Gary Williams Christmas Show 2015 at the Crazy Coqs, London. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Gary Williams, favourite son of Crazy Coqs’s patrons, returned with his Christmas show – no, not show but a family party. For that is what he turns his act into. His broad smile, easy manner and […]
Tag Archives | Crazy Coqs
Jessie Buckley and Joe Thompson – Crazy Coqs
Jessie Buckley and Joe Thompson performed at the Crazy Coqs, London. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Cabaret evenings with the extraordinary Jessie Buckley need to be treasured because they come so rarely now that this fast-rising talent is in such demand as a serious actress. It’s seven years since the voting […]
Cassie Compton – Crazy Coqs
Cassie Compton performed at the Crazy Coqs, London. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ There’s not very much of Cassie Compton but from a tiny, almost fragile frame emerges a husky, effortlessly powerful voice that fair takes your breath away. The 2004 X Factor contender made her Crazy Coqs debut a winning one with […]
Interview – Cassie Compton makes her debut at Crazy Coqs
Actress and singer/songwriter CASSIE COMPTON came to our notice in the first series of The X Factor, since when she has gone from strength to strength on stage, in film and television and music tours. In the West End her many starring roles include Eponine in Les Misérables, Nessarose in Wicked, Jean in American Psycho opposite Matt Smith, and the […]
Marti Webb – Crazy Coqs
Marti Webb performed at the Crazy Coqs, London. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Musical theatre star of a bygone era Marti Webb, a rare visitor to the cabaret circuit making her Crazy Coqs debut, turned back the clock the best part of half a century as she reprised the songs that informed her […]
Steve Ross on Broadway – Crazy Coqs
Steve Ross on Broadway continues at the Crazy Coqs, London until 7 November. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Where would Crazy Coqs be without its annual visit from ‘the crown prince of New York cabaret’”, that evergreen entertainer Steve Ross? Nobody today has his knowledge or repertoire of the Great American […]
Maria Kesselman – Crazy Coqs
Maria Kesselman performed at the Crazy Coqs, London. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Although she says she’s still “feeling her way” as a cabaret performer, Maria Kesselman’s CV suggests she’s no newcomer to the genre and an easy listening evening in her delightful company on her one-night-only Crazy Coqs debut was […]
Gary Williams – Big Band Wonderland CD launch – Langham Hotel
Gary Williams, star of the West End’s The Rat Pack, recording artist, cabaret performer, soloist with leading Big Bands and concert orchestras throughout the world and author of the book Cabaret Secrets, has launched his latest CD at the Langham Hotel, London. Having sung in concert with several Big Bands, Williams dreamt of recording an album with one. The dream was […]
Christine Pedi – Great Dames – Crazy Coqs
Christine Pedi – Great Dames continues at Crazy Coqs, London until 24 October. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Billed as a Broadway diva, Christine Pedi certainly lives up to that title as she makes her debut at the Crazy Coqs. She is best known as a renowned impressionist due to her […]
Frances Ruffelle – I Say Yeh-Yeh – Crazy Coqs
Frances Ruffelle – I Say Yeh-Yeh continues at Crazy Coqs, London until 17 October. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ It’s hard to believe that 30 years have gone by since the rich, smoky voice of Frances Ruffelle’s first Eponine in Les Misérables made us weep and when she stands atop the […]
Alexandra Silber – Crazy Coqs
Alexandra Silber continues in cabaret at Crazy Coqs, London, until 5 September. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Just now and again someone special comes along who is forever bookmarked in your Favourites and you never let them go. Streisand was like that for me in the 1960s with her first, numbingly wonderful album, Judy Collins opened my […]
Interview – American actress Alexandra Silber back in the UK making her cabaret bow at Crazy Coqs
August has already been a big month for the American (but Scottish-trained) soprano ALEXANDRA SILBER as she’s just landed the part of Tzeitel in the Broadway revival of Fiddler On the Roof which opens on 12 November – eight years after she sang Hodel in the same show in the West End. And it’s going to get even […]
Broadway performer Alexandra Silber to appear at Crazy Coqs with special guests
She’s a Grammy nominee, a Broadway star, a BBC Proms headliner… and she has just five shows in the UK this year (1–5 September at London’s Crazy Coqs). It’s ‘the fastest-rising soprano in musical theatre’, Alexandra Silber. Born in LA, growing up outside Detroit, Michigan, Silber trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow before being cast immediately […]
