Kyle Motsinger: Kyle Motsinger Is Dangerously Uncool

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Kyle Motsinger

Kyle Motsinger Is Dangerously Uncool

Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, March 11, 2025

Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

 

Kyle Motsinger

Kyle Motsinger is a versatile singer/songwriter/pianist; he’s rock-oriented, but with solid musical-theater underpinnings. In his opening number, “Let’s Try This Again” (all music and lyrics were written by Motsinger unless otherwise noted), he advised the audience “I am not your Billy Joel,” and he certainly wasn’t. He has got a strong personality of his own, and some unique inspirations for his compositions came from his own family and from a certain gothic 1960s soap opera. He even has the show-biz knowhow to occasionally free himself from the 88s to allow himself to take more of the stage and let the fine pianist Dan Pardo spelled him at the keys.

His roots in musical theater were evident in “Pushy,” a classic “I Want” number in the Mama Rose tradition, which he performed with brio. Far more exotic was his tribute to the classic daytime vampire tale “Dark Shadows” that was filled with erotic obsessions. Straightforward sexual desire was expressed in the disco-flavored “I Can Be Persuaded,” which had the yearning request to “ask me out again.” We could clearly sense the wide range of approaches and subjects that interested him.

“Parallel Universe” was a highly romantic selection. Motsinger announced that it was his most popular video on YouTube, but that might be because the video showed a headshot of a possibly naked man in bed next to him. This was a fine example of the sardonic humor that flavored his show and made him so appealing to the audience. In his more overtly political “Bad Years” that was surprisingly positive, a couplet ran “I saw the movie with the comet, and Meryl Streep tried to bomb it.” “The Imposter” was a powerful statement of what artists put themselves through to create their vision and another fine example of this songwriter’s great awareness of emotional truths. For a surprise ending to the presentation, Motsinger returned to his musical-theater roots for a touching delivery of “Disneyland” (Howard Ashman/Marvin Hamlisch) from the musical Smile. Using a very different voice from the one he used in his more rock-oriented renditions, he embraced a bravado Broadway style that demonstrated his impressive versatility.

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Bart Greenberg

Bart Greenberg first discovered cabaret a few weeks after arriving in New York City by seeing Julie Wilson and William Roy performing Stephen Sondheim and Cole Porter outdoors at Rockefeller Center. It was instant love for both Ms. Wilson and the art form. Some years later, he was given the opportunity to create his own series of cabaret shows while working at Tower Records. "Any Wednesday" was born, a weekly half-hour performance by a singer promoting a new CD release. Ann Hampton Callaway launched the series. When Tower shut down, Bart was lucky to move the program across the street to Barnes & Noble, where it thrived under the generous support of the company. The series received both The MAC Board of Directors Award and The Bistro Award. Some of the performers who took part in "Any Wednesday" include Barbara Fasano and Eric Comstock, Tony Desare, Andrea Marcovicci, Carole Bufford, the Karens, Akers, Mason and Oberlin, and Julie Wilson. Privately, Greenberg is happily married to writer/photographer Mark Wallis, who as a performance artist in his native England gathered a major following as "I Am Cereal Killer."