San Francisco News: March/April 2015

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Paula West began a Thursday-Sunday stay at Feinstein’s at the Nikko in February and continues the same schedule through 3/22. Opie Bellas makes a much anticipated stop 3/24. Bay Area resident Russ Lorenson, and no stranger to cabaret stages near and far, brings A Little Travelin’ Music to the club 4/1. Tony Award winner for Miss Saigon, Lea Salonga, is here 4/2-5. French chanteuse Betty Rio presents songs made famous by Josephine Baker and Edith Piaf 4/8. Closing out the month is Steve Tyrell in celebration of his 11th CD, That Lovin’ Feeling, with performances 3/9-12 & 16-19.

Judy Collins has one more date at The Bay Area Cabaret at the Venetian Room 3/1. Ramsey Lewis and John Pizzarelli are there 3/21 and that ball of dynamite, Annaleigh Ashford, entertains 4/19.

Society Cabaret continues its open mic, Curtain Call, with Bill Cooper and Barry Lloyd 3/6 & 4/3. Barry goes solo 4/10 & 11. Cabaret Showcase, with G. Scott Lacy at the piano, is 3/7 & 4/4. Kike Adedeji presents Songs I Love from Movie Musicals 3/13 & 14. The husband-and-wife team of Meg Mackay & Billy Philadelphia are there 3/27 & 28. Harold Sanditen makes a stop at the club as part of his international Flyin’ High tour 4/18.

If you’re looking for a relaxed atmosphere, check out the piano bar at Martuni’s.

Yoshi’s Oakland welcomes Molly Ringwald 3/4, Bettye LaVette 3/5, Jacqui Naylor 3/24 and Rachelle Ferrell 4/24-26.

Steve Murray

Always interested in the arts, Steve was encouraged to begin producing and, in 1998, staged four, one-man vehicles starring San Francisco's most gifted performers. In 1999, he began the Viva Variety series, a live stage show with a threefold mission to highlight, support, and encourage gay and gay-friendly art in all the performance forms, to entertain and document the shows, and to contribute to the community by donating proceeds to local non-profits. The shows utilized the old variety show style popularized by his childhood idol Ed Sullivan. He’s produced over 150 successful shows, including parodies of Bette Davis’s gothic melodramedy Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte and Joan Crawford’s very awful Trog. He joined Cabaret Scenes 2007 and enjoys the writing and relationships he’s built with very talented performers.