THE QUEEN OF CABARET STILL REIGNS

A birthday-month run proves that
Marilyn Maye at 98 remains unstoppable

Memo to fans of solo singers who’ve been living in a cave for more than half a century: Marilyn Maye is the most entertaining, dazzling, and beloved old-school nightclub vocalist of any age on any stage. The powerhouse performer elicits cheers and standing ovations—midway and at the end. She rocks the house. She packs the house. And that’s all the more impressive when you notice she’s booked not for just one or a few nights at 54 Below, but ten nights in April, concluding Sunday the 19th (with a livestream option for that night’s 7 PM show).

Friendly, feisty, funny, and formidable, she’s welcomed like a returning champion. Her fast-moving, generous-length act—full of full-throated, high-energy, mostly upbeat and swinging songs with tricky segues and shifts in key and tempo—is like the Olympics of cabaret. It would be daunting for a singer half her age, but she charges ahead and remains firmly in command.

Much of the repertoire is familiar to her many returning fans, although the set on April 14 didn’t overlap much with material on her recently released live album, The Magic of Marilyn Maye. She opened with a robust treatment of the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein number “The Song Is You,” the “you” very definitely being the audience she indicates with a sweeping gesture. That direct address and eye contact continue with one of her trademark medleys, this one starting with “That Face” (Lew Spence/Alan Bergman) and including the James Taylor song “Your Smiling Face.” There were plenty of smiling faces in the crowd as this spreader of joy delivered her customary pep rally. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she enthuses more than once.

She was in a particularly playful mood, tossing in sly side comments and engaging in lively interplay with sterling pianist/music director Tedd Firth. They exchanged fond, semi-mischievous looks as a piano passage or her own tweak of a melodic line tickled her fancy—sometimes prompting her to ask for it to be repeated. A couple of songs earned such rapturous receptions that they repeated their big endings.

Another medley celebrates New York City, the place that has become a second home for the Kansas native, who matter-of-factly sings Cole Porter’s “I Happen to Like New York.” When she delivers “Luck Be a Lady” from Guys and Dolls, it’s the audience that feels lucky to be swept up in her joie de vivre. Another Frank Loesser show tune, “Joey, Joey, Joey,” is juicy, juicy, juicy as she sails through that number from The Most Happy Fella.

Eventually, she puts the “happy” on hold to reveal vulnerability with “Ev’ry Time” and “Bye Bye, Country Boy.” At one point, she takes a request and swings into the suggested “Honeysuckle Rose”—not on the printed set list.

The singer and the trio were in top form. Drummer Mark McLean brings variety and imagination to his playing—the opposite of a dutiful timekeeper. There’s clear chemistry with the musicians; bassist Tom Hubbard, the third member of the trio, is invaluable, and one wishes he had more solo spotlight moments.

Down-to-earth Miss Maye can turn a stumble in a lyric into an opportunity for clever commentary, never letting it interrupt her non-stop musical parade. In fact, some lyrical alterations might seem intentional—she has long enjoyed tweaking words, paraphrasing, and even writing new sections. She acknowledges this playfully in a number about her engagements at the club (her 13th year there), transforming “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her [His] Face” into “I’ve Grown Accustomed to This Place.”

After the show, audience members could be heard using words like “amazing,” “phenomenal,” “unbelievable,” “miraculous,” and the all-purpose “wow.”

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photos by Stephen Mosher

Marilyn Maye
54 Below, 254 West 54th Street, New York
various performances through April 19, 2026
livestream available April 19 at 7 PM
for tickets, visit 54below.org

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