Alex Rybeck Brings Together 4 Acclaimed, Headlining Cabaret Voices In 4 FOR THE HOLIDAYS At The Beach Cafe

Heigh-Ho Friends & "Family"! Bobby Patrick your RAINBOW Reviewer here. Putting the silent T in CABARET to bring you all the T.

Alex Rybeck, one of cabaret's busiest and best musical directors, has brought 4 of his friends & collaborators to The Beach Cafe this week for 2 shows with 4 voices singing 13ish numbers about 2 religious holidays... because, you know, Chanukah. These 4 fine voices (5 really, counting Alex) singing all this holiday delight with such sweet sounds are Ari Axelrod, Celia Berk, Kevin Dozier, & Karen Oberlin. Only one of which (Axelrod) Bobby has experienced prior to last night's first performance of 4 FOR THE HOLIDAYS. Rybeck has perfectly tailored this show for the Beach Cafe, a cozy upper east side eatery with a fine menu and even finer staff and a fab owner, Dave Goodside, who one day decided to put up a stage, bring in a piano and mix a little music with that menu, and a sought after cabaret room was born. There is a word my lambs, an Italian word that one can find on a page of sheet music, a musical term; legato, and it means that the musical notes are to be played or sung smoothly and connected. This, it would seem, is a particular specialty of the talents on display in 4 FOR THE HOLIDAYS.

To be honest, my lambs, Bobby was working on a fair-sized headache when we arrived at The Beach and, so far, many of this season's Christmas cabarets have offered up a lot of fun jangling, Christmas party hop, crowd participation with "Everyone dancin' merrily," and, though we love that sort of thing usually, last night we were in no way looking forward to having our jingle bells rocked all the way home. Fortunately, that is not what was instore with 4 FOR THE HOLIDAYS. What we did get was a nice, soft landing into a bundle of fine, traditional holiday fare with a couple of novelties, because... Hanukkah. Rybeck's collection of voices for this show mixed and melded into soft airy arrangements of songs and medleys for solos, duos, trios, etc. mixing it up and making it all sweet and lovely. With a setlist that included the usual Santa-spects (see what I did there?) like BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE, WHITE CHRISTMAS (sung wonderfully by Oberlin), SILVER BELLS mixed in with CAROL OF THE BELLS followed by A SIMPLE PRAYER, given lovely breath and breadth by Berk, and an OH HOLY NIGHT by Dozier that simply floated out of the man and gently touched his audience with none of the usual over sung, go-for-the-power-note nonsense that most folk grind into that carol, what the audience got was an elegant, tuneful, melodious hour of music they could enjoy, and that put them in a fine, calm holiday state of mind.

The marvelous Ari Axelrod who, with that special tear in his voice and Rybecks legato guidance, reminds me more and more of the late, great Nancy LaMott each time I hear him, brought some kugel to the proceedings because... Chanukah/Hanukkah. Talking about his Jewish family's Christmas tradition of egg foo yung and movies, Axelrod gave out with a most lyrical MY FAVORITE THINGS mashed up with WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD, followed by a hauntingly beautiful L'DOR VADOR; a Hebrew phrase that translates to the passing of traditions from one generation to the next. BUT, the highlight of this Christmas show has to go to the number A JEWISH CHRISTMAS sung by Axelrod, Berk & Rybeck, all of whom sang the song with enough shpayen to wet the whole first row, selling it and getting paid in laughs.

Like a holiday cabaret buffet, Rybeck, a musical maven if ever there was one, has assembled these 4 gifted artists in a way that represents the variety of talents available to patrons of the clubs. With youthful Axelrod appearing alongside soulful Berk, and old-fashioned Dozier sharing the stage with sophisticated Oberlin, the merging of musical styles and performance moods in the show are a beautiful bounty of holiday blessings.

This soft, sweet, traditional confection has one more performance and that's tonight at The Beach Cafe and since, by the end of the evening, We had a smile on our face and no more ache in our head, we give 4 FOR THE HOLIDAYS an appreciative 3 ½ out of 5 rainbows. Get your tickets at the link below.

For Tickets to Any Of The Upcoming Beach Cafe Shows Go: HERE!

*All Photos By My Boss, THE BOSS Stephen Mosher

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