Gossip Central

Jennifer Holliday at the Carlyle Café

Tony award winning Jennifer Holliday makes her debut at the Café Carlyle, not far from where she starred on Broadway as Effie in 1981 in “Dreamgirls.” Singing “I’m Still Here,” Holliday channels ancestors—Barbra Streisand among them-- in a set that features selections from the American songbook. But more, she evokes a prior Café Carlyle resident, the legendary Elaine Stritch, who made this Stephen Sondheim “Follies” hit her signature song. Holliday now makes it her own, and ends her generous set with her “Dreamgirls” anthem, “And I’m Telling You—I’m Not Going.”

Great news! At 63, Jennifer Holliday in a magenta sequined sheath, uses the intimacy of the Carlyle stage to sing about love, and honor her muses, Michael Bennett and Marvin Hamlisch. Their advice brought her to the standards that make this show so special—“Taking a Chance on Love,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “In a Sentimental Mood,” “Caravan,” “Body and Sou,” to name a few. Working in a jazz idiom –scatting like Ella Fitzgerald and mixing in her R&B chops-- she’s backed by an excellent band: music director Shedrick Mitchell on piano, Eric Wheeler on bass, Charles Haynes on drums, and Jarien Jamanla on sax.

Carey Mulligan's Surprise Appearance at New York Philharmonic’s Evening of Maestro’s Music

Director/ Producer/ Co-writer/ Star Bradley Cooper introduced a special concert at the newly refurbished Geffen Hall, featuring the NY Philharmonic performing Leonard Bernstein’s music for his film MAESTRO. That his subject Leonard Bernstein had begun his career in this very place, conducting the Philharmonic at age 25, gave the evening extra resonance. Fervidly researching, Cooper was said to have attended many a performance in the past five years, seated in the conductor’s box hanging dangerously over the rail, in rapt attention to the feverish body movements needed for conducting. His devotion extended to every aspect of the film, and it shows. Now after MAESTRO’s many awards and nominations, the night’s focus turned to the Philharmonic’s star conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin, the ample stage packed with musicians, the soloists, and the 50-member chorus. Now a hero to classical musicians everywhere, Bradley Cooper put them in the spotlight. And shine they did.

In Cooper’s hands, glimpses of Bernstein’s musical genius pervade the film. Key scenes were projected over the live performances. The Requiem in St. John the Divine is the longest musical interlude, showing Cooper completely following in Bernstein’s conductor chops. As noted later in the Q&A, performers who had worked with Bernstein actually imagined him back in action. That’s how authentic Bradley Cooper seemed to them.

Kelli O’Hara and Brian D’Arcy James’ Menage a Trois in Days of Wine and Roses

When the new Broadway musical, Days of Wine and Roses, was announced, Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer’s voluptuous classic song from the movie swelled in my mind’s ear. That was a lot to let go, as the new show at Studio 54 drew near. Featuring Kelli O’Hara and Brian D’Arcy James as the lovers in a doomed triangle with booze, to tunes by Adam Guettel and book by Craig Lucas, the team that made Light in the Piazza starring O’Hara, this Days of Wine and Roses scores the romance operatically, even as it is meant to evoke jazz. A perfect fit for O’Hara, a theater superstar with a singular voice.

Brian D’Arcy James, known especially for comic roles, is the quintessential leading man—a handsome and attentive wooer. Meeting at an office party, the two hook up once she, a lovely “good” girl, not into drink, samples a chocolaty Brandy Alexander. An unshakable, high alcoholic bond precipitates their down journey.

This is no spoiler alert. Anyone familiar with the vagaries of this disease will recognize the thwarted steps taken to survive, and feel the pain in witnessing D’Arcy James’ Joe’s crescendos as he tears down his father-in-law’s (Byron James) prized greenhouse in a drunken rage.

Joe and O’Hara’s Kirsten sing every number, accompanied for a few tunes by their daughter Lila (Tabitha Lawing). Kelli O’Hara’s voice is the one you take home—in “Evanesce” and “There I Go.”