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The Cabaret Chronicles: Dezur Kenna, Cast Party, and more!
By: Jenna Esposito Jun. 21, 2009
Happy Weekend, everyone!
A quick announcement before I tell you about my cabaret adventures over the past week: beginning today, The Cabaret Chronicles will be posted every Saturday, instead of every Friday. Okay, now that THAT's out of the way...let me fill you in on the last week!
On Friday, June 12th, I kicked off the weekend by doing a guest spot in The Cocktail Show at Don't Tell Mama. Produced by comedians Danny Leary and Becky Donohue, The Cocktail Show is a weekly comedy/cabaret variety show and always ensures a great start to the weekend! Last week, Becky was the hostess with the most-est and she did a fabulous job of getting the crowd going and keeping the evening running smoothly. The comedians were great, the audience was fun, and it really was a perfect start to the weekend!
The following night, I headed up to Warwick, NY, where I was pleased to be part of Cabaret Crossing at Stone Bridge Station, which was a benefit for Jubilate, the community youth choir of Warwick. Under the musical direction of David Crone, the choir features some terrifically talented young singers, who range from grade 5 through grade 12. Singers JeAnne MacDonald and Brian Gens, and singer/pianist Steven Wing (who serves as the assistant musical director/accompanist for Jubilate) were the other featured performers for the evening, and we all had a fantastic time! The choir opened the show with a bouncy, beautifully sung "Bye Bye Blackbird" and for the finale, the featured performers joined with the choir to sing John Lennon's "Imagine," which was just amazingly uplifting and inspirational. It was a really wonderful night, and I was very happy to be a part of it!
On Monday evening, it was off to Cast Party, as usual! It was yet another great night at Birdland, with the marvelous Marilyn Maye treating us to a snippet of her new Mercer tribute show Joan Crowe doing a kickin' "Mr. Kicks," violinist extraordinaire Aaron Weinstein treating us to a fab "I Got Rhythm," and my dad, Fortune Esposito, rockin' out on "Moondance!" Of course, host Jim Caruso was his charming, entertaining self, and the house band (Tedd Firth on piano and Steve Doyle on bass) was fantastic!
On Thursday, June 18th, I headed over to Don't Tell Mama to see Dezur Kenna in her new show, "In These Shoes." With direction by Lennie Watts and musical direction by Steven Ray Watkins, "In These Shoes" examines the things you can learn about people by looking at the shoes they're wearing. A pretty quirky idea, but a tremendous amount of fun, and very insightful at times! Opening and closing with an original song, "My Own Shoes," Dezur winds her way through an eclectic group of songs, from Barry Manilow's "They Dance" to Melanie Safka's "Brand New Key," to Janis Ian's "Ruby." Dezur has a beautiful, powerful voice, and finds many expressive ways in which to showcase it. My favorite part of the night was Dezur's performance of an engaging original monologue, "The Red Shoe Diaries," which she wove throughout the song "In These Shoes" (words and music by Peter Glenister/Kirsty MacColl/William Correa & Melvin Lastio). I've heard "In These Shoes" quite a bit in the cabaret world, and, while it's always a fun song, it has never made as much sense to me as it did when Dezur paired it with her monologue. I was absolutely enthralled!!
Now, as it so happened, I ended up getting to Don't Tell Mama early that evening, so before Dezur's show, I stopped in at Big Night Out, the twice-monthly open mic hosted by Jennifer Wren. Big Night Out has been the gypsy of open mics, having been bumped around from location to location, but Jennifer Wren and Bill Zeffiro (who serves as accompanist/co-host) have soldiered through and have a new permanent home at Etcetera Etcetera, where they will be on a regular basis going forward. However, on this particular night, they hadn't settled into their new home yet, and so were using the back room at Mama's, which ended up working out beautifully! The room was packed, and there were some really terrific performers there! One standout was a petite young blonde, whose name I unfortunately didn't catch, but she sounds uncannily like a young Judy Garland - which she smartly acknowledged by performing a beautiful "Somewhere Over The Rainbow!" Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay for the second half of the evening, which was featuring the music of brothers David and Paul Rigano, as I had to get over to the other room to see Dezur, but I'm sure it was fabulous!
Where I'm going this week...
TONIGHT: Saturday, June 20th: Marilyn Maye at The Metropolitan Room! Well-known for being Johnny Carson's favorite singer (she appeared on the Tonight Show a staggering 76 times!), Marilyn is a master class in cabaret. At 81 years old, her voice is unbelievably vibrant and strong, and she can put a lyric across like nobody's business! This show is Johnny Mercer tribute, which promises to be absolutely phenomenal!
Sunday, June 21st: The Algonquin Salon at the historic Algonquin Hotel. Founded by Mark Janas, this is THE place for singers, songwriters and musicians to hang out, network, and perform on Sunday evenings. No cover, no minimum, just a lot of talent! Producer Peter Napolitano guest-hosts this week and the optional theme is "FATHER OF THE BRIDE," celebrating both Father's Day and "the wedding month" of June! Any material about, or from a show with, fathers and/or weddings is encouraged. Salon runs from 7-10, but get there early if you want to sign up to perform!
Monday, June 22nd: Cast Party at Birdland. Hosted by Jim Caruso, this fantastic open mic runs from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. but again, make sure you get there early to sign up if you want to sing!
Tuesday, June 23rd: Jenna Esposito Sings Connie Francis at The Metropolitan Room! Yes, it's MY show - we've been hard at work on it for quite a while now and I'm thrilled that opening night is finally upon us! Directed by Lennie Watts with musical direction by Fortune Esposito (yep, my dad!), the show features big hits such as "Who's Sorry Now," "Where The Boys Are" and "Stupid Cupid," as well as some little-known gems.
Friday, June 28th: Keeping My Composure: The Songs of Brett Kristofferson. An all-star cast including Christina Bianco, Brandon Cutrell, Natalie Douglas, Rob Langeder, Miles Phillips, Molly Pope, Dominic Sheahan-Stahl, Angela Shultz, Liz Strickland, Lennie Watts, Jonathan Whitton, and yours truly celebrate the music of NYC composer Brett Kristofferson. The multi-talented Hector Coris directs - should be a great night!!
Pictured: Dezur Kenna
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