When I think of Linda Purl, I remember her from her roles on Happy Days as Richie’s occasional girlfriend Gloria and Fonzie’s steady girlfriend Ashley. While growing up she was a familiar face in the countless movies of the week, so it was with intense curiosity, that I headed to Feinstein’s/54Below to see her perform in Big Band Romance. Linda’s debut at Feinstein’s/54Below found her in a sexy black dress, with her adorable face shinning through. It was a mixture of the girl next door verses a sex kitten.

Marilyn Maye, Tom Wopat, Linda Purl Photo by Magda Katz
Her show honors female jazz singers like Ella, Peggy, Anita O’Day, Helen Merrill, Rosemary and Billie. Not only did Ms. Purl give these legends tribute, but she made these songs her own, thanks to the fabulous arrangements. Ms. Purl truly has a love for these women of song and her wonderful banter lets us know so much more.

Linda Purl Photo by Magda Katz
Purl has a really interesting timber to her voice. She has wonderful phrasing and diction. Staring off with “Steve Allen’s This Could be the Start of Something Big”, she was backed by The Diva Orchestra, a fifteen member jazz ensemble started by the phenomenal drummer and music director of the Diva’s, Sherrie Maricle.

Marilyn Maye, Michelle Lee enjoyed Linda
A tribute to Billie Holiday had the band playing softly for “Trav’lin’ Light”. Holiday’s signature “Them There Eyes”, was given a perky treatment, that set the band to swinging.

Linda Purl
Purl brought back the fabulous Anita O’Day with Jerome Kern’s “Pick Yourself Up”.
“The Nearness of You” was one of several numbers with a Latin background in tribute to Helen Merrill.
Maricle’s drum solo on Anita Day’s “Nobody Else But Me” and “Midnight Caravan” was hot and reminiscent of Gene Krupa. Purl excelled on both these numbers.
Peggy Lee’s version of “When the Sun Comes Out,” needed the orchestra to allow Purl’s voice to excel. Sometimes her voice was overwhelmed by such a big sound. Loved the dirty jokes that Peggy Lee told and the way Purl tells a story.
Ella Fitzgerald’s S’Wonderful” and medley of “It’s Too Darn Hot”/”It’s Alright With Me” were award winning numbers.
Tom Wopat joined Purl on “Come Rain or Come Shine”, after her story about Rosemary Clooney and knowing her personally.
One of my favorite moments was “My Romance” with just music director Tedd Firth on piano. His intro to the song was magical.
Peggy Lee’s “I Love Being Here With You” ended the set.
Purl is personable, has the it factor in spades and can deliver a song. I look forward to seeing her again.
You can see Linda sing on October 10, Ms. Purl will be celebrating Rosemary Clooney, Barbara Cook and Julie Wilson at Jazz at Lincoln Center. On on December 10th at 7 pm Linda Purl, Tom Wopat and Musical Director Tedd Firth will be celebrating the holidays with “An Evening of the Seasons Joy in Jazz” at Birdland.
Video by Magda Katz
Cabaret
My View: Barrington Stage Co. on 42nd Street Oct. 30 For Its Gala at Green Room 42
The evening of cocktails, dinner, and cabaret show headlined by Billy Stritch celebrates the inaugural season of newly appointed Artistic Director Alan Paul and Managing Director Lynsey Shade.
Proceeds from the Gala will benefit the Julianne Boyd New Works Fund.
Mary Ann and Bruno Quinson are presenting the event which is sponsored in part by Rhoda Levitt. Eda Sorokoff is Chair with Violet Eagan & Rosita Sarnoff Co-Chairs
Since its inception in 1995, Barrington Stage (BSC) has produced 41 new works, 21 of which have moved on to New York and major regional theatres around the country.
BSC believes that new work is the heart and soul of theatre. If theatre is to thrive and create meaningful and new experiences for audiences, then it is vital to support playwrights and their visions of the world we live in.
BSC’s New Works Fund takes a two-pronged approach – PlayWorks supports the creation of new plays while our acclaimed Musical Theatre Lab develops new musicals. In both of these programs, BSC seeks artists whose unique voices speak to our audiences with relevant new plays and musicals. BSC hopes our new work will ask questions of the world we live in – questions that may not have answers but will begin a dialogue between the artists and our audiences.
Cabaret
Cabaret, Talks and Concerts For October

