BWW Picks returns! Published every Sunday night, BroadwayWorld Cabaret writers will make their top recommendations for shows throughout NYC during the upcoming week.
LADY RIZO: LADY, LADY, LADY
Lady celebrates lady at Joe's Pub this week. The inimitable Lady Rizo's latest show, LADY, LADY, LADY, takes the audience through a celebration of music written by women, including Sia, Grace Slick, Björk, and more. This is the final show in the series' run, although Rizo will return to Joe's on October 9 for a "farewell to New York show" before she heads abroad for a year, moving from cabaret to spiegeltent. Expect some special guests at both performances as downtown pays tributes to its favorite Lady/ladies. Sept. 5 at 9:30 PM. (Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette St., www.publictheater.org)
JANA ROBBINS & HALEY SWINDAL, THE SONGS OF KANDER & EBB: WE JUST MOVE ON!
Feinstein's/54 Below has been crawling through music history two by two this summer with its concert series DUO SHOWS AT 54. The current installment pairs musical powerhouses Jana Robbins and Haley Swindal as they prove life is a cabaret in WE JUST MOVE ON!: THE SONGS OF KANDER & EBB. Joined by musical director Joe Goodrich, the duo, who are currently starring in the Off-Broadway hit THIS ONE'S FOR THE GIRLS, will share their love for the famous collaborators against their own stories of successes, missteps, and dreams. Sept. 6 at 7 PM. (Feinstein's/54 Below, 254 W 54th St, www.54below.com)
JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND: A STAR IS BORNED
Judy! Barbra! Gaga! Justin! The luminous Mx. Justin Vivian Bond returns to Joe's Pub with their new show A STAR IS BORNED, THE NEW ADVENTURES OF CHIPRA. The downtown icon heads back to their regular hot-spot to explore dreams of stardom, otherness, and small-town tween-age boredom. Starting back at an early obsession with Streisand and coming to the present days of the Lady Gaga-led A STAR IS BORN, Bond chronicles their own life against the backdrop of the classic melodrama. Sept. 7-16 at 9:30 PM. (Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette St, www.publictheater.org)
LEVONIA JENKINS: GENDER FLUIDS
Gender-bending Brooklyn drag star Levonia Jenkins heads into the city this month and takes the stage at the Laurie Beechman for her first ever "half-woman show," GENDER FLUIDS. In the first of two shows (the second on Sept. 21), Jenkins, the alter ego of comedian and SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Associate Producer Greg Scarnici, will tackle her greatest hits, as well as brand-new parodies, and give her take on gender identity, hook-up apps, and more. Sept. 7 at 10 PM. (Laurie Beechman Theatre, 407 W 42nd St,, www.westbankcafe.com)
T. OLIVER REID: DISTINGUÉ... THE SONGS OF THE SALOON SINGER
A Café Carlyle mainstay and a champion of representation for Black singer-songwriters, American cabaret would be soulless without the legacy of the late, great Bobby Short. A week shy of what would've been his 94th birthday, the newly-opened Birdland Theater will host DISTINGUÉ... THE SONGS OF THE SALOON SINGER, a concert tribute performed by the best man for the job: T. Oliver Reid. A cabaret regular himself, Reid's style often matches Short's: a versatile tenor with a quick, distinctive vibrato and a dedication to meaningful, emotional interpretation that, simply, has no peers. Sept. 9 at 7:30 PM. (Birdland Theater, 315 W 44th Street, www.birdlandjazz.com)
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