In other current posts, we've covered Hamilton & Kirkland performers in dance (see Rhett Dennis) and pop music (see Jeb Guthrie).  Now, we turn to cabaret (and Broadway).  Susan Neuffer K’75 recently presented her cabaret show, “Apocalypse Wow,” at Don't Tell Mama in NYC. 

“Very much inspired by the presidential election,” Susan presented an entertaining, “musical exploration of the end of the world.”  The music stretched from Sondheim to Simon, Billy Joel and Imagine Dragons.  Tami Aisenson, Mary Byrne K’75, Beth Starr Martin K’75 “and honorary Kirkland alum Kevan Cleary” (Tami’s husband) were all there to enjoy the show.

"She was fabulous," said Beth, "so talented.  And her cabaret show was eerily relevant."

After her cabaret show, Susan was cast in a new off-off-Broadway play of Lawrence Dial’s called "In The Room."  The show presents a motley group of writers in a playwriting class.  “Of course, I played the oldest student in the class,” says Susan.

Once again, Beth Star Martin was in the audience.  So was Anita Gates of The New York Times.  

“The pleasures of Mr. Dial’s play,” Ms. Gates writes in her review, “are threefold: Watching the motley assortment of students emerge as real people; laughing at the barely concealed connections of their fiction to their real lives; and taking the course along with them.”

Click the images below -- of Susan's off-Broadway appearance in "In The Room" and her cabaret show "Apocalypse Wow!" -- to see them full size.

Ms. Gates goes on the call the production “solid and smart.”  And as for the cast’s performance specifically, she says, “…the cast’s fierce commitment renders the experience — seeing a bare-bones production in a third-floor walk-up, with an audience of mere dozens — thoroughly transporting.”

Congratulations, Susan!

Incidentally, Susan also reports that she is inching toward retirement from her local government job.  This will certainly mean more theatrical news (and reviews) will be forthcoming.  Stay tuned.

Comment