There was love in the air at Sunday’s Salon, and appropriately so - for the theme for the evening was, “Amour, Amore, Liebe & Love” or, Love in Several Languages. We were so excited to introduce Co-Host, international soprano sensation Anna Bergman with her nimble-fingered music director, Alex Rybeck. Anna is the star of upcoming Feinstein’s show, “You & The Night & The Music- An Evening of Musical Imports and Exports” - the shows run October 15, 21, 22, 28 & 29 at 8pm.
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| Co-host, Anna Bergman |
To start the evening, this lovely lady gave us a jazzy, Spanish infused medley of “Something Tells Me” and “You & Night.” Kicking off the open mic portion of the evening, Natasha Castillo brought us a song about how love gives her strength, “I Won’t Last A Day Without You.” She has her solo debut coming up - “Anything by Ordinary” on November 2, 10, 16 at The Duplex at 7pm, directed by Lennie Watts, musical direction by Steven Ray Watkins.
Richie Eisenberg was next with his charming & upbeat original tune, “Now That I Know.” We’re proud to announce that Richie’s music will be featured in The Salon’s cabaret series, Salon Presents, on October 24 at 7pm and 9:30pm - “Smile On My Face: The Songs of Richie Eisenberg.” Email tanya@tanyamoberly.com for reservations. Harold Sanditen gave us a truly unique and hilarious rendition of ”Me and Mrs Jones” with some choice lyrical changes. Harold has a show coming up October 4-5 at the Metropolitan Room called, “Shades of Blue” which originated in London and is now in NYC!
Lou Iacovino bounded to the stage with a swinging, “Learning The Blues.” Did everyone know that Lou is an attorney in his “daytime” life? He says he’ll be in court tomorrow - best of luck with everything, as always. Joann Sicoli brought in an ode to her favorite love, the great city of New York with “New York State of Mind.” MAC Award Winner Bobbie Horowitz was next with a do-wop inspired “Flatbush Serenade.” Bobbie told us about a new open mic opening up Saturday October 27 at 2pm at Unity Center of New York on East 58th St.
Sunny Leigh came up to the stage with Barry Levitt at the piano, singing the classic “If You Could See Me Now.” 2012 Bistro ward winner (and last week’s co-host) Parker Scott gave a haunting “I Won’t Send Roses” from Mack & Mabel. Parker’s show, “No Expectations”, is running at the Metropolitan Room Sunday, October 7 at 4pm. I highly recommend checking it out - click here to see a promo.
Annie LeBeaux sang a medley of tunes about two kinds of love (one you have to pay for and one you want to pay for) where she shared German, French & English lyrics - “Schone Gigolo” and “Hynme a L’Amour.” Erin Cronican, (your blogette- hello!) sang a song about those times when love cannot ever be spoken: “Take The World Away” from Little By Little. Erin is the managing director of The Seeing Place Theater and is excite to announce their 4th Season next week! Click here to sign up for updates. MAC and Bistro Award winner, and tonight’s Etceterette, Janice Hall started with a beautiful essay, and followed up with an even more beautiful, “Nana’s Lied” by Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht.
Our Salon Spotlight this week was the always hilarious Joshua Desjardins & Joshua Warr. At the piano was the multi-talented Kenneth Gartman. Their first number was the duet “What Is This Feeling” from Wicked. Kenneth Gartman kicked off their second song, the exciting trio “Heart & Music” from William Finn’s A New Brain. Their final number was an imaginative Friendship Medley including songs like “Thank You For Being a Friend” “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” “I’ll Be There For You (Theme from “Friends”) and “Bosom Buddies.” The Joshes have a show, “Joshing Around” at The Duplex on November 7 at 7pm ($5 MAC discount). Be sure to check it out!
Classical Corner
Mark Janas spent the evening talking about great love themes - how their romantic peel, lyricism, sense of positive harmony and arch make up the romantic movement in classic theater. He played a few examples from Puccuni (Turendot) Bernstein (West Side Story), Ravelle, and Rachmaninov, to name a few. He then reintroduced us to a piece he’s been in love with because it was so full of love and emotion. And we we lucky enough to hear him play the piece fir us - Chopin’s “A Flat Ballade.”