The question would be, what to pick to go see, out of the multitude of offerings. Here are our picks for October
92 Street Y: 1395 Lexington Ave. 10/1: Dr. Jane Goodall in Conversation with David Rubenstein; 10/4: Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis: Martha Stewart; 10/9: “Gutenberg! The Musical!”: Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells in Conversation with MTV’s Josh Horowitz; 10/10: Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conversation: BE USEFUL: Seven Tools for Life; 10/12: Audra McDonald: Musings through Music with Andy Einhorn and 10/28 – 30: Tale as Old as Time: The Songs of Howard Ashman
Birdland Jazz: 315 West 44 St. Every Monday at 9:30pm Jim Caruso’s Cast Party; Every Tuesday at 8:30pm The Lineup with Susie Mosher; Every Saturday at 7pm Eric Comstock with Sean Smith (Bass) & special guest Barbara Fasano (Voice); 10/2: A Collective Cy Jeff Harner sings Cy Coleman; 10/9: The Unprecedented Amanda Green & Friends; 10/16: Maude Maggart: “Here Come The Dreamers” and 10/23: Jamie deRoy and Friends and 10/26 -28: Karrin Allyson: “Brazilian Nights And Beyond” Feat. Vitor Goncalves, Rafael Barata & Harvie S.
Cafe Carlyle: 35 E 76th St. 10/3-7: Peter Cincotti; 10/11 -14: Patina Miller; 10/17 – 28 John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey and 10/31 – 11/8: Steve Tyrell

Hailey Kilgore by Tom Lupton, Derek Klena by Jenny Anderson, Javier Muñoz by Chad Griffith, Ali Stroker by Jenny Anderson
Carnegie Hall: 881 7th Ave at 57th St. 10/2: Lyle Lovett and His Large Band; 10/18: A Very Good+ Night of Comedy with Jerry Seinfeld, Kevin Hart, Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer & Ronny Chieng
Special Guest D-Nice and 10/27: The New York Pops with Hailey Kilgore, Derek Klena, Javier Muñoz and Ali Stroker
Chelsea Table + Stage: Hilton Fashion District Hotel, 152 W 26th St. 10/20: Marieann Meringolo
Don’t Tell Mama: 343 W. 46 St. 10/28: Quinn Lemley
Dizzys Club Coca Cola: Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th Street. 10/1: Songbook Sundays: Harold Arlen
The DJango: 2 Avenue of the Americas.
54 Below: 254 West 54 St. 10/2 The New York Pops Underground; 10/2, 17, 28 and 30: Norbert Leo Butz Sings Torch Songs for a Pandemic; 10/3, 7 and 11 Linda Eder; 10/5 -6 Mauricio Martínez: 5’11” Based in NYC, feat. Linedy Genao & more!; 10/8: Little By Little Reunion Concert, feat. Darrin Baker, Liz Larsen, and Christiane Noll; 10/12: Lee Roy Reams: Uncensored! For Adults Only!’ 10/14 -16 and 23 -25 and 30: Marilyn Maye; 10/20 – 21: Lorna Luft; 10/22: A Gentleman’s Guide 10th Anniversary Celebration and 10/ 26 -28: Jai Rodriguez: A Thousand Sweet Kisses
The Green Room 42: 570 10th Ave. 10/9: Natalie Joy Johnson; 10/11 – 12, 14 -15: Candace Bushnell; 10/15: Reeve Carney; 10/17: Spencer Day; 10/19 Mamie Paris and 10/24: Dawn Derow and Sean Harkness
Sony Hall: 235 W. 46th St. 10/4:Daniel Nardicio presents Witch Perfect An all live-singing parody of Disney’s Hocus Pocus feat. Emmy-winning stars from RuPaul’s Drag Race: Scarlet Envy, Tina Burner & Alexis Michelle and 10/16: Rockers on Broadway 30th Anniversary
Theatre at the West Bank Café: 407 West 42 St. 10/14 and 28: Mark Nadler – CRAZY
The Town Hall: 123 West 43rd Street. 10/10: A Not That Fancy Conversation and Performance with Reba Mcentire and 10/11: Alec Baldwin’s Here’s The Thing Live With Michael Wolff
Broadway
Santino Fontana Brings Voice, Comedy and Showmanship To 54 Below