Elaine Delmar – The Lady and Her Music – Crazy Coqs
Elaine Delmar – The Lady and Her Music continues at the Crazy Coqs, London until 1 August. Star rating: 4 stars ★ ★ ★ ★ Elaine Delmar, making a most welcome return to the Crazy Coqs, is one of Britain’s finest jazz vocalists. Her pedigree began with singing as a youngster with her father’s (Leslie […]
Sally Ann Triplett – Crazy Coqs
Sally Ann Triplett performs her show Elephants to Broadway and Back Again at the Crazy Coqs, London until 11 July. Star rating: 3 stars ★ ★ ★ Actress and singer Sally Ann Triplett always imagined she was going to be a ballet dancer until she discovered at a relatively young age that she had a “loud […]
Eric Yves Garcia – One Night Standards
Eric Yves Garcia – One Night Standards continues at the Crazy Coqs, London until 13 June. Star rating: 4 stars ★ ★ ★ ★ After a warm if brief introduction from Ruth Leon, Eric Yves Garcia takes to the intimate stage of the Crazy Coqs somewhat sheepishly for his first show in the UK. An award-winning vocalist/instrumentalist in his […]
West End actress Joanna Strand in cabaret mode at the Crazy Coqs
https://vimeo.com/78174179 Jazz vocalist and West End actress Joanna Strand is at London’s Crazy Coqs from 2 to 4 June, with some special guests. She has had a versatile career in jazz, cabaret and musical shows including Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Lyric, Belfast), Hello, Dolly!, Jekyll and Hyde (Union Theatre), Master Class […]
Interview – actor and MD Ben Stock presents his one-man show at the Crazy Coqs
West End and UK theatre actor BEN STOCK presents his new show And There Was Music, a celebration of the songs and music that have influenced his career and life to date, this week at London’s Crazy Coqs (26 to 28 May). His debut solo album with SimG Records, also entitled And There Was None, is released on 1 June. From […]
Interview – Howard Samuels celebrates the genius of Fran Landesman in Invade My Privacy at the Crazy Coqs
Lisa Martland writes: This week (starting today, Tuesday May 12!) HOWARD SAMUELS and LUCY DIXON return to London’s Crazy Coqs for three performances of their sell-out show Invade My Privacy, a cabaret devoted to the genius that is and was Fran Landesman. Dixon and Samuels first met in the Sondheim musical Company and worked together again in the […]
Gary Williams with Harry the Piano – Sinatra Jukebox – Crazy Coqs
Gary Williams with Harry the Piano – Sinatra Jukebox continues at the Crazy Coqs, London until 9 May, as part of the London Festival of Cabaret. Star rating: 4 stars ★ ★ ★ ★ Gary Williams returns to the Crazy Coqs to pay tribute to Frank Sinatra in the year that would have seen Ol’ Blue Eyes celebrate […]
Anne Reid and Stefan Bednarczyk – Just in Time – Crazy Coqs
Anne Reid and Stefan Bednarczyk – Just in Time – Crazy Coqs, London continues until 2 May. Star rating: 4 stars ★ ★ ★ ★ The third London Festival of Cabaret – Celebrating Song – opens at the Crazy Coqs with a long overdue tribute to the writing skills of American lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Although their names may not be household […]
Michele Brourman – Let’s Order In – Songs about Food, Sex and Other Delicacies – Crazy Coqs
Michele Brourman: Let’s Order In – Songs about Food, Sex and Other Delicacies at the Crazy Coqs, London. Star rating: 4 stars ★ ★ ★ ★ It wasn’t the greatest start to my evening with Michele Brourman to be informed the train had been cancelled because of a death on the line at the next stop. It […]
Noir – Amanda McBroom with Michele Brourman – Crazy Coqs
Noir: Amanda McBroom with Michele Brourman continues at the Crazy Coqs, London until 25 April. Star rating: 5 stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ There are many times in the year we should thank our lucky stars that the Crazy Coqs, London’s friendliest, most elegant cabaret room, came into our lives, none more so than when the distinctive contralto of the […]
Beyond Compare: BJ Ward sings Marshall Barer – Crazy Coqs
Beyond Compare: BJ Ward sings Marshall Barer at the Crazy Coqs, London. Star rating: 3 stars ★ ★ ★ It was brave of a cabaret performer few had heard of to give over her first London gig to a songwriter, Marshall Barer, whose prolific output – he wrote almost 3,000 lyrics – is mostly lost in […]
Flyin’ High – Harold Sanditen – Crazy Coqs
Harold Sanditen performed Flyin’ High at the Crazy Coqs, London. He then takes the show on an international tour until 5 June. Star rating: 4 stars ★ ★ ★ ★ Harold Santiden’s residency at the award-winning Crazy Coqs is primarily as host to the venue’s remarkably successful Open Mic nights. Just about to celebrate its second anniversary, the weekly event is […]
