Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2010 > March > 07 > Entry
Austin Cabaret Theater at the Kodosky Lounge
Established fact: There is an audience for cabaret in Austin. At the highest level. Austin Cabaret Theatre has proven that over the course of its first nine seasons. Almost every national marquee act has graced Stuart Moulton’s stage, now urbanely situated in the Kodosky Lounge with its panoramic skyline view.
Jackson Iffinger and Riley Britton
The crowd trends older, with inevitable sprinklings of musical queens (and I embrace that term enthusiastically for myself as well). The tables at Kodosky are a bit too large by cabaret standards, complicating any movement or conversation. Yet I wouldn’t trade it for any other Austin cabaret location.
Carmen Emiliani and Norb Johnson
The duo playing two nights this week were Klea Blackhurst, best known for her Ethel Merman takes, and Billy Stritch, famous, I suppose, for dating Liza Minnelli and an artist I’ve followed since his first trios — Montgomery, Plant and Stritch and Montgomery, Mayes and Stritch — played Houston clubs and theaters in the early 1980s.
Amy Shipherd, Sam Rieger and Mary Castilla
They collaborated on the ideal Hoagy Carmichael revue. Blackhurst reveled in the revealing historical patter and the singers shared tributes to the composer’s masterpieces (“Stardust,” “The Nearness of You,” “Georgia on my Mind,” etc.) as well as his minor side excursions (a shuffle, movie and theater material). Their interpretations were inventive (every tricky in “Heart and Soul”), never disrespectful. I was especially glad there was no ungainly medley.
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