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Liliane Montevecchi |
The best of American cabaret is coming to Pizza in the Park
REVIEW - AMERICAN SONGBOOK
Pizza in the Park
AMBITIOUS plans to bring the best of American cabaret artistes to London are getting under way this week at the Pizza on the Park supper club, close to Hyde Park Corner.
Management of the downstairs club has been taken over by Jeff Harnar, an American performer and impresario with a noted track record on Broadway and the US cabaret circuit.
“For the past two years, we’ve had a strong response from London audiences when we’ve put on short American Songbook seasons at The Jermyn Street Theatre,” says Harnar.
“Now, we’ve taken on responsibility for the Pizza on the Park club on a permanent basis with the aim of turning the club into a home for the finest in New York style —night-spot entertainment.
“Over the coming months, the club will host two-week seasons showcasing some of New York’s most important performers, bringing over their shows directly from the city’s nightclubs such as the Café Carlyle, Algonquin and Metropolitan Room.”
Harnar’s plans mark a return to original Pizza on the Park operations in the 1980s and 1990s when the club, run by Pizza Express founder Peter Boizot, gained a reputation as a vibrant nightclub.
But its reputation has foundered in recent years, partly due to a lack of consistent programming policy.
Harner is launching the new American Songbook residency this week and, thereafter, will fill Sunday and Monday spots with his music revue celebrating Broadway shows of the 1960s. Other performers are to include:
• Liliane Montevecchi, the ageless Parisian, presenting her Back on the Boulevard programme which draws on more than five decades’ experience of Hollywood and Broadway.
• Steve Ross, a regular visitor to London and once dubbed “the cabaret master of New York”, presenting an Alan J Lerner programme.
• Maude Maggart, the young chanteuse, in a Speaking of Dreams programme exploring different interpretations of dreams.
• Tony DeSarre, singer, pianist and songwriter, in a new show celebrating the centenary of lyricist Johnny Mercer.
• KT Sullivan, an Irish American with a string of Broadway credits including The Three Penny Opera with Sting.
• Karen Akers, a long-time Broadway star with equally long experience of the New York cabaret circuit.
SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
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