This past Sunday's Salon was filled with the sounds of the Earth, and nature, and bells, and zings!...and yet even a bit of quiet filled the Etcetera Etc Restaurant...ahhh The theme was "All the Sounds of the Earth are Like Music." The guest co-host of the evening was the gloriously-voiced Mark Watson, and MAC Award-nominated (amongst other awards) Gretchen Reinhagen was the special guest performer. AND each singer received a lovely hand-decorated egg from David Gillam (who is also the artist who drew the piano logo sketch for The Salon. Take a look at it at the top of this page. See? Awesome!) Mark started the evening off off-mic with the song that inspired the evening's theme "Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'" from Oklahoma. Jan Brennan sang "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and Dr. Sue sang her original song "Dare to Believe" (her CD, Keys of Love, is available at cdbaby.com). Joey Infante, with Mike McDonald on piano, gave us a musicology lesson with "The Birth of the Blues." Helena Grenot sang about whistling (where is Steve Herbst when you need him?) with "Anyone Can Whistle." Helena will be performing her show "Damn'd if I know..." at Don't Tell Mama on both May 18th at 7pm and May 21st at 8pm. Next, Felicia Mae Strassman crooned through "The Days of Wine & Roses" and Sunny Leigh fired out "Why Haven't I Heard From You."
Staying on-theme, Jane Glick sang from the musical Closer than Ever with the lovely "I Hear the Bells." Michael Colby sang from his original show Charlotte Sweet (which is going to be produced at Southwestern University, Phoenix, AZ) the song "It Could Only Happen in the Theatre." Then Bobbie Horowitz regaled us about her friend's "Nothing to Complain About Blues." Erin Cronican brought a different flavor to the noiseful night with "Quiet" by Jonathan Reid Gealt. David Rigano sang his original comedic song "Call Me A Doctor," and Bistro-Award recipient (and MAC Award nominee) Richie Eisenberg brought in his parody of "My Way" entitled "How Much I Weigh." Matthew Ward then sang his MAC Award-nominated song "Say Hello" (lyrics by Peter Napolitano from their musical Lady in Penthouse B). With Matthew still at the piano, Sierra Rein sang "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart." Her (my) group Marquee Five is nominated for a MAC Award (best Vocal Duo/Group) and is having one last hurrah performance of "We Can Make It: The Songs of Kander & Ebb" at Don't Tell Mama on April 15th, 8:30pm. Next, Etceterette and International Soprano Arianna showed all three of her vocal stylings with the challenging "The Girl in 14 G." To close the first half, Etceterette Danielle Erin Rhodes got behind the piano and played/sang an original Easter song co-written with Jason T. Hurley.
The second half brought the incredible Gretchen Reinhagen to the Etcetera Etc. stage. Gretchen is a Nightlife Winner, Bistro Award, and MAC nom (her show "Special Kaye" can be seen May 1st with Barry Director, Music Director David Gains at the Metropolitan Room). Gretchen started out with "Out of My Mind," then sang Tracy Stark's "Sometimes Life is Kind," and finished with "Ain't It Good?" from Children of Eden. Gretchen also plugged a Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts Camp workshop entitled "The Art of Cabaret Workshop," which she attended last year and which will return in the last week of August.
This week's Classical Corner featured Mark Watson, who sang the beautiful "The Lake Isle of Innisfree", text by Yeats, composed by Ben Moore -- and Mark Janas who gave a wonderful music lesson on what overtones are. Mark then sat at the piano with Matthew Ward to play a duet on Beethoven's "Symphony No. 6 'Pastoral.'" The quote of the night came from Mark Janas, who declared "I'm the cuckoo!" as he and Matt played through Beethoven's musical interpretations of nightingales, quails, and of course, a cuckoo.
Tanya Moberly brought in a vigorous "Don't Rain on My Parade" (on May 19th, Tanya will perform all Theater songs at Don't Tell Mama!), and Gladys Nilsen sang the spanish version of "Besame Mucho." Then Joan Jaffe threw on a backwards ball cap and rapped (!) her way through "Easter Parade." Joan is a MAC Award nominee, and is currently writing & directing "Flash Bam Alakazaam, a Tribute to Betty Hutton." She can also be seen dancing in slow-mo for the SNL comic music video short Boombox. Whitney Chapman returned to The Salon with a guided rain-sound exercise, which led into "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head."
Danielle Grabianowski - her MAC Award nominee show "Old New, Borrowed and Blues" will return to The Metropolitan Room on Weds, April 7th - sang "I Want to be Evil," an then our favorite Etcetera Etc. employee David Ballard gave a rousing "Anthem." Michelle Collier sang "This is My Beloved." Michelle is nominated for a MAC Award and her Tribute to Hollywood Blondes show will return to Don't Tell Mama on April 11, 7pm. To close the evening, Steve Schalchlin brought a sing-along Easter song entitled "Lazarus Come Out." Steve is thrilled that his show Zero Hour can now be seen at the DR2 theater and has received an Off-Broadway League's Lucille Lortel Award Nomination. Mark Watson closed this tune-ful evening with "My Life Belongs to You" by Ivor Novello, from the show The Dancing Years.
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