Roulston and Young – Two Faced – Crazy Coqs
Michael Roulston and Sarah-Louise Young perform their show Two Faced at the Crazy Coqs, London until 19 March. Star rating: 4 stars ★ ★ ★ ★ I came to this show thinking that I knew nothing about the artists and that they were totally unknown to me. Oh dear! I should have done my homework better, for […]
Janie Dee – Dee-Licious, Lightful and Lovely! – Crazy Coqs
Janie Dee performs her show Dee-Licious, Lightful and Lovely! at the Crazy Coqs until 14 March. Star rating: 5 stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Last night a packed audience filled with showbiz personalities was treated to a masterclass in cabaret perfection. The multi-talented Janie Dee entertained, enthralled and enchanted her many fans with glorious singing as well as amusing […]
London Cabaret Awards 2015 – winners revealed
The Cafe de Paris with its mock-rococo decor and glamorous history proved the perfect venue for the London Cabaret Awards 2015. The event, created by Excess All Areas producer Paul L Martin celebrates the wealth and diversity of talent on offer to Londoners practically every day of the week. As the evening’s host – the inimitable […]
Interview – New Mrs Henderson Janie Dee on returning to cabaret at the Crazy Coqs
Double Olivier Award-winner JANIE DEE is currently in the news for being cast in the title role of the new musical version of Mrs Henderson Presents at Theatre Royal Bath later this year. Below, the actress and singer talks to Barrie Jerram as she prepares to return to the world of cabaret at the Crazy Coqs: […]
Cabaret preview – Liliane Montevecchi and Christine Andreas weave their magic
Rare visitor Liliane Montevecchi, a Broadway and Hollywood legend much loved for her delightful mangling of the English language, makes her Crazy Coqs bow on 24 February in a brilliant month for cabaret lovers. Another Broadway legend, Christine Andreas, appears at The Pheasantry next week (18-21) at the same time as Last Tango in Halifax […]
Love Songs – Robert Meadmore – Crazy Coqs
Robert Meadmore performed in cabaret, Love Songs, at the Crazy Coqs, London. No stranger to the London stage, West End performer Robert Meadmore has created a new one-man cabaret show. He has appeared in various cabarets before, including Ivor Novello and the Great British Musical and a duet performance with Annabel Leventon at the Crazy Coqs, but this is his […]
Shades of Blue – Carole J Bufford – Crazy Coqs
Shades of Blue: Carole J Bufford continues at the Crazy Coqs, London until 31 January. Star rating: 5 stars ***** Twelve months ago when drooling over the exorbitant talent of a cute young southern belle from a small town in Georgia where “cabaret still means stripping”, it was hard not to get excited about the British debut at the Crazy Coqs […]
Brent Barrett – Life Is, The Songs of Kander and Ebb – Crazy Coqs
Brent Barrett performs his show Life Is – The Songs of Kander and Ebb at the Crazy Coqs, London until 24 January. Broadway star Brent Barrett returns to this highly successful cabaret venue where he made his triumphant debut a year ago. This time he presents the London premiere of his new show that celebrates a 50-year […]
Tim Flavin – Reflections of a Song and Dance Man – Crazy Coqs
Tim Flavin’s cabaret Reflections of a Song and Dance Man continues at the Crazy Coqs, London until 17 January. 4 stars **** Tim Flavin returns to the Crazy Coqs with a cabaret act developed in collaboration, with his musical director and accompanist Colin Billing, at a Caribbean hotel where it played for two seasons. The programme is […]
Peter Straker – Crazy Coqs
Peter Straker’s cabaret Peter Straker Sings continues at the Crazy Coqs, London until 15 January. Making his debut at this exciting cabaret venue, Peter Straker takes his audience on a rollercoaster ride with a well chosen programme that reflects his career, his favourite songs and above all his love of Jacques Brel. Making his entrance through […]
Gary Williams – A Swingin’ Christmas – Crazy Coqs
Gary Williams’ show A Swingin’ Christmas continues at the Crazy Coqs, London until 24 December. Returning to this venue after a sell-out run last year, Gary Williams gets the audience to join him an old-fashioned Christmas. And what a party he creates. He provides a veritable potpourri with seasonable songs – not just old chestnuts but some […]
Cheek to Cheek – Steve Ross and Karen Oberlin – Crazy Coqs
Cheek to Cheek: Steve Ross and Karen Oberlin continues at the Crazy Coqs, London until 29 November. Gorgeous in gold, the sparkly, sequinned Karen Oberlin, every inch the classy blonde that Ginger Rogers played to smooth, sophisticated Fred Astaire in their ten-movie career as the 1930s dance darlings of Depression-era America, provides the wow factor […]
