Last
Call (con't)
But, the smaller, mainstay clubs
like Don't Tell Mama on Restaurant Row and The Duplex on Sheridan Square,
while still alive with erratic to land office business, are doing well,
packing them into their piano bars. A few years ago, Mama's even had
to start using a velvet rope for crowd control on weekends. Incidentally,
The Laurie Beechman Theater does not have a piano bar but offers the
wildly popular weekly free for all open-mic shindig called The After
Party on Fridays. Another cabaret space, The Triad, on the upper west
side, is not a piano bar. All of these rooms show promise of continuity
with no signs of slowing down.
In the case of 55 Grove Street,
no club has had more ownership changes, more bad business streaks and
more ups and downs than all the others over the years albeit The Duplex
or Rose's Turn. But, as Donald Smith has often said, "Cabaret always
has a way of bouncing back. Whenever it hits a slump, it always bounces
back - eventually." I think he's right. After all, the list of clubs
that have come and gone over the past fifty years is frightening.
"It has always been cyclical," said
Jan Wallman who ran The Duplex from 1959 to 1962. After a hiatus, where
she ran some other clubs like The Show Place, she then returned in 1967
where she stayed until 1969. She recalled Barbra Streisand trivia when
BS would do guest spots - especially if an agent or booker from outside
New York was in town. "I would call Barbra's piano player Peter Daniels
(he had all her arrangements in his head) who worked at the Bon Soir
and find out when he could take a break and come play for Barbra. He
would run over on his break and play twenty minute sets for her upstairs
in the cabaret room." She also noted, "In those days, we paid people.
When you do that, you have more control." I asked her what made Streisand
standout from the crowd; "She was an original. She looked at a song
differently than others. She never copied anyone." And, she also echoed
Smith's optimism, "Cabaret always bounces back."
"The loss of Rose's Turn is just
very sad and a little frightening. Whose next? I feel like the walking
wounded," said Sidney Myer, who has survived the closing of three Panache's
and was the first booking manager at the newly christened Rose's Turn
where he remained for 3 years before turning over the reigns to Collette
Black who would book the last act into the club.
Erv
Raible and Rob Hoskins bought The Duplex in November, 1978 and kept
it until October, 1984 They would go on to open Brandy's Piano Bar and
Don't Tell Mama which are both going strong today (under different ownership.)
After Rob's passing, Erv bought Eighty Eight's with partners Karen Miller
and Rochelle Seldin in 1988 and it lasted eleven wonderful years. The
first act that Erv booked in The Duplex cabaret room was singer/impersonator/vocal
coach Ira Siff who later went on to help form La Gran Scena Opera which
plays around the world to this day. Sell out acts like Gotham, Sharon
McNight, Celeste, Liz Callaway, Ann Hampton Callaway, Bruce Hopkins,
Karen Mason, Lina Koutrakos, Mary Cleere Haran, Julie Shepherd, Julie
Kurnitz, Rob Preston (cabaret's first singing cowboy,) Margaret Wright,
Ruby Rims, Phillip Officer, Lyn Lavner, Charles Busch and a duet known
then as Stack & Lane. "The scene stealer in that show was definitely
Nathan Lane," said Erv. For years, Sharon McNight, already an established
star in San Francisco, played regularly here, and on Fridays and Saturdays
it was Karen Mason and Brian Lasser. "Such was their fan base and word
of mouth that the shows were sold out before any fliers hit the street,"
said Raible. "It was a magical time."
In 1984, Raible sold The Duplex
to Rick Panson and partner Larry Schimel. Panson would later relocate
to Sheridan Square a block away and the venue at 55 Grove Street was
sold to Don't Tell Mama matriarch Rose Pham who renamed it Rose's Turn.
About 2 years ago, Panson sold The Duplex to current owners Tony DiCicco
(who was once a technical director at Don't Tell Mama) and Bill Morgan
a piano bar regular who occasionally worked as a bartender there. You
need a score card!
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