Best Bets: September 1st – September 7th

Our first Bets Bets for September is filled with great opportunities to explore something new. That includes a young jazz pianist making quite a splash, a member of the Roundtable being celebrated, new solo shows and more. Welcome to Best Bets: September 1^st – September 7^th.

PAUL CORNISH TOUR  – Multiple Venues – September 1^st – Setpember 17^th

Pianist/composer Cornish’s first album, You’re Exaggerating!, has received rave reviews. He’s hitting the road and you can see and hear what the fuss is about. (I’m a big fan of the album myself.)

He’ll be performing at the Jazz Coterie in Stevens Point, WI on September 1^st; Jazz Coterie in Weyauwega, WI on September 2^nd; The Promontory in Chicago in September 3^rd, two shows at Caffé Vivace in Cincinnati, OH on September 4^th; Bop Stop in Cleveland, OH on September 5^th; two sets at The Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis, IN on September 6^th; two sets at the Blue Llama Jazz Club in Ann Arbor, MI on September 7^th; Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz on September 11^th; Libretto in Paso Robles, CA on September 13^th and The Sun Rose in West Hollywood, CA on September 17^th.

Cornish is joined by Jermaine Paul on bass and Jonathan Pinson on drums.

For tickets and more information, please click on the venue name above.

FINDING DOROTHY PARKER – The Laurie Beechman Theater – New York, NY – September 2^nd – September 4^th

“I like to have one martini, two at the very most. After three I’m under the table, after four I’m under my host.” That’s just one of the many bon mots that came from the brilliant mind of Dorothy Parker.  She was a member of the Round Table at the Algonquin Hotel and held her own with the mostly male members of that group. She was also a writer and critic (who famously wrote that Katharine Hepburn “ran the gamut of emotions from A to B”).

Playwright Douglas Carter Beane has compiled an evening of her writings and witticisms for these three evenings and he has four of theaters most amusing women to bring them to life: Julie Halston, Ana Harada, Jackie Hoffman and Anika Larsen. Beane directs.

How many martinis will you have?

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

SOLO FLIGHTS 2025 – Theatre Aspen – Aspen, CO – September 2^nd – September 7^th

This annual festival, now in its sixth year, helps in the development of one-person shows at the start of their existence. There are six shows and each one gets two performances.

This year’s lineup features:

The Goldsmith written and starring Sharone Sayegh and explores family jewelry and the stories that accompany them from Iraq to Israel to the United States. Zachary Prince directs.

Ghost Tour written by Gordon Greenberg and starring Adam Kantor as a frustrated actor who returns home to serve as a haunted theatre tour guide – only to find the ghosts in his own past. Stephen Brackett directs.

Mourning Songs has words and music by Ryan Langer who also performs. He’s an aspiring composer of musicals who is about the give it all up. But a sudden tragedy offers him the inspiration he had previously been lacking. Jack Cummings III and Gregg Wiggans co-direct.

The Vampire is written by and stars Alec Silberblatt whose life gets changed when he befriends a vampire. Paul Edwards directs.

Mark Twain Shouldn’t Say Such Things is written by Dick Scanlan and Marc Kudisch. Scanlan directs and Kudisch stars as Mark Twain on a tour when his partner George Washington Cable leaves suddenly. Now Twain must turn his two-person show into a one-man show.

Mommy: A One-Woman Cho stars, who else, Margaret Cho. Seonjae Kim directs with additional material by Leah Nanako Winkler. In this show, Cho explores the Korean American immigrant experience through the eyes of her mother.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

AM I ROXIE? – Geffen Playhouse – Westwood, CA – September 3^rd – October 5^th

Roxana Ortega explores who she is and who she became while attending to her mother’s illness. It’s a one-woman show she’s been working on for ten years and finds Ortega taking on the roles of a wide range of characters.

This world premiere, one of many this season at the Geffen Playhouse, is written and performed by Ortega. Two performances will be in Spanish. Bernardo Cubría directs.

We will have an interview with Ortega very soon here at Cultural Attaché.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

ART SONG CHICAGO 2025 FESTIVAL – Ganz Hall/Roosevelt University – Chicago, IL – September 4^th – September 6^th

Tenor Nicholas Phan has curated Art Song Chicago’s 2025 festival. There are two concerts: one on Thursday, September 4^th entitled Songs of War and the other on Saturday, September 6^th entitled Songs of Peace.

Songs of War will feature art songs written by Samuel Barber, Nadia Boulanger, Benjamin Britten, Charles Debussy, Henry Duparc, Mohammed Fairoux, Charles Ives, Gustav Mahler, Nico Muhly, Wilfird Sanderson, Robert Schumann, Errollyn Wallen and Kurt Weill.

Performers are baritone Leroy Davis, soprano Raquel González, Nicholas Phan, mezzo Zoie Reams and baritone Schyuler Vargas. They will be accompanied by Mark Almond on horn and Kuang Hao Huang on piano.

Songs of Peace will feature art songs written by Johann Sebastian Bach, Amy Beach, Aaron Copland, Viet Cuong, Gerald Finzi, Damien Geter, Ivor Gurney, Jake Heggie, Gustav Mahler, Olivier Messiaen, Richard Parry, Matthew Recio, Franz Schubert, Errollyn Wallen and Hugo Wolf.

Performers are soprano Vanessa Becerra, baritone Evan Bravos, tenor Eric Ferring, mezzo Sophia Maekawa and Phan. They will be accompanied by Matthew Duvall on vibraphone and Lisa Kaplan on piano.

For tickets and more information for Song of War, please go HERE. For tickets and more information for Songs of Peace, please go HERE.

That’s all for Best Bets: September 1st – September 7th.

Enjoy your week. Go see a show!

Main Photo: Nicholas Phan (Photo by Clubsoda Productions/courtesy IMG Artists)