Chicago Cabaret Queen Celebrates 40 Years of Performing

Chicago's Cabaret Queen Denise Tomasello will celebrate 40 years of entertaining Chicago, with a very special concert To Chicago With Love, at the Gold Coast's Drake Hotel Grand Ballroom, where she has the honor of being the first and only entertainer to ever give a concert at the legendary hotel. The Drake will make this a very special night for this legendary Chicago performer on Saturday October 7th, 140 East Walton, Chicago. Tickets for this highly anticipated special event are $65 and can be obtained by calling 312.787.2200. At 8pm, a delicacy of desserts and champagne will be served followed at 9pm, with a 90 minute concert from "the one and only Denise Tomasello." (Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune)

Denise will be joined with the 17-piece Denise Tomasello Orchestra. This 90 minute concert will be a retrospective of Denise's remarkable and enduring 40 year career that made her the toast of Chicago. Featuring an evening of her fan-favorite signature songs, classics from the great American songbook and show-stopping Broadway numbers, as well as a special video and photo presentation of career highlights. This promises to be an unforgettable evening.

Crowned Chicago's Cabaret Queen" by The Tribune, Sun Times, Daily Herald, Skyline, BroadwayWorld and WGN Radio, Denise is the recipient of Chicago Cabaret Professionals Gold Coast Award and winner of the After Dark Award for "Outstanding Cabaret Performer." She has headlined with show biz icons Don Rickles, Alan King, and Jackie Mason. Mason was so impressed by Tomasello's talent he demanded that Denise have equal billing alongside his name at The Tropicana/Atlantic City. Mason went on to say "She is an amazing singer and a brilliant comedian. She is so natural onstage. She is the female Dean Martin."

Denise's musical journey began at age 19, performing with top show bands in the suburbs, to eventually playing the Playboy Clubs in Lake Geneva and Chicago, where she opened for James Darren (Moondoggie from the Gidget movies). In 1979, she got her big break at Sages, at the time the city's most prestigious cabaret. What started out to be a two week contract turned into an unprecedented six year run - the longest run ever for a female nightclub singer in Chicago history. Denise Tomasello was THE must-see performer in Chicago and became a celebrity among celebrities entertaining VIPs Elizabeth Taylor, Tony Bennett, Mary Tyler Moore, Tom Dreeson, Dennis Farina,Mayor Daley, Irv Kupcinet, Harry Carey, Jack Brickhouse and many others who flocked to see her. She received rave reviews from every major newspaper in town including an iconic photo cover on the Tribune's Sunday Arts Magazine and The Tribune calling her "an entertainer of stirring voice and show biz pizzazz." "Wildly glamorous and wickedly amusing, when she sinks her teeth into a belters delight the room sizzles."

She went onto headlining and selling out in the city's most prestigious nightclubs and concert halls: The Chicago Theatre, Park West, the Empire Room, The Pump Room, Arnie's, George's, Byfields, Davenport's and an unprecedented, record-breaking six-year engagement at Sage's.

Denise followed that with an unprecedented, two-year run at The Fairmont's Metropole Room that was greeted by audiences and the press with the excitement of Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall. The Sun Times raved "with a voice that rivals Liza Minnelli in scope... those that have heard her once can't wait to hear her again." The Tribune was equally ebullient saying "a nightclub dream....so firmly has she stamped the room her own she should stay there forever." Her record-breaking reigns at Sages and The Metropole have been compared to Bobby Short's run at The Cafe? Carlyle in New York.

Her dazzling, renowned Chicago performances brought Denise national recognition performers dream of and resulted in sold-out shows at the country's top nightspots and stages: New York's Town Hall and Eighty Eights in Manhatten; Michael Feinstein's Cinegrill in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, The Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, and The Gardenia and Rose Tattoo in Los Angeles. She also became the first Chicago performer invited to sing at the New York Cabaret Convention. These high profile performances, along with the national recognition Denise was achieving prompted her to make a move to California. While L.A. had its appeal, Denise missed the warm relationship she had with Chicago and its audiences. So she returned home to her beloved Windy City, where she currently lives with her husband Don Conover.

And now 40 years after embarking on her music career, Chicago's love affair with Denise Tomasello continues, proving she is the one and only Cabaret Queen of Chicago. In the past two years Denise has performed triumphant SRO concerts at The Auditorium, The Metropolis Performing Arts Center, Empire Room, The Drake Hotel's Grand Ballroom, two sold out shows at The Skokie Theatre, and memorable concerts at Festa Italiana.

From belting a Broadway show-stopper, to her spine-tingling delivery of an emotional ballad, or her sultry way with a jazz standard, Denise possesses a rare and unique musical versatility, putting her indelible stamp on every song she sings. And the way she engages the audiences with her spontaneous, sharp, quick-witted repartee, Denise makes every performance a unique and special experience. A true original, nothing compares to a performance by the exhilarating Tomasello. One of the most talked about and exciting performers around, with the Chicago Tribune exclaiming "let's make one thing clear about Denise Tomasello: "She was cabaret before cabaret was cool."

Witness first-hand why California's Orange County Register calls Denise and her one-woman concerts "the best show of its kind in the country! For further information and upcoming solo concerts, please visit DeniseTomasello.com, friend on Facebook or follow on Twitter @CabaretQueen.

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