Lisa Kantor
Shadows
Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, October 18, 2025
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg
Photo by Eric Korenman
The elegant Lisa Kantor took the stage at Don’t Tell Mama for an encore performance of her New York City cabaret debut with an intriguing program entitled Shadows. Invoking the post-World War II surge in the number of night clubs across the country and especially in Manhattan, she concentrated mostly on songs from that period as she evoked such lady singers as Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, and Sarah Vaughan, not by imitating them but by focusing on their influence. Kantor had excellent back-up from music director/pianist Tom LaMark, who played beautiful piano interludes and provided intriguing arrangements, and bassist Tom Hubbard. She was guided by director Lina Koutrakos, who helped her utilize every inch of the stage as she shifted through many moods.
The show kicked off with an amusing mash up of “All of You” (Cole Porter) and “All of Me” (Gerald Marks/Seymour Simons). She delivered much of her patter in subtle rhyming couplets that added a poetic sense of mystery, and a very varied song list brought great variety to the show. The bouncy “I Don’t Know Enough About You” (Peggy Lee/Dave Barbour) was followed by the soulful “Easy Street” (Alan Rankin Jones) and then by the jubilant “‘S Wonderful” (George & Ira Gershwin). The almost tragic “Angel Eyes” (Matt Dennis/Earl Brent) was balanced with a “revenge medley” of “Goody Goody” (Johnny Mercer/Matty Malneck) and “You Turned the Tables on Me” (Louis Alter/Sidney Mitchell). The latter also gave LaMark a great chance to play a dazzling solo. Hubbard got his chance for some impressive work next, with the lesser known “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby” (Louis Jordan/Billy Austin).
A major surprise was Kantor’s version of “The Very Thought of You” (Ray Noble), which bluesy and bitter. Much jazzier and more upbeat were such standards as “Do Nothing till You Hear from Me” (Duke Ellington/Bob Russell) and “Things Are Swingin’” (Peggy Lee/Jack Marshall). There was also a beautifully rendered, torchy “Solitude” (Ellington). Every moment of this beautifully themed and executed program shone. Hopefully, Kantor won’t remain in the shadows for too long now.
