Maye and Grimes to Play the Metropolitan Room This Fall

Cabaret and recording star Marilyn Maye and the Broadway legend Tammy Grimes are two of the leading lights in a line-up of female acting and vocal talent that will be featured at The Metropolitan Room this fall.  

"Maye, who, in March, ended a 16-year-absence from New York with an ecstatically reviewed engagement, returns not once but twice, in two different premieres: The septuagenarian  singing sensation interprets music by Ray Charles from September 12 to 23, and offers a Johnny Carson tribute from November 7 to 19.  Grimes reprises her hit solo act 'Miss Tammy Grimes' for four nights from October 24 to 27," state press notes.

Throughout the fall these other major headliners will premiere new shows in their Metropolitan Room debuts.  The veteran stage and television actress Penny Fuller (six Emmy nominations and Tony nominations for Applause and The Dinner Party) appears September 5 to 9; songstress Anna Bergman (Kennedy Center's A Little Night Music) performs from October 11 to 20; Liz Callaway (Baby, Cats, Miss Saigon on B'way) makes her return to cabaret from November 23 to December 2; musical theatre star Luba Mason (most recently in Chicago) appears November 23 to 26, and the veteran soap star Eileen Fulton ("As the World Turns") performs December 15 and 22.

Visiting from her native Kansas City, Marilyn Maye appeared on "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson" a whopping 76 times, but, somewhat unaccountably, hadn't had a major engagement in New York since the early 90's.  Maye's recordings (34 singles with RCA) include "Too Late Now," picked by The Smithsonian as one of the 100 best recordings of the 20th century.  She was nominated for a best new artist Grammy in 1965, going up against Herman's Hermits, Sonny and Cher, Horst Jankowski and The Byrds (Tom Jones won).

The two-time Tony winner Tammy Grimes (The Unsinkable Molly Brown, 42nd Street), who, in April made an enthusiastically received surprise return to the stage, reprises her highly personal hit solo show "Miss Tammy Grimes," which was extended a week by popular demand back in  the spring.  "The show intersperses songs from her storied stage career with an eclectic mix of her favorite composers, not to mention a few mentors, lovers and friends."

The Metropolitan Room, 34 West 22nd Street, the cozy Flatiron District concert venue, won a 2007 Nightlife Award for encouraging Broadway stars to develop solo shows.  For reservations call 212/206-0440. For more information visit www.metropolitanroom.com.

Photo of Tammy Grimes by Mark Rupp

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