54 Below

Maye’s stellar past includes a string of classy RCA albums in the ’60s and countless Tonight Show appearances, but this husky-voiced, earthy belter still sounds great at the age of 96—and she turns 97 on April 10, toward the start of her two week run at 54 below. Beyond her remarkable energy and musical acuity, the astonishing Maye has a bone-deep comfort that imbues familiar songs with fresh simplicity, truthfulness and power.    

After a brilliant career as one of the all-time great Broadway dancers, Donna McKechnie (A Chorus Line) has refocused her energies on her other two threats, acting and singing. In this second encore run of her 2022 set at 54 Below, she takes on songs by Broadway deity Stephen Sondheim—including tunes from Company (she was in the original 1970 production) and Follies (she was a memorable Sally in the 1998 Paper Mill revival).  

One of the cleverest people alive, the longtime Daily Show head writer and @TheTweetOfGod demiurge David Javerbaum, ventured into musical theater with 2008's underrated Cry-Baby. Now he dips his toe back into the water, joined by composer Zina Goldrich, as the author of a comedic revue of songs and sketches about life in the technological age. The piece makes its world premiere in concert form at 54 Below, directed by Richard Israel and music-directed by Nicholas Connors, with a cast that includes Mary Faber, Alex Getlin, David Goldsmith, Bryonha Marie and Jason Michael Snow.

Talented singers from the Broadway and cabaret worlds sing side by side in this monthly dive into the fathomless depths of the late musical-theater deity Stephen Sondheim. Guests at the April 27 edition include three cast members of Sondheim shows on Broadway—Jeff Blumenkrantz from the original Into the Woods, Leah Horowitz from the 2011 Follies, and Ramona Mallory from the 2009 A Little Night Music (whose parents, Mark Lambert and Victoria Mallory, were theat shows original juvenile leads in 1973!)—as well as Jacob Hoffman, Jon-Michael Reese, Sierra Rein and T. Oliver Reid. The saucy Rob Maitner plays host, and music director John Fischer is at the piano. 

Few singers have the sheer macho swagger of Lea DeLaria, who rose to fame as a butcher-than-thou stand-up comic and Broadway star, and more recently earned new fans as Big Boo on Orange Is the New Black. As a jazz vocalist, she has tough-guy sell and a penchant for scat. In her monthly brunch set at 54 Below, she tackles Great American Songbook standards and showtunes by such upper-echelon writers as Stephen Sondheim, Michael John LaChiusa and Kander and Ebb.