Interview: Bistro Award-Winner Joanne Halev Goes SAILING ON at Birdland

Singer Joanne Halev’s new show Sailing On will debut on November 19th at Birdland Theater. Join Joanne as she shares songs and stories that illuminate life’s little miracles as she looks back, looks forward, and goes Sailing On.

Expect tales of first loves, rites of passage, whooping cough and waterbeds, fate, friendship, and one fabulous farm boy. You’ll travel from the rocky coast of Maine to The Dairy State, from Manhattan’s Lower East Side to Waldorf Astoria’s Peacock Alley, to Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village, and even to Brooklyn – long before it became a haven for hipsters!

Joanne will weave her stories through the lens of music and lyrics by Lerner & Loewe, Carol Hall, Rodgers & Hart, Amanda McBroom, Francesca Blumenthal, Irving Berlin, Stephen Sondheim, Dillie Keane and more.

Joining Joanne on stage will be her Musical Director Alex Rybeck and Ray Kilday on bass. Direction is by Sara Louise Lazarus.

Joanne received the prestigious Bistro Award for Outstanding Debut in 2020 with her much-lauded show Like a Perfumed Woman, which premiered at Birdland Theater in 2019.

Below, read a conversation with Joanne about Sailing On. 

What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming show at Birdland?

The last time I sang in New York was March 11, 2020 – the final performance of my first cabaret show “Like a Perfumed Woman” – which debuted at Birdland Theater in 2019. Of course, we know what happened the very next day in New York and around the country!  Doing that show was a real joyride for me.  So, I’m thrilled to bring a brand-new show to an audience again. It may sound corny, but I’m grateful for the chance to share what’s in my heart these days – with the help of my Director, Sara Louise Lazarus and my Musical Director Alex Rybeck.  It’s been a long time!

Where did the inspiration for this show come from?

Sailing On is lightly themed. It touches on where I am from: Maine! Not long ago I had an epiphany about how the sea touches all our senses in a visceral way. For sure, a longing for my childhood there is buried deep inside me.  The show is filled with personal experiences and with my honest perspective from the vantage point of someone who was both born in Maine and was also a single girl in New York City in the 1970’s! So it’s about looking back, looking forward, and – hopefully! – Sailing On.

What was the process of putting the set list together like?  

I have been singing many of the songs in the show for a long time with Alex (Rybeck). Many of them represent a moment in time for me – whether in childhood, or when I first moved to New York, or met the man I would marry, or became a mother, etc. Some, though, are simply songs by women songwriters that touched me deeply the first time I heard them.  Somehow, we were able to find a place for each of them in the show, which makes me so happy!

What's next on the horizon for you after this?

I would love to share both this show and “Like a Perfumed Woman” with audiences outside of New York. We performed “Perfumed Woman” out of town this summer, and it went so well!  Plus, Alex has been talking to me about recording some of our favorite songs and arrangements…. who knows?

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I genuinely hope that the songs and stories in our show will be relatable – and will take people back to their own stories, and to special moments in their own lives.  Growing up, growing older, growing wiser…All of these are universal experiences, and Sailing On touches on all them. And I hope that people will both laugh – a lot! – and cry.  As Mr. Sondheim said, “That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”

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Tickets to Sailing On are available on Birdland’s website.

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