Good for What Ails You

(note: I'm not quite sure what happened to the comments... I'll play with the template someday)

For those who are curious: when you've had a miserable day working on a thesis project, with three different pieces of glassware breaking in your hands (due to no fault of your own), you can feel a whole lot better by spending a couple of hours in the piano bar, singing Sondheim, Allan Sherman, and Tom Lehrer songs, as well as serenading an upcoming member of the tribe with an impromptu "Get Me to the Shul on Time." If you happen to catch Brian Nash and Kate Pazakis singing stuff from Jerry Springer: The Opera afterwards, well, that's just icing on the cake.

There are a bunch of ways in which life in the cabaret/show world beats "real life" hands-down. One of the best ones is that saying goodbye can be a whole lot more entertaining when you're saying farewell to a performer. Kate Botello was a fairly recent addition to our collection of cabaret/piano bar diva friends, but she grew on us real quick. A hysterically funny performer, who can mug with the best of 'em, and who does a great Judy Garland (yes, a FEMALE Judy Garland impersonator! Can you believe it?), Kate first burst on our scene singing a self-penned parody of "Send in the Clowns" and has been a full-fledged member of the circle ever since we saw her variety show at Helen's. Well, Kate's heading out west, so last week's Cast Party featured a fare-thee-well, with a slew-and-a-half of great performers waving her off. Kate started the festivities off with a kickin' rendition of Erykah Badu's "Tyrone" (NOT a cabaret standard), and then got the usual gang to sing her requests, which means that the rest of us got to hear some of the greatest voices on this planet do songs that they hadn't done before. I don't believe that Julie hasn't done Joni Mitchell songs before, but after her rendition of "River," I'll be mighty ticked if she doesn't add a bunch more to her reportoire. 80-year-old wunderkind Bob Dolphin tapped and improvised a farewell, and the Birdland was just rockin'.

Knock 'em dead out west, Kate. We'll miss ya!