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| Mark Janas, Our Host |
And of course, this makes sense -- given this week’s theme, “Don’t Mess With Texas.” Mark regaled us with stories and played a recording from, “The Lonestar”, a musical he wrote back in his Texas days. Given the theme, this week’s Salon featured the lovely southern belle and co-host, Faye Lane, a Bistro and MAC Award winner in 2010 for her critically acclaimed “Faye Lane’s Beauty Shop Stories”. Faye started with stories about growing up in Texas, where little girls dream of being either a beauty queen or Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. But she fell in love with performing after doing a musical version of “Peter Rabbit," from which she sang her solo number, “Song of the Bean” (with lyrics like: “I’m a teeny weeny bean...”) Wistfully, she says this song has become a bit of a theme for her life.
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| Faye Lane, our Co-Host |
With a warning that, “We’re going off theme immediately” Maureen Taylor brought us, “New York” from the movie, “How To Marry a Millionaire.” Maureen premieres her Lauren Bacall tribute show this Thursday at the Winter Rhythms Festival, and then runs 12/11 & 12/18 at 4pm and 12/13 at 7pm at the Metropolitan Room. Elaine St George came to the stage with the hilarious “I Spent My Last $10 (on Birth Control & Beer)“ a country waltz written by Texan Gretchen Phillips. She said she prepared for the evening by going two-stepping the night before (sounds like fun!) Richard “Richie” Eisenberg was next, with his sweet, original tune, “Road to the Blues.“ Unfortunately, he messed with Texas a bit by parading around in his Oklahoma t-shirt. Faye had a witty come back, with the joke, “How come Texas doesn’t fall into the Gulf of Mexico? Because Oklahoma sucks!”
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| Richie Eisenberg |
Salon newbie Todd Monroe joined us with the lovely ballad, “Without a Song” - we’re so glad to have you with us! Matthew Martin Ward sang the oddly timely song “Occupy Christmas” from :Newsical the Musical.” Matthew is doing his next show, “There’s No Bizness Like Snow Bizness” with Christine Pedi at the Laurie Beechman Theater. Janice Hall came up next (with Matthew Martin Ward on the keys) singing, “It’s Too Darn Hot” (aptly said of Texas) which morphed into a mashup of other amazing standards, including, “Having a Heatwave”, “Summertime” and “Laziest Gal in Town.”
Sunny Leigh came next with “Harper Valley PTA” with Barry Levitt on piano. Stay tuned for March 18, when Sunny has her CD release party. Erin Cronican, your fearless Blogette, bounded to the stage next with the country-inspired, “Always A Bridemaid” from the Off Broadway musical, “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.” Candice Oden knocked our socks off with the poignant, “Fly Fly Away” -- noting that her father (and his family) were from Texas.
2010 Mac Hanson Award Winner, Angela Schultz, was our Salon Spotlight, performing with best friend & roommate Brett Kristopherson on the piano. Her first song was a gorgeous, “This time...” Next she sang the hilarious (and perhaps all too real), “Ready To Settle,” with Brett offering cheeky counterpoint harmonies. As he set up for last song of her set, Angela talked about doing vocal coaching for a pageant contestant for the talent portion of the competition. She launched into a hilarious “pageant mom” monologue, then sang the show stopper, “I Am What I Am” from "La Cages Aux Folles," complete with choreography.
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| Angela Schultz, Salon Spotlight |
For this week’s Classical Corner, Mark talked about his classical orchestra in Houston, and played a recording to prove that there IS culture in Texas! Actually, opera in Houston is a pretty big deal, according to Mark, and is becoming more popular in Dallas as well as other big cities. To help with the segment, he brought up Christian Teague, who hails from a Texan family and sang a aria with the hint of a rodeo, “Toreador Song” from Bizet’s “Carmen.” From a different operatic piece, Christian next sang, “Se Vuol Ballare” (from Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro.”) To change things up, for his final song he sang, “Fly me To The Moon.” All in all, a little hit of classical music from Texas!
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| Christian Teague |
The second set was kicked off by our still-fabulous co-host, Faye Lane, who started by talking about her show, “Faye Lane’s Beauty Shop Stories” -- which, as you can imagine, included a bunch of stories of the hair salon ladies who chat while sitting below the dryers. Even if you’re not from Texas, you can’t help but recognize the people in these stories. Her first song was the hilarious “Bigfoot” which was, well, about falling in love with the big, hairy beast. She then sang the Carol Hall tune, “Bus From Amarillo.” Faye closed out her set with the lovely and spunky, “Haulin’ Happiness.”
Tanya Moberly, The Salon’s producer, sang the heartbreaking, “Hard Candy Christmas” from the musical, “The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas.” Tanya said she toured Texas as a rocker chick version of Goldilocks with the children’s theater company, Theaterworks USA. I might have paid to see THAT children's show!
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| Salon Producer, Tanya Moberly |
Up next was Susan Hodgson, with Barry Levitt at the keys, singing the dramatic, “God Bless The Child.” Texan native, Cathy Taylor, was the next singer to take the stage, and she sang a parody to the tune of “The Yellow Rose of Texas” with Matthew Martin Ward on piano. Salon board member Stephen Wilde was next with the superbly acted, “I Was Here” from "The Glorious Ones" by Stephen Flaherty & Lynn Ahrens.
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| Stephen Wilde |
Fellow Salon Board member, Bill Zeffiro, was next, with his original tune, “Have You Met You?” -- about whom, it was really hard to tell. :) Closing out the show was Faye Lane, with the vaguely suggestive and funny, “Shine Shine Shine”
Special announcement for next week: To get into the holiday spirit, we’ll be doing a Secret Santa Exchange -- bring a gift (new or gently used) and we’ll put them into stockings. Ideas might be: cabaret CDs, one of your favorite books, candies, etc. As singers come to the stage, we will hand them a stocking and spread a little holiday cheer.
NEXT WEEK: The optional theme for the evening is “Holiday Party.” Bring along any song that makes you think of the holidays, or even something to make you feel cozy in this chilly weather. We also welcome songs that are off-theme. (Be sure to bring a second option, in case your song has already been reserved.) Our Co-Hosts will be Definitely Dickens Carolers: Mick Bleyer, Vanessa Parvin, Sierra Rein & Adam West Hemming! These Four out of the MAC Award Winning Marquee Five (Julie Reyburn being the fifth) have just released their first CD “8-Track Throwback”. They first Co-Hosted Salon back at The Algonquin and just finished a run of “City of Angels” at Goodspeed Opera House. More info here: www.definitelydickens.com
-Erin
Blogette for The Salon
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