Jessica Molaskey at the Oakroom
in the Algonquin
June 13 - July 1, 2006

JESSICA MOLASKEY, the Broadway musical actress, jazz singing sensation and radio personality, will return to the OAK ROOM of the ALGONQUIN HOTEL next month after her critically-acclaimed, sold out debut there last season.

“After Midnight,” her new show previewing selections from her upcoming fourth solo CD, features pop classics by Richard Rodgers (“Glad To Be Unhappy”), Harold Arlen (“Happy As The Day Is Long”) and Harry Warren (“There Will Never Be Another You”), as well as the Patsy Cline country standard “Walkin’ After Midnight.” She also includes work by the celebrated current generation of theatre composers, including Michael John LaChiusa (“There Will Be A Miracle,” from See What I Wanna See), Adam Guettel (“How Can I Lose You,” from Myths & Hymns), Jason Robert Brown (“Stars and the Moon,” which she introduced in Songs For A New World) and a new song by Ricky Ian Gordon, never before heard in New York.

She will be joined by her husband John Pizzarelli on guitar, Larry Fuller on piano and Martin Pizzarelli on bass (Please note: John Pizzarelli will not be appearing on Thursday, June 22 or Thursday, June 29). The engagement runs June 13 – July 1 with shows Tuesday – Saturday at 9:00 PM and late shows on Fridays and Saturdays at 11:30 PM. There is a $50 music charge for all shows plus a $20 minimum during the week and for late shows and a $60 prix fixe dinner for early shows Friday and Saturday. All shows are at the Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues. For reservations, call (212) 419-9331.
 

Review - MSNBC
by Eric Alterman, 2005 Performance

I got a wonderful surprise last night when I caught a performance of Broadway chanteuse (as the saying goes) Jessica Molaskey at the Oak Room in the Algonquin Hotel, and found myself profoundly, very nearly thrilled by her smart, funny, and even sexy renditions of Irving Berlin, Sondheim, Peggy Lee, Cy Coleman, Rogers, Kern, and lotsa Hammerstein. (I say “even” sexy because she was backed up by her husband, John Pizzarelli, her brother-in-law, Martin Pizzarelli and is so Mr. Magoo-blind that when she tried to bring out the patriarch, the great Bucky Pizzarelli, for a solo from the audience, she missed and grabbed “Uncle Dean,” who tried to fight but gave up until he reached the final stage.) Anyway, together with Larry Goldings on piano, she and the band did wonderful things with the standards, and threw in some particularly clever originals she wrote with her husband, John, that worked both musically, and well, intellectually. I had liked her first album, “Pentimento” but failed to keep up with her next two releases, a mistake I will now rectify. My only complaint is I always like to hear more about the music before it’s sung, the way Andrea Marcovicci and Bobby Short do it, but hell, she’ll do. Times reviewer Stephen Holden shares my enthusiasm here.