54 Below

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. (In a laudable effort to make cabaret more accessible, 54 Below is offering subsidized $15 tickets to the March edition, with no minimum, for those of limited economic means.)

The Wickedly talented two-time Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Catch Me If You Can) leaped to musical-theater stardom based on his unlikely but winning combination of everyday guyness and star magnetism. He's one of the rare bona fide male stars of the modern Broadway musical, but he also really knows how to command a smaller stage. His latest nightclub run at 54 Below surveys all the girls he's loved before, as captured through songs by Elivis Costello, Loretta Lynn, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash and many more. 

The powerfully talented Broadway actor-singer Jenn Colella was the New Year's Eve entertainment at 54 Below in 2022 and 2024. Now she pops her cork on ordinary nights in a cabaret set that includes songs from shows on her musical-theater résumé—such as Come From Away, Chaplin, If/Then and last season's Suffs, in which she was a standout—plus a selection of favorite pop and rock songs. 

Ever since 1984's Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Charles Busch has been working toward the title of First Lady of the American Stage, delivering hilariously nuanced portraits of defiant yet vulnerable dames in the mold of the great film stars of the 1940s. In his return to 54 Below, he sets drag aside to continue his side career as a cabaret raconteur and chanteur. This latest collection is devoted to the women who have made him who he is—including songs by Harold Arlen, Stephen Sondheim and Kurt Weill—joined by Jono Mainelli at the piano.

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 March 30 episode include Ramona Mallory, Daniel May, Orville Mendoza, Shereen Pimentel, Jim Poulos, James Seol and Lucia Spina. The saucy Rob Maitner plays host, and music director John Fischer is at the piano.