Celeb Magazine – January 2007
On Let's Misbehave! A Jazz Era Romp –
Let's Misbehave! A Jazz Era Romp – copasetic and spirited.
Don't, however, dismiss its feel-good sparkle as mere
fluff. The show reflects great care and love for the songs and era,
indicating the meticulous musicality and personality of both pianist/singer,
Kathleen Landis, host of the posh Café Pierre, and 25-year-old Evan Stern, with
vocals as smooth as post-Prohibition Scotch. With crisp anecdotes and a
solid selection of flapper age tunes, they carried us from the 18th amendment
into the collapse of Wall Street.
Talk about behind-the-scenes! This duo pulled up
to the Metropolitan Room in a vintage Rolls Royce, dressed in their 1920's glad
rags. They remained in character and never left, from their pairing of Take Me Back to Manhattan with Manhattan Madness through every
convoluted perfect phrase of Anything
Goes!
Landis, an accomplished pianist who flavors her
renditions with jazz, classical, Latin, and pop, showed off her nimble finger
work with Fascinatin' Rhythm and Rialto Ripples. She saluted Fats Waller's
stride with This Joint is Jumpin' and Handful
of Keys. Stern relayed the political desperation of Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? and aptly
touched into the pathos of What'll I Do?,
a song Irving Berlin wrote in his darkest
moments.
As Landis commented, the 1920's was certainly not
Stern's era, nor was it her era, but "music brings us back to any
era." One of their song selections asks, How Are You Going to Wet Your Whistle? The answer --
wiggle on down to the Metropolitan Room and order up some hooch.
Let's Misbehave with
Kathleen Landis and Evan Stern, is the real McCoy.
- Elizabeth Ahlfors,
Cabaret Scenes
“A sparkling evening with two very talented performers
… Well chosen songs beautifully sung by Kathleen Landis and Evan Stern.
Together, they made it fun to ‘take a leap back in time’ with
them.”
- Linda Amiel
Burns, Theaterscene.net
“Enthusiasm abounds in the room as they seamlessly sing
these twenties classics solo, in tandem, and in counterpoint... You don’t
get this kind of polished act often in New York
or anywhere else. The two of them have the audience with them all the way,
sharing in a rare party spirit.”
- Joe Regan Jr., Cabaret Hotline
“I love the 1920s music, and Kathleen Landis and Evan Stern
reveled in it. I loved this show!”
- Mark Druck,
The New Yorkers TV, 26
"Here's a colossal peerless Gershwin progamme
to delight most everyone who loves great music stylishly and wonderfully
performed.
Kathleen in this her disc debut tastefully surrounds and caresses
by embellishing Gershwin's familiar bottomless catalogue with 8 vocals and
her piano artistry on "The Cuban Overture" and a medley
from "Porgy and Bess." She lovingly makes this a one of a kind programme with
her superb extraordinary
piano performances of preludes and overtures. This unusual CD requires multiple
listening.
Her adoration for the superior material certainly shows."
-- In Tune International
Magazine.
A UK publication, the only magazine in the world for lovers of the
golden age of popular music. July 2006
Dan Singer from NYC turns the spotlight
to some overlooked singers of the past, and some new comers , all of which are,
Singer's Singers
"The collaboration between Ms. Landis and the music of Gershwin has resulted in some of the most beautiful, thoroughly ingratiating music it has been my pleasure to hear, now or any other time. Each of the selections (in Gershwin: Island to Island. Cuban Overture Fantasy) is suffused with a lyric charm, a tenderness, an elegance, an unabashed romanticism that takes one's breath away...The performance of the Cuban Overture Fantasy in the face of such blazing beauty, any attempts at description of analysis are bound to prove fruitless." Johnny Adams: And All That Jazz. The Monterey County Post. May 1999.
"(Landis) employs music from Chopin to Cy Coleman, with a sparkle of Porter and some jazz-flavored Arlen, to set couples fox-trotting through the room; the hotel is never as alive as when Kathleen is cookin' in the cafe." InTheater Magazine, June 12, 1998.
"Her versatile repertoire...the Gershwins, Porter, Arlen, Rodgers and Hart -- and classics of the '30's to '50's delivered in a jazz-tinged style with classical underpinnings. No standard treatment here, her arrangements, intricate and imaginative, are replete with complicated chord progressions. Don't be surprised to hear a little Bach in her Bernstein, Mozart in her Mercer." Jeanne Lieberman, New York Law Journal, 1997.
"Kathleen creates an aura of nostalgia that makes one feel as if you've stepped back into the elegant Cafe Society of the '20's and '30's with authentic period evening gowns, jewelry and accessories from her classic coif down to the tips of her period correct shoes. And when she plays, those classically trained hands bring to life some of the finest music of the period." Keith Meritz, Cabaret Scenes, 1997.
"Miss Landis and her nimble fingers tackled George Gershwin from all sides." Gary Stevens, National Newspaper Association, on occasion of Kathleen Landis' George Gershwin show at the Village Gate, 1997.
"Kathleen Landis has brought sophistication and style to the cabaret scene in Manhattan. Her outstanding talents as a pianist, vocalist, and her style, glamour and creative showmanship have contributed immensely to the theatrical environment of New York City." Frank Egan, Chairman, American Theatre Roundtable, 1996.
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