Second Set
Anna Bergman, our glorious co-host, started the second set with the song, “I Am In Love. “ She followed that up with a very touching and emotional “Mean To Me” by Marlene Dietrich, complete with English & German lyrics. Anna told us a story about Marlene renouncing her German citizenship and used her voice in the musical propaganda recordings designed by the US to “demoralize the enemy” during World War II, which I found fascinating. Read more here. She finished her set with a comedic duet with Alex Rybeck, “Museum.”
Salon Producer, Tanya Moberly, sang the wistful ballad “All The Things You Are” from the little0known musical, “Very Warm For May” by Hammerstein/Kern. Tanya just opened her show, “Tanya Lorraine Moberly sings Barbra Joan Streisand with Steven Ray Watkins” at Don’t Tell Mama - 3 more shows are coming up Oct 18, Nov 14 and Dec 4. All shows are at 7pm. There are discounts for Salon members - be sure to make reservations in advance. She’s also appearing in the closing performance of The Concerts For The City Greens, where she’s singing the opening song with Bill Zeffiro and another surprise tune with Mark Janas. More details: www.TudorCityGreens.org
Salon newbie, Tyler Kent, sang Bobby Darin’s snappy, love song, “Dream Lover” with a bunch of “yeah yeah”s from the audience. He’s working on two shows right now, one being a set of Bobby Darin tunes, with dates/location TBD. Carly Ozard brought us Queen’s powerful, “Somebody To Love.” She was named Best Cabaret Performer in San Francisco in 2009 - were glad to have her in NYC!
Joey Infante was next with a one of his favorite love ballads, (complete with tango flair!), “Cumbanchuro.” Barb Malley came to stage and brought her voice teacher with her - Salon regular, Gretchen Reinhagen, who ably accompanied her on “As Times Goes By.” Gretchen stayed at the piano and accompanied for herself on the lovely “A Quiet Thing” from Flora the Red Menace. Gretchen is directing two cabarets coming up: Irenka Jakubiak in “I Love Rock and Roll” at Don’t Tell Mama on Thursday, October 25th at 7:30pm; and Julia Klot in “Introducing Julia Klot” (a 12 year old dynamo!) at the Metropolitan Room on Sunday, November 4th at 1pm.
6 time MAC nominee (and Salon Board Member) Nicholas Levin was next singing & playing his own tune, “Olives of Regret” - the audience simply ate up his lyrics! (pardon the slight pun…) We were excited to welcome back Jim Speake, who sang a tender, “…” by Peter Allen. You can see “Jim Speake Sings ’Til The Cows Come Home” directed by Lennie Watts, musical direction by Steven Ray Watkins, with special guest Sidney Myer at Don’t Tell Mama - 1 more show October 10 at 7pm.
Susan Hodgdon was next, who talked about her love life in Connecticut but her love for being in New York as well, and then sang a lonely. “As Long As He Needs Me” from Oliver. Susan has one more showing of her cabaret, “On The Bumpy Road to Love” at 4pm on December 8th at Don’t Tell Mama. Next up was Joe Regan with “The Dummy Song” - welcome back to the Salon, Joe!
The final song of the evening, sung by our gorgeous soprano co-host, Anna Bergman, was a song from the original production of Rent… just kidding! It was “Quando Men Vo” from Puccini’s La Boheme, where Anna seduced the audience (including Salon Board member, Roy anded, who got a kiss and rub on the top of his head.) Those lucky front row audience members!
Special Thanks to Gil Alexandre for his hep on lights and sound tonight!
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| Next week's co-host, Tanya Holt! |
Next week features Co-Host Tanya Holt. The Salon Spotlight is Corinna Sowers Adler. The theme is, “Anything Goes.” I’d venture to say you could bring something by Cole Porter, or absolutely anything else. Remember, any material, on or off theme, is always welcome at Salon.
We’ll see you then! In the meantime, if someone video recorded your performance and you’d like us to know about it, please post the link in the comments section of this blog post. We'll then add it to our YouTube Playlist. Thank you!
-Erin Cronican
Blogette for The Salon
Need anything? Please email me.
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