Emmet Cahill and Emmett O’Hanlon
Well, Did You Evah?
Birdland, NYC, January 19, 2026
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg
Photo by Genevieve Rafter Keddy
During the later decades of the past century, a new genre in recordings blossomed: the cross-over album. Rockers such as Rod Stewart and Linda Ronstadt sang the Great American Songbook. Opera divas such as Kiri Te Kanawa and Marilyn Horne suddenly transformed themselves into Broadway leading ladies. Emmet Cahill and Emmett O’Hanlon are both classically trained singers, handsome and big-voiced with stage presence and humor. They took the stage at Birdland Jazz Club for their first cabaret booking. Their experienced as singers and their inexperience in a cabaret venue were evident.
They kicked off the show with a duet on Franz Lehar’s “Yours Is My Heart Alone” and quickly showed their impressive vocal ability as well as their talent to blend their voices. It was clear they were more than capable of listening to each other and to their on-stage musicians Those were Kris Monson on bass and Aaron Seeber on drums, led by the fine jazz pianist Matt Baker, who served as music director; unfortunately he didn’t have the chance to show off his special talents on this occasion.
The show first went astray with the “nostalgia medley,” which consisted of three songs that had nothing to do with each other: “Over the Rainbow” (Harold Arlen/E.Y. Harburg), “Moon River” (Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer), and “We’ll Meet Again” (Ross Parker/Hughie Charles). All three are lovely, iconic songs, but here they were delivered with no dramatic build-up. Much better was Cahill’s “Maria” (Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim), which was filled with appropriate passion, and O’Hanlon’s inevitable “The Impossible Dream” (Mitch Leigh/Joe Darion), which was filled with appropriate commitment. Cahill returned for one of the show’s more inventive moments by combining “No One Is Alone” (Sondheim) and “Somewhere” (Bernstein/Sondheim) in a tender, gentle interpretation that projected bittersweet longing.
This mid-section of the program had another flaw: as solos were traded off, the non-singer of the moment left the stage. This caused a lot of unnecessary traffic back and forth that could have been remedied by the presence of an upstage stool. Things got even sillier when the two Irishmen joined for the almost inevitable “Danny Boy,” with Cahill on guitar for a lovely, quiet moment as the two singers harmonized. But why did this require the other three musicians to exit the stage for the four-minute number?
A “Gal Medley” served to add some humor to the evening, and happily it got them to move away from the microphone stands to indulge in a bit of choreography as they playing around with “There Is Nothing Like a Dame” (Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein II), “Agony” (Sondheim), and “I’m Gonna Wash That Girl Right Out of My Hair” (Rodgers/Hammerstein). More happy silliness came when Cahill, decked out in a “crown” and a robe, bounced through “You’ll Be Back” (Lin-Manuel Miranda). A final attempt at humor with the Cole Porter title tune “Well, Did You Evah” unfortunately didn’t come off. The two singers just didn’t have the style to deliver that wry number.
They were far more comfortable in the realm of Rodgers & Hammerstein (“Younger Than Springtime”) and Lerner & Loewe (“If Ever I Would Leave You” and “There but for You Go I”). Cahill and O’Hanlon certainly have a place in the cabaret world; they just need to take more time to define it.