Tony Award® winner Santino Fontana brings his tremendous talent to 54 Below and it is a show that wraps you up in his humor, charm, vocal prowess, laid back demeanor, jeopardy style musical choices and over all entertaining. By the end of the show you feel as if you know him or at least a part of him. Starting off with Charles Strouse and Lee Adams’s “Stick Around,” the night turned into a Russian roulette of material. The audience picked numbers and as Santino put it “if you don’t like the show, it’s your fault.” First up for my show was the naughty but amusing “Making Love Alone” followed by Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella‘s “Do I Love You,” which made for an amusing combination of songs. During Cinderella Mr. Fontana had shoes that were built up 2 inches inside and 2 inches outside, which cause a tremendous amount of pain, so the song told the story of his plight, which made the song take on a much different meaning. Sondheim’s “Anyone Can Whistle,” was sung for a Carol Burnett tribute, that luckily we were treated to.
His guest for the evening was Sarah Steele (“The Good Wife,” The Humans, The Country House) who sang “out There On My Own” from Fame. On the 14th it will be Greg Hildreth (Company, Disney’s Frozen, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella). Click on the name and you can hear that version.
Showing off his baritone side with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “If I Loved You.” We almost got to see Santino in Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields”s Sweet Charity, instead we got hint of what that would be like with “Too Many Tomorrows.” A hilarious version of “I feel Pretty” from West Side Story lightened the mood and had the room in tears. Recreating his duet “Love Is An Open Door” from Frozen, Santino channeled Dorothy Michaels from Tootsie. Again the room was laughing with the sheer comedic genius that won Mr. Fontana a Tony Award. Bringing the energy to a calmer state was the emotional Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley’s “Who Can I Turn To?”
Vocally the most impressive song of the night was “Joey, Joey, Joey” from Most Happy Fellow. Mr. Fontana’s voice was glorious in the tones and the subtle texturing. Keeping in the ballad mode and honoring Marilyn Bergman he launched into the iconic “Where Do You Start,”while accompany himself on the piano, which was highly impressive. Back to the uptempo mode “I Met A Girl” from Bells Are Ringing, was given a rigorous, amusing take. This was his original audition song. Lerner and Loewe’s “How to Handle a Woman,” from the recent Camelot, showed how Santino would have made an excellent King Arthur.
Another favorite moment of the night was “Buddy’s Blues” from Follies. Already a personal favorite, this made me want to see Santino play this role at a later date, though personally I would cast him as Ben.
For the finale songs “The Music In You” from Cinderella, told how he and the cast loved watching the magnificent Victoria Clark perform. “This Can’t Be Love” from 1938 Rodgers and Hart musical The Boys from Syracuse, ended up in an encore, of Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones’s “They Were You” from The Fantasticks, which made my guest producer Pat Addiss extremely happy.
Santino was backed by his musical director and accompanist Cody Owen Stine, who played flawlessly.
Santino Fontana opened September 10th at 54 Below and you can still catch this marvelous show tonight September 14th. 54below.com
This is a do not miss!
Cabaret
Talking With Mauricio Martínez About His New Show 5’11, Based in NYC and More

I met Emmy Award winner Mauricio Martínez when he was performing in Children of Salt and have watched him ever since. He then became known for the Broadway musical On Your Feet!, but before that he appeared in the Emmy Winning TV Show El Vato NBC, the hit Señora Acero Telemundo and several Mexican telenovela. T2C talked to this prolific actor/ singer to learn more.
His new show at 54 Below talks about all the self-tape sides filling up his Dropbox. In his new show, 5’11, Based in NYC, Mauricio is putting those to good use in a musical “What If…,” sorting through what might have been. Pushing aside the ring light, you will lean more about this uber talented Mexican American.
His show on October 5 and 6 at 7pm is at 54 Below. The show feature Linedy Genao (Bad Cinderella, On Your Feet!) and Alexis Michelle (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”) and is written by Mauricio Martínez & Robbie Rozelle, with musical direction and arrangements by Brian J. Nash. Directed by Robbie Rozelle.
Video by Magda Katz
Cabaret
Ken Fallin’s Broadway: Linda Purl Not Just An Actress

Last night Linda Purl took the audience at The Green Room 42 on a magical journey.
In 2020 Linda Purl starred as Ryan Spahn mother in Vivian Neuwirth’s Mr. Toole at 59E59 Theaters.
Ms Purl just released her fourth album of standards, This Could Be the Start. If the CD is anything like the concert this s a must have,
-
Broadway3 days ago
Barry Manilow’s and Bruce Sussman’s Harmony Meets The Press
-
Broadway2 days ago
Barry Manilow’s and Bruce Sussman’s Harmony Meets The Press Part 2
-
Entertainment3 days ago
The Mayor of Times Square Interviews Billionaire John Catsimatidis on The Motivation Show Podcast
-
Broadway2 days ago
Theatre News: Here We Are, Some Like It Hot, A Beautiful Noise, All The Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented The Villain and The Laramie Project
-
Food and Drink4 days ago
Ubah Hassan and Serafina Launch the Sizzling Hot Pizza of the Season
-
Cabaret3 days ago
My View: Barrington Stage Co. on 42nd Street Oct. 30 For Its Gala at Green Room 42
-
Off Broadway3 days ago
Meet Michel Wallerstein and Spencer Aste of Chasing Happy
-
Celebrity4 days ago
The Glorious Corner