The Anastasio Sisters:
Valerie Anastasio and Veronica (Anastasio) Wiseman
Mom’s 90th Birthday Cabaret
Josephine’s Cabaret at Club Café’s Napoleon Room, Boston, MA, November 7, 2026
Reviewed by John Amodeo
What could be better than one Anastasio performing a cabaret show? Well, the obvious answer, of course, is two Anastasios. That’s exactly what we got with the Anastasio Sisters—veteran cabaret performer Valerie Anastasio and her sister Veronica (Anastasio) Wiseman in their show Mom’s 90th Birthday Cabaret at Josephine’s Cabaret in Club Café’s Napoleon Room. Anastasio, an accomplished soprano, has been performing in revues and solo cabaret shows in the Boston area on and off for the past 30 years or more, mostly off in recent years, much to the chagrin of many. So, it is a thrill to have her bring a show to the Napoleon Room. It was a bonus to discover that she has a sister, Wiseman, whose earthy alto vocals provided a lovely counterpoint to Anastasio’s sparkling soprano strains. The result of this alchemy was a delightful show that put a smile on my face from opening to encore.
Duo shows between friends or family members often place an emphasis on the relationship between the two singers, but the Anastasio Sisters gave us a nice twist on that by honoring their mother, who will be turning 90 soon. In fact, they claim this performance was their rehearsal for the main event, a show for their mother and family members at their mother’s imminent 90th birthday celebration. But this show was no mere rehearsal; polished and well-conceived, the sisters took us on a journey with stories of their mother’s impact on their lives and their family interspersed with songs from every decade of her life.
Their mother’s early life was well represented in songs from the 1930s such as “Bei Mir Bist Du Schön” (Sholom Secunda/Jacob Jacobs) and “Pennies from Heaven” (Arthur Johnston/Johnny Burke). Their voices blended in handsome harmony on the former, and they traded off verse and refrain on the latter, with Anastasio’s silky soprano on the verse segueing nicely into Wiseman’s deep alto on the refrain. They traded roles on “The Trolley Song” (Hugh Martin), with Wiseman on the verse and both Wiseman and Anastasio on the refrain, bringing it home with musical director Steve Sussman’s driving piano for a big finish that brought the crowd to a roar. This was nicely combined with stories of their mother’s dating years in the 1940s.
Moving into the 1950s, the pair diverted the room with tales of their mother’s first fiancé, which didn’t pan out, as Anastasio deadpanned, “I don’t think he was Italian,” before she and Wiseman launched into “Mambo Italiano” (Bob Merrill). It was nice to hear Anastasio sing in her chest voice, which she did to match her sister’s alto in this duet. While Wiseman’s alto is more ruby port, Anastasio’s is more clover honey. It would be great to have Anastasio employ this more in future outings. Here, the sisters were adorable with their Italian accents and broken English. They must have had fun rehearsing this, because that bubbly amusement showed through. They bonded even more on “I Won’t Last a Day Without You” (Roger Nichols/Paul Williams), capitalizing on Wiseman’s deep alto, reminiscent of Karen Carpenter’s, for the opening verse. Anastasio entered in her soothing chest voice for some beautiful harmonizing on the chorus. Wiseman got to use that earthy alto again on her solo, “Song of Bernadette” (Jennifer Warnes/Leonard Cohen/Bill Elliott), which she rendered so tenderly the room fell into a sweet stillness,
There were some great comic moments, starting with the opening number, “Mom Needs a Cabaret,” with clever parody lyrics written by the sisters to the melody of “Cabaret” (John Kander/Fred Ebb) that included “Let’s have some wine. I’ll cut the cheese.” Wiseman’s comic timing and expressions added to the hilarity. Anastasio was her musical-comedy best on “I Can Cook, Too” (Leonard Bernstein/Betty Comden & Adolph Green), which mirrored their mom’s career as a cooking teacher. Wiseman brought the power ballad “On A Clear Day (You Can See Forever)” (Burton Lane/Alan Jay Lerner) to new dramatic heights, then turned the musical interlude on its head with a bugle kazoo solo, showing it’s perfectly acceptable not to take oneself too seriously. The comic highlight was “Albert Anastasio,” which honored their mother’s meeting and falling for their blue-collar Italian dad, Albert, with new lyrics written by the sisters to the melody of “Alexander Hamilton” (Lin-Manuel Miranda). They changed their postures and expressions to those of street thugs as they rapped their way through the song as if they were born to it.
The encore, “Happy Days Are Here Again”/“Get Happy” (Milton Ager/Jack Yellen; Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler) needed a little more work, but they said this was a rehearsal, after all. It did nothing to spoil a perfectly delightful show that, in the spirit of their encore, had everyone leaving happy. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait until their mother’s 100th birthday for this pair to regale us again.