Natalie Douglas – Hello Dolly: The Music of Dolly Parton – Crazy Coqs
Natalie Douglas performs her show Hello Dolly: The Music of Dolly Parton at the Crazy Coqs, London until 8 November. The whole concept of Natalie Douglas’ show intrigued me from the start – two buxom ladies, both having spent time in America’s south, and both lovers of blues and country music, but in other ways very different. Parton – petite […]
Gregg Edelman – Broadway State of Mind – Crazy Coqs
Gregg Edelman: Broadway State Of Mind continues at Crazy Coqs, London until 25 October. London cabaret fans are being thoroughly spoilt: while the incomparable Maria Friedman’s two-week residency continues to thrill at The Pheasantry, another master of the craft, Gregg Edelman has sidled into town at the Crazy Coqs in Piccadilly. This is only Edelman’s […]
Anna Bergman – You‘re All the World to Me – Crazy Coqs
Anna Bergman: You’re All the World to Me continues at the Crazy Coqs, London, until 18 October. Crazy Coqs regulars are not often treated to a bit of Puccini as an encore, but when American soprano Anna Bergman comes to town, you get the full multi-lingual package, from West Side Story, Rodgers and Hart, a Neapolitan love song […]
Interview – Gregg Edelman on his Broadway State of Mind
Gregg Edelman returns to The Crazy Coqs cabaret room from 21 October in his one-man show A Broadway State of Mind, which reflects his own career in musical theatre. A four-time Tony Award nominee, Edelman has enjoyed a successful 30-year career in theatre, television and film. The actor and singer has starred in a string of Broadway shows from Cats to Anything […]
This Wheel’s On Fire – Barb Jungr – Crazy Coqs
This Wheel’s On Fire: Barb Jungr continues at Crazy Coqs, London, until 4 October. With more than half the 17 songs in Barb Jungr’s new show This Wheel’s On Fire either the work of Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen, this compilation is chiefly a further salute to those two great North American-Jewish wordsmiths whose flame […]
Alistair McGowan & Charlotte Page – Sincerely Noel – Crazy Coqs
Alistair McGowan & Charlotte Page perform Sincerely Noel at the Crazy Coqs, London until 13 September. This charming, funny, sad, romantic, poignant homage to The Master by impressionist and actor Alistair McGowan and his actress-opera singer wife Charlotte Page highlights the many-sided genius of Noel Coward in an unusual mix of song, drama and poetry which delights from start to finish. There are the old favourites, of course, […]
Everything’s Coming Up Jule Styne – interview with musical director Alex Parker
Composer Jule Styne wrote some 1500 songs in a long career in Tin Pan Alley, Hollywood and on Broadway. Everything’s Coming Up Roses: The Jule Styne Songbook, opening at London’s Crazy Coqs on 2 September, is a tribute to a great songwriter who died 20 years ago this month. Devised and directed by Alastair Knights (Putting It Together, The […]
Stacy Sullivan – A Tribute to Peggy Lee – Crazy Coqs
Stacy Sullivan performs her show It’s a Good Day – A Tribute to Peggy Lee at the Crazy Coqs, London until 2 August. Returning for a second time after her highly acclaimed debut at this venue last year, Stacy Sullivan pays homage to musical legend Peggy Lee. And she delivers what it says on the tin – […]
Stefan Bednarczyk Sings Coward – Crazy Coqs
Stefan Bednarczyk: Stefan Sings Coward at the Crazy Coqs, London, continues until 19 July. Can there be a better interpreter of Noel Coward operating in the UK – in the world – than Stefan Bednarczyk? For those in the know, such as Coward’s biographer, the late Sheridan Morley, he was the preferred interpreter of choice. This […]
Stefan Bednarczyk returns to Crazy Coqs with Noel Coward cabaret
Described as ‘one of the most important interpreters of Coward that we have’, Stefan Bednarczyk returns to the Crazy Coqs this week with his Noel Coward show (concentrating on Coward during the war and post-war years, but also including Coward’s works from the 1920s and ’30s as well as some of his lesser-known songs). There […]
Mari Wilson – Crazy Coqs
Mari Wilson continues at the Crazy Coqs, London until 12 July. Anybody who does not know that Mari Wilson hails from Neasden could not be left in doubt for very long. Her cabaret set at the Crazy Coqs is littered with reference to her childhood years in the London suburb, sharing a room and a bed with the teenage sister who […]
Lucy Dixon and Howard Samuels – Invade My Privacy – Crazy Coqs
Lucy Dixon and Howard Samuels performed Invade My Privacy at the Crazy Coqs, London There are some evenings at the theatre that forever stick in the mind. Invade My Privacy: A Musical Celebration of the Works of Fran Landesman, performed at London’s Riverside Studios in early 1993, was one. Since then, there has been little opportunity to relive […]
