Christine Ebersole and Billy Stritch

Our friend Chris Ebersole opened last night at the new Metropolitan Club in Chelsea, accompanied by the fantastic pianist Billy Stritch.
The room, well...it was not what I was expecting. I was like the old Bottom Line but smaller and incredibly cramped. One review I read of the room put it between Don't Tell Mama's and Feinsteins. That's like saying it is somewhere between WalMart and Barneys.
The music was fabulous. The perfect mix of fun, swingy jazz to powerful ballads, to soft, break-your-heart love songs. Her voice is magic. Crystal clear. I had a chance to talk with Bette Sussman (her musical director, and also Bette Midlers') after the show. They are doing a Actors Fund benefit on the 18th of Sept. Should be fun.
Billy Stritch is a marvelous counter to Chris. There in-between banter is natural and funny, like the see each other every day. His solo numbers were so quick and light. Great stuff.
Michael Fenistein was there with his partner and we sat next to Ervin Drake, the composer who wrote "It was a very good year" for Sinatra. His wife was (pulled and) fabulous.

Absinthe

The Spiegel tent, an old circular wooden, mirror, stained glass and velvet fabric tent, is a sight. It feels like you have stepped into an unusually small European circus. It is a fabulous and unexpected space. It is, for the next month or so, sitting at the end of the South Street Seaport surrounded by tourists and mall stores. The night though, was perfect. The view of the Brooklyn Bridge at night is fantastic.
The show Absinthe has the same feel. It begins with a woman singing about carousels and calyopies and moves into acrobatics, comedy and sword swallowing and a very odd female magician who strips down and pulls a red hankIe out of her hoo-hoo. It's all very vaudvillian. Very watchable, but you forget about most of it in a day or too. Odd people doing freakish specialty acts. Really entertaining, but not worth the $55 cover.