Contributing Writer
Jeffrey Bean and Cillian Hegarty photos by Carol Rosegg Dublin Carol By Barry Bassis Conor McPherson’s Dublin Carol (at the Irish Repertory Theater) is not about a woman in Dublin named Carol. Perhaps a more appropriate title would be “Dublin Christmas Carol” because the play takes place on Christmas eve and the main…
Mark Linn-Baker, Jon Glover, Mark Blum, Jill Eikenberry, Jodi Long, Ellen Parker, photos by Carol Rosegg Fern Hill By Barry Bassis “Grow old with me, the best is yet to be” says Rabbi Ben Ezra in Robert Browning’s poem. Change the “me” to “us” and you have the gist of Michael Tucker’s new play,…
Samson Schmitt The Django Reinhardt NY Festival Makes a Triumphant Return to Birdland By Barry Bassis Producer Pat Philips-Stratta brought her semi-annual Django Reinhardt NY Festival back to the Birdland jazz club (315 W. 44th St.). As she explained in her introduction to the sold-out show, this is the 20th year of the festival…
photos by Joan Marcus Much Ado About Nothing at the Delacorte Theater By Barry Bassis Do you watch those classic 1930’s screwball comedies, like The Awful Truth or Twentieth Century? The plot lines often involve a man and woman who had unsuccessful prior relationships with each other and for most of the course of the action…
Rigoletto By Barry Bassis Rigoletto is Giuseppe Verdi’s opera based on a Victor Hugo play, “Le roi s’amuse” (“The king takes his amusement”), about the corrupt king of France during the 16th century, François I. When the opera ran into censorship problems, Verdi and his librettist Francesco Maria Piave moved the locale to Italy…
By Barry Bassis Stars of cabaret sing the Great American Songbook Mabel Mercer (1900 -1984) was a legendary cabaret singer, who was admired by audiences and by other singers. Frank Sinatra said, “Everything I know about singing, I learned from Mabel Mercer” and called her “the best music teacher in the world.” She didn’t…
John Edgar Barker (Charlie), left, Mykal Monroe (Elle), Hiram Delgado (Ronan) and Laura Ramadei (June) [Photos: Carol Rosegg] By Barry Bassis Agnes, unlike the 1985 Broadway hit Agnes of God, does not have a person named Agnes. Instead, Agnes is a hurricane that is about to strike the area of New York City where…
Jill Shackner and Karyn Quackenbush photo by Joan Marcus by Barry Bassis Iowa begins promisingly with a self-possessed little girl, Kolette Tetlow, singing. The promise vanishes when the music ends. A ditzy divorceé named Sandy (Karyn Quackenbush) suddenly informs her 14-year old daughter Becca (Jill Shackner) that she is going to marry a man…
Left to right: Ehud Asherie, Lezlie Harrison, Arthur Pomposello, Brianna Thomas, Hilary Gardner. Photo by Michael Stever. by Barry Bassis Arthur Pomposello aka Pompie, spent 18 years as the host and booker at the Algonquin’s Oak Room. While there, he presented such fabled singers as Julie Wilson and Andrea Marcovicci. He also promoted up…