It was a fable-filled evening at Etcetera Etc this past Sunday. The guest co-host of the night was Terese Genecco, singer and band leader of "the longest running nightclub act on Broadway," – Terese Genecco and Her Little Big Band. Terese is a multi-MAC Award winner and nominee for her CD's and live performances as well as a Bistro Award winner. The special guest performer was jazz songstress Shaynee Rainbolt, who will be headlining at Ashford and Simpson's Sugar Bar monthly. Shaynee has multiple MAC Awards and nominations under her belt as well!
Terese started the evening off on a high note with a rousing "A Lot of Livin' to Do" from Bye Bye Birdie. Then we had a back-to-back tribute to that wonderful fairyland adventure, The Wizard of Oz, as Steve "The Whistler" Herbst whistled "Over The Rainbow" and Stephanie Zagoren jazzed up "Ding! Dong! The Witch is Dead." Then Joey Infante sang the tango "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," and to stay on the dream theme, Sunny Leigh followed that up with "Out of My Dreams" from Oklahoma. Sunny has a new music video out of her song "The Other Woman," which can be viewed here. Next, vocalist Elli Fordyce crooned then swung her way through "It Could Happen to You." Elli will be singing at The Pizza Place in Yonkers, NY on June 3rd at 7pm, and will be a part of the Any Wednesday series at Barnes & Noble on July 4th, 6pm. She also will be at Midday Jazz, St. Peters at 1pm on July 21st.
Kevin McMullan next came to the stage, breaking some ice with a joke about Cinderella, then singing a lovely ballad entitled "Lonely Little Dreamer." Edie Stokes sang “How Are Things in Glocca Mora?” from the popular fairy tale musical Finnian’s Rainbow, then multi-MAC and Bistro Award nominee/winner Ray Jessel sang “If I Wish…” Next, Barry Lloyd sang “The Tempo of the Times” from the equally titled show he will produce in the fall at the Metropolitan Room. A friend of Terese Genecco, Lloyd is called the “Crown Prince of Cabaret in San Francisco” and has a CD out entitled “Barry Lloyd Live,” and another one to be released soon, aptly titled “Barry Lloyd Still Live.” After Lloyd sang Barbara Porteus with “How High The Moon” with Barry Levitt at the piano. She will have two Feinstein’s shows coming up in July: Saturday, July 31st and Sunday, August 1st. Then Helena Grenot sang “Baby Mine,” the sweet lullaby from Disney’s Dumbo, and dedicated it to James and Andrew, her two sons. Her show “Damned if I Know,” directed by Peter Napolitano with music direction by Barry Levitt, will be at Don’t Tell Mama on May 18th and 21st! Following up with the fairy tale-Disney theme, Valerie Lemon (at Feinstein’s October 24th) sang the hilarious “Disneyland.”
Next, Steve Schachlin sang “He’s Coming Back,” a ballad for Mother’s Day he said. Then Joe Regan, Jr. sang a Jane Russel song entitled “You’ll Know.” Maureen Taylor soon followed with “I Had a Dream About You” (her live recording of her Bob Merril tribute will take place this weekend on May 15th!), then Sierra Rein (me!) sang the Baker’s Wife’s “Moments in the Woods” from Into the Woods (my group Marquee Five won a MAC Award the previous Tuesday for Vocal Duo/Group!). Etceterette Erin Cronican became vulnerable with “Memory” from Cats, and Marnie Klar played Cinderella with “On The Steps of the Palace” from Into the Woods. That group closed the first half of the evening!
The second half started off with a Happy Birthday song for David Gillam! Then Special Guest Shaynee Rainbolt stepped up to take the stage. She stayed on-theme with a lovely duo mix of “Neverland” from Peter Pan and “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Then she traveled briefly into Standards-Land with “Someone to Watch Over Me.” Finally, she brought tears to many eyes with a beautiful song by John Bucchino, “It Feels Like Home.”
Mark Janas’ Classical Corner brought us into the world of Fairy Tale Music – simple harmonies yet with an underlying storytelling flow, danger, and survival mixed in. He first performed simple pieces from a Fairy Tale suite. Then, with the help of Matthew Ward, they performed selections from the Mother Goose Suite by Maurice Ravel. Then Tanya Moberly sang the third Into the Woods song of the evening, as the Witch with “Last Midnight.” Her “Theater Songs” show will be on May 19th at Don’t Tell Mama, and will include some Sondheim. After Tanya, Bill Zeffiro came to the piano and crooned some witty Randy Newman with “Big Hat, No Cattle.” Then Mark Ostrow played an original song for his Salon debut – a funny song “Congratulations, You’re Fired” (or I believe that might be it). He’s a consultant for copywright law via Boosey & Hawkes, so if any performer needs a consultant, that’s what he does! Next, Louise Poster sang an uptempo song from her childhood, “Row, Row, Row” (is that the right title?).
Next up was a debut Richie Eisenberg piece, sung by Erin Cronican, called “If I Could Sing Like Liza.” Then Danielle Erin Rhodes soulfully sang “Candle on the Water” from the wonderful cell-animation/live action movie, Pete’s Dragon. Keni Fine sang the charming “Upon the Carousel,” and then Stephen Elkins and Company from BMI sang from his song cycle inspired by the 5 stages of grief. Terese Genecco, who will have her Elvis show at the Razz Room sometime in December (yay!), finished off the evening with a wonderful “Star”-themed medley of “Second Star From the Right,” “Twinkle, Twinkle,” and “When You Wish Upon a Star.”
NEXT SALON, May 16th, the Co-host AND Special Guest will be Charter Salon Members/Cast of “Talk of the Town”: Jeffrey Biering, Donna Coney Island, Michael Daly, Adam MacDonald, Kristin Maloney, Chris Weikel and Stephen Wilde! The theme is “Back to Your Roots!”
-Sierra Rein
The Blogette for The Salon
Spelling mistakes? URL's I missed? Did I mess up? Please email me.
No comments:
Post a Comment