nonchalant, yet polished-- the vocalist offers pared down (not simplistic) interpretations of American Songbook/jazz numbers with emotional translucence, as well as authoring his own fine contributions to the oeuvre. I dare you to distinguish those from songs originating in the 1940s and 1950s. With Free and Easy: Livin' on Swing Street at 54 Below (July 25), Goldhaber takes us on a personal walking tour of musical influence. Material is varied yet sustains a distinct style. The vocalist is unhurried (even when up-tempo), mindful of lyrics, and elegantly restrained. He seems comfortable on stage and refreshingly sincere.

June is just around the corner. In New York, this means that spring is melting into summer and that New York City's annual celebration and remembrance of the original Stonewall riots is here. While the official NYC Pride website only lists a week's worth of activities late in June, denizens of the city are aware of festivities spanning the whole month. One of the most popular is the annual, star-studded NIGHT OF A THOUSAND JUDYS fundraising concert.

Lena Horne in a Harold Arlen movie musical classic!

Today we are saluting one of Broadway's best-loved leading ladies in honor of her new cabaret show kicking off this week at 54 Below, the one and only Patti LuPone.

What we get from the King's Singers is some sensational six part a cappella male voice harmony, and completely revised versions of the familiar songs

Johanna Allen makes another very welcome trip home to Adelaide to present the marvellous music of Harold Arlen, and her many fans were out in force to see her latest cabaret show,

In the late '70s, Vivian Reed captured a Tony Award nomination and won a Drama Desk Award for her work in the Broadway musical Bubbling Brown Sugar, and although Reed has delivered some critically-acclaimed work in the many years since (a Tony nomination for the 1992 musical The High Rollers Social and Pleasure Club and a star turn in the revue Three Mo' Divas), during the last decade she had gone and stayed away too long, mainly to take care of her ailing mother. Last November, she dipped a toe in the New York nightclub waters, producing a one-night show at 54 Below that was highly praised and offered hints of great things to come. But this past Monday night—the first of what will ultimately be a four-show run of “An Evening With Vivian Reed” (the next three dates are April 14, May 20 and June 19)—this performing powerhouse established her return in earnest. With Reed's still expressive voice tackling musical genres ranging from R & B to Jazz to Great American Songbook standards to Gospel (even a dash of Opera), her electric and passionate show was cabaret/nightclub performing as revival meeting in more ways than one. Reed is not only reviving her singing career, she is inspiring impassioned converts at the same time.

The new song and dance review features an all-star jazz orchestra and a dazzling company saluting the music and styles of Duke Ellington and The Harlem Renaissance.

Celebrity Series of Boston will present What Makes It Great? With Rob Kapilow today, November 3, 2013, at 3pm at NEC's Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston. Sponsored by Amy and Joshua Boger. Celebrity Series of Boston has presented What Makes It Great? with Rob Kapilow 33 times since its Boston debut in 1997.

For the first time in over fifty years, Harbinger Records will release 'Ballads for the Age of Science,' the most successful educational recordings of all time, as a six-CD box set. Featuring more than four dozen original songs written by Hy Zaret, co-author of the iconic popular song 'Unchained Melody,' and Lou Singer between 1959 and 1961, the albums introduced scientific concepts and terms using catchy, easy-to-learn lyrics and music to grade school students across America in the early 1960s.

Celebrity Series of Boston will present What Makes It Great? With Rob Kapilow on Sunday, November 3, 2013, at 3pm at NEC's Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston. Sponsored by Amy and Joshua Boger. Celebrity Series of Boston has presented What Makes It Great? with Rob Kapilow 33 times since its Boston debut in 1997.?

For the first time in over fifty years, Harbinger Records will release 'Ballads for the Age of Science,' the most successful educational recordings of all time, as a six-CD box set. Featuring more than four dozen original songs written by Hy Zaret, co-author of the iconic popular song 'Unchained Melody,' and Lou Singer between 1959 and 1961, the albums introduced scientific concepts and terms using catchy, easy-to-learn lyrics and music to grade school students across America in the early 1960s.

Producer Global Creatures have today released an 8-track preview of the score of KING KONG which features the work of some of the world's best contemporary artists, including 3D from Massive Attack, Sarah McLachlan, Justice, Guy Garvey from Elbow and The Avalanches. The music is being overseen by composer and arranger Marius de Vries, whose credits include the soundtracks for Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet. Click below to listen!

Wednesday night was the second of Marilyn Maye's first 54 Below run (which will continue until March 16) and she sashayed around the stage in front of an almost full house like a woman of 35. Like most of her shows, Maye's performance was a 'live' cabaret Master Class for budding cabaret performers and seasoned professionals alike, and this 'Maye-den Voyage' never went adrift (thanks in part to solid and unobtrusive support from Tedd Frith on piano, Tom Hubbard on bass, and Jim Eklof on drums).

At last year's Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC) Awards, two of the big winners were T. Oliver Reid (photo left) for Male Debut and Eric Michael Gillett for Major Artist, Male (and both could very likely be MAC nominees again this year). Almost a year later, two of New York cabaret's leading men performed new shows one night apart at 54 Below; Reid on February 6 with Drop Me Off in Harlem, and Gillett the next night with Careless Rhapsody: An Evening Dedicated to the Lyrics of Lorenz Hart. Ironically, what the shows had in common--besides being a fairly good fit of material to singer--was that the majority of their sets featured songs written in the 1930s but in very different styles. With Reid it was the jazz, swing and blues of Harlem; with Gillette it was the romantic Broadway musical sensibility of Hart's lyrics (paired with the timeless melodies of Richard Rodgers). While neither Reid's 'Harlem,' nor Gillett's 'Hart' were stirring or spectacular shows, they were both solid and entertaining enough that both could be nominated for BroadwayWorld.com Awards in 2013.

It's hard to believe that Amanda McBroom--who many consider to be one of the country's leading cabaret performers--had never played the elegant Cafe Carlyle before the current run of her new show A Valentine Rose. But better late than never because few things could warm the cockles of a romance-craved heart more on a frigid early February evening than McBroom sweeping into the Carlyle and singing songs about the vagaries of love that fit her special definition: 'Like a double expresso--a slice of life ground under pressure with a little bit of steam.'

Even her biggest fans among the opening night crowd were likely befuddled, slightly bothered, and even a tad bewildered when they heard that Christine Andreas' first cabaret show at 54 Below was called "Bemused," and not exactly sure what that meant. But they would ultimately end up being thoroughly bewitched by a wonderfully engaging show by this totally entertaining pro. While most current or former Broadway stars who are staging shows at 54 Below are performing what amounts to mini-concerts, the lady who first became a Broadway audience favorite as Eliza Doolittle in the 20th anniversary production of My Fair Lady (and is two-time Tony Award nominee) knows her way around cabaret and developed a charmingly creative conceit for this run (continuing on Jan. 29, Feb. 1, 2 at 8:30 pm and Jan. 30, 31 at 7 pm), which included songs from Broadway, pop, the Great American Songbook, and even Edith Piaf.

With her tribute show to the music of Harold Arlen and Duke Allington, 'When Harry Met The Duke' is Rosemary Loar's creative foray back into the caressing arms of the Great American Songbook. If you consider that the contemporary cabaret scene in New York is 30 years on (since the opening of Don't Tell Mama in 1982 and the start of MAC in 1983), there have been likely been thousands of cabaret shows with GAS themes and the interesting new ideas may be down to a precious few. And Loar, who has been performing cabaret shows during that same time frame, has managed to come up with yet another variation and her erudite and accessibly sophisticated show goes down like a delicious vodka martini topped with a skewer of blue cheese stuffed olives.