Blue Strawberry bringing cabaret sounds to Central West End starting October 31

Clockwise from top left: Haller, Sullivan, Ross, Watts & Dreyer

 

St. Louis is getting a new venue for cabaret-style entertainment with the debut next week of Blue Strawberry at 364 N Boyle in the Central West End.

Set to open on Thursday, October 31, Blue Strawberry is owned by Jim Dolan, who through his company The Presenters Dolan has been producing cabaret shows here since the mid-2000s in a variety of locations, the most recent being the Gaslight Theater, which has hosted several iterations of Dolan's Gaslight Cabaret Festival just a few doors down the street on Boyle.

Blue Strawberry, which also will offer a full bar and food menu, will feature performances by a mix of local and touring singers on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, with additional live music on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

St. Louis cabaret favorite Ken Haller will provide the entertainment for opening night with his new show "When I'm 65." Others scheduled for the first month include St. Louis' own Rosemary Watts and Joe Dreyer on Friday, November 1; singer and actress K.T. Sullivan with a tribute to the late Barbara Cook on Saturday, November 16; and the "Crown Prince of New York cabaret" Steve Ross with a show of Cole Porter songs on on Friday, November 29 and Saturday, November 30.

You can see a complete schedule of upcoming performances and purchase advance tickets at the Blue Strawberry website or at LicketyTix.com.

Gaslight Cabaret Festival to be held February 22 - April 26 at Gaslight Theater

Cabaret producers The Presenters Dolan yesterday announced a new series of performances called the Gaslight Cabaret Festival that will begin February 22 and continue through the end of April at the Gaslight Theater, 358 Boyle in the Central West End.

Twelve acts are booked for a total of twenty-two performances, including three touring headliners - Marissa Mulder (pictured), Emily Bergl, and rocker/reality-TV-star Storm Large - making their St. Louis debuts, as well as a number of St. Louis' favorite homegrown performers.

The schedule in chronological order is:

Saturday, February 22:  Tim Schall - "1961"
Thursday, February 27 - Saturday, March 1:   Marissa Mulder - "The Songs of Tom Waits"

Thursday, March 6:  Ken Haller - "The TV Show"
Friday, March 7:  Joe Dreyer and Rosemary Watts - "Swing Into Spring"
Saturday, March 8:  Connie Fairchild - "Down By The River"
Thursday, March 13 - Saturday, March 15:  Emily Bergl - "Until the Real Thing Comes Along"
Saturday, March 29:  Joe Dreyer and Rosemary Watts - "Swing Into Spring"

Thursday, April 3:  Morgan A. Faulkner - "I Got It All From My Mother"
Friday, April 4:  Katie McGrath - "Love in the Desert: Romance in an Age of Scarcity"
Saturday, April 5:  Todd and Kelly Decker - "They Can't Take That Away from Me: Songs and Stories of George and Ira Gershwin"
Thursday, April 10:  Taylor Pietz - "If I Only Had a Brain"
Friday, April 11 & Saturday, April 12:  Storm Large - "Taken By Storm: songs of seduction and obsession"
Friday, April 25 & Saturday, April 26:  Lara Teeter - "An Evening With..."

Four-show subscriptions are available at $139 for premium seating, $121 for regular seating, while single tickets are priced from $22 to $45, depending on the performance and seating option selected. Subscriptions and single tickets for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival are on sale now via http://www.licketytix.com or by phone at 314-725-4200, ext 10.

Jimmy Webb to perform for Presenters Dolan's upcoming cabaret series

The Presenters Dolan have announced a new schedule of cabaret shows to be presented in February and March at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

The upcoming series' best known performer is singer and songwriter Jimmy Webb (pictured), who will play the Kranzberg from Thursday, March 17 through Saturday, March 19.

Webb, the Grammy Award winning writer of 1960s vintage pop hits such as "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," "Didn't We" and "MacArthur Park", will be singing his own songs and "telling stories about them and the people who sang them over the years." Webb should have some interesting stories to tell, as his tunes have been recorded by an extraordinarily diverse group of performers, including Glen Campbell, the actor Richard Harris, Rosemary Clooney, Michael Feinstein, Frank Sinatra, Nanci Griffith, Linda Ronstadt, Judy Collins, Elvis Presley, Joe Cocker, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson.

The performers for the other four shows all have a St. Louis connection. The husband and wife team of pianist Joe Dreyer and singer/actress Rosemary Watts will open the series on Friday, February 11 and Saturday, February 12 with their new show "Crazy Relationships - Love in Many Aspects," supported by Scott Alberici on clarinet and Dave Troncoso on bass.

St. Louis native Craig Pomranz is up next, returning home for performances on Friday, February 18 and Saturday, February 19. Pomranz' show is directed by Ron Cohen, with Stephen Bocchino as musical director.

Pianist Carol Schmidt then takes the stage on Friday, February 25 and Saturday, February 26, accompanied by Ric Vice on bass and a lineup of guest singers including Robert Breig, Michele Isam, and Dionna Raedeke. Schmidt's show will include several originals from her forthcoming CD The Significance of Scenery, which she plans to release this fall.

Roundin out the series is St. Louis native, actor and singer Craig Rubano, whose show "We Can Be Kind: Songs of Passion, Songs of Hope" will run Thursday, March 10 through Saturday, March 12. Rubano's show includes songs from writers such as Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon, with Beth Ertz as music director and accompanist.

Tickets range in price from $20 for Schmidt's performances to up to $55 for preferred seating for Jimmy Webb, and are on sale now online at licketytix.com.

Presenters Dolan schedule six more cabaret performances at Kranzberg Arts Center

The Presenters Dolan have announced six more cabaret shows this spring at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Singer and pianist Daryl Sherman and singer Shana Farr (pictured) will make their first St. Louis appearances next month, while vocalists Jeff Wright, Monya Fisher, Alice Kinsella and Robert Breig each will offer encore performances of shows previously staged at the Kranzberg in February.

Farr, a native of Columbia, MO, will do her show "Pure Imagination" at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 17. First performed at the NYC cabaret venue Feinstein's, the show includes classic songs from Ira Gershwin, Kurt Weill, Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen as well as contemporary hits by Carly Simon and Cyndi Lauper. Lennie Watts will direct, with Amanda Kirkpatrick as music director and additional accompaniment from bassist Jay Hungerford.

Sherman is known for her fifteen-year residency at NYC's Waldorf Hotel, where she played a piano formerly owned by Cole Porter, and comes to St. Louis following a month-long tour of the UK and Europe. Her show "Lounging At The Waldorf" at 8:00 p.m. Thursday, April 22 will spotlight material written Johnny Mercer, along with a few of Porter's songs. Bassist Dave Troncoso will back Sherman, with Don Wolff as MC.

As for the St. Louisans, Wright will revisit his show "The Dance" on Friday, April 16, while Fisher's "My Seasons of Music" will be performed on Sunday, April 18. The following week, Kinsella will do "A Stand Up Act" on Friday, April 23 and Brieg will perform "Feels Like Home" on Saturday, April 24. All four shows start at 8:00 p.m..

For more information or to purchase tickets for any of the upcoming Presenters Dolan shows, call 314-725-4200 EXT 10 or visit www.licketytix.com.

Jeffrey Wright's cabaret show sells out; April date added

This just in: Cabaret impresario Jim Dolan sends word that the performances of Jeffrey Wright's show "The Dance" on February 19 and 20 are sold out, prompting the addition of another performance at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, April 16 at the Kranzberg Arts Center. Tickets for Wright's April 16 show are now on sale via www.licketytix.com.