Karen Mason: Encore-Nucopia

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Karen Mason

Encore-Nucopia

Birdland, NYC, November 10, 2025

Reviewed by Jacqueline Parker

Karen Mason
Photo by Maryann Lopinto

When the lights dimmed in Birdland at the appointed hour, the room became silent as Karen Mason was introduced. I was reminded of that Bette Davis line from All About Eve, “Fasten your seatbelts…,” as the statuesque singer ascended the stage in a gray pantsuit dusted with sequins and wearing silver shoes. The show began with a gorgeous arrangement of “Something’s Coming” (Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim) by the late Brian Lasser, who was Mason’s longtime music director, and something great was indeed coming for us. As its title seemed to imply, this was a potpourri of a show with mostly standards that received Mason’s unique blend of talent and know-how.

She is a veteran of the cabaret art form, and fortunate are those who hear and see her live to witness what years of honing a craft can produce. She has an authoritative delivery that is mollified by her genuine warmth and her connection to her audience. She can be playful as well, as when she sang “Lulu’s Back in Town” (Harry Warren/Al Dubin) and inserted her own name into the lyric. Most of the selections were culled from previous shows throughout her career, and the evening became very nostalgic as one could reflect on how a certain tune had affective one’s life, even if it developed a different relevancy later on.

Mason has two remarkable gifts. One is that she uses every part of her body to emphasize a lyric. Many times, it is as though an appendage—or whatever—has a mind of its own and underscores her message in its own way. It’s really quite phantasmagorical to behold! Her second gift is that she can seem to lift a lyric away from the music and present it to the audience while the music supported the effort. An example of this was her rendition of “Mr. Snow” from Carousel. She slowed it down and imbued it with the magic of first love; it was so moving that I’m sure Rodgers and Hammerstein were toasting her from Heaven.

Several master musicians were involved in creating this glorious evening, in addition to the aforementioned Brian Lasser. Christopher Denny was in top form at the piano and also created some of the arrangements, and Tom Hubbard on bass did a mini-duet with Mason. Even Barry Kleinbort had a hand in writing new, humorous lyrics to “Sunset Boulevard” that reflected Mason’s stint as a standby in that show as well as to “Ev’ry Street’s a Boulevard in Old New York” (Jule Styne/Bob Hilliard).

So what’s the takeaway here? We are lucky to have in our midst several true masters of cabaret, and Mason is one of them. Each performance is like a transfusion of sorts; whatever’s been ailing you seems to be replaced by the healing magic of Karen Mason. My advice is to catch her Christmas show at The Green Room 42 December 19, 20, and 21 or at least to give yourself the gift of one of her CDs.

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Jacqueline Parker

Like Ethel Merman, lifelong New Yorker Jacqueline Parker began her career as a stenographer. She spent more than two decades at the city's premier public agency, progressing through positions of increased responsibility after earning her BA in English from New York University (3.5 GPA/Dean’s List). She won national awards for her work in public relations and communication and had the privilege of working in the House of Commons for Stephen Ross, later Lord Ross of Newport. In the second half of her career, Jacqueline brought her innate organizational skills and creative talents to a variety of positions. While distinguishing herself in executive search, she also gave her talents to publishing, politics, writing, radio broadcasting and Delmonico's Restaurant. Most recently, she hosted Anything Goes! a radio show that paid homage to Cole Porter and by extension the world of Broadway musicals and the Great American Songbook. Other features of the show were New York living, classical music, books, restaurants, architecture and politics. This show highlighted the current Broadway scene, both in New York and around the country through performances and interviews with luminaries including Len Cariou, Charles Strouse, Laura Osnes, Steve Ross and Joan Copeland. Her pandemic project was immersion into the life, times and work of Alfred Hitchcock, about whom she has written a soon-to-be-published article. Jacqueline has been involved in a myriad of charitable causes, most notably the Walt Frazier Youth Foundation, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Sisters of Life, York Theatre, and the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival. She is a proud Founder of Hidden Water. Her greatest accomplishment is the parenting of her son, a lawyer specializing in mediation. She has many pretend grandchildren, nieces and nephews, on whom she dotes shamelessly, as well as a large circle of friends to whom she is devoted. Her interests in addition to theater and cabaret are cooking, entertaining, reading, and spending time on Queen Mary 2.