.........read what the critics have been saying about Chris Barrett.........
“The singer and pianist Chris Barrett is one of the more engaging performers to carry on an elegant piano-bar typified by entertainers like Bobby Short and Steve Ross.” Stephen Holden. The New York Times
“This is the kind of show that tourists and born and bred New Yorkers should see if they want to know what this city was (and still is) like at its sophisticated best.”
Mona Finston, Cabaret Hotline Online
“Chris Barrett is one of cabaret’s best interpreters of Broadway songs”
Peter Leavy, Cabaret Scenes Magazine
“Chris Barrett is a pillar of New York nightlife. This trooper of saloons and salons who, like fine wine, gets better with age.”
John Hoglund, Back Stage
“The American Songbook, past and present, is in excellent hands—and voice— thanks to the warm, embracing, entertaining talents of Chris Barrett.”
Peter Haas , Cabaret Scenes Magazine
“Suave, sophisticated, and cheerful, Barrett’s charming musicality make him a one-man show.”
The New York Post
“To say that Chris Barrett had the room in the palm of his hand would be an understatement”
Richard Swift, Dan’s Papers of the Hamptons
“Talents like (Cole) Porter and (Cy) Coleman could write entire songbooks for Chris Barrett. This singer pianist, with a repertoire as classy as the Ritz, and a heart as all-embracing as popular music itself, makes all of his listeners believe that he is singing just for them.”
Jules Becker, New England Entertainment Digest
THE EAST HAMPTON STAR
Gristmill: Have Songbook, Will Travel
By Baylis Greene
March 31, 2022
It’s a rare thing: the unsolicited email that brings joy, not exhaustion. Somehow, way back when I wrote about nightlife for this paper, I got on Chris Barrett’s mailing list and I’m still getting occasional updates on his whereabouts as a pianist and cabaret singer. Just enough of them to feel I’ve gotten to know, and more to the point like, this person I’ve never met or seen perform live.
His missives offer just enough information to keep me reading with interest, and a reward frequency that keeps me wanting more.
“Dear friends,” he usually begins, before getting down to the brass tacks of the piano circuit. “I wish I could tell you that I’ll be somewhere in the Hamptons, or at least in Manhattan,” he said in May of last year, “but, at this time, it’s not meant to be!”
Then he got personal: “With the sale of my summer house in the Poconos last July, I now spend my 12 months a year in south Florida.” If you were down there sunning yourself, in other words, Trattoria Novello on East Atlantic Boulevard in Pompano Beach was the place to be. Thursdays, please.
This was welcome news for Chris Barrett fans, as only two months earlier he’d resurfaced after a long absence to announce that “the gods had indeed smiled down upon me and presented me with my first public space booking in 12 months. . . . Yes, I’m still here, in good health, and quite ready to resume work!”
“I will,” he went on, “as always, perform songs from our Great American Songbook and feature known and unknown songs from my catalog of ‘The Best of Broadway.’ I am blessed to have been offered this opportunity to once again sit at my piano, greet my friends and customers, and present my life’s passion of performing great lyrics and singing the best songs of our time!”
You see the likability. The sincerity. He lamented the “difficult time” of the pandemic, and in closing invoked a song title from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Starlight Express”: “There’s a Light at the End of the Tunnel.”
Happily, he still ventures north, “with a good vacation stint” come August or September, and when he does, he can be caught at the Century Inn in Scenery Hill, Pa., an old stone beauty that’s been around long enough to have lodged our first low-born president, Andrew Jackson.
The last I heard from our man at the piano was his “warm Christmas wishes,” sent with directions to his YouTube performance of a witty “Just in Time for Christmas” (“Tis the season when you turn your thoughts to people you can’t please”). He sings it with a blue-balled silver tree over his shoulder.
Chris, should you indeed make it out this way again, you can expect a request for some Hoagy Carmichael from a new fan. But if your days here are indeed done, as you say, there’s always YouTube.
Gristmill: Have Songbook, Will Travel
By Baylis Greene
March 31, 2022
It’s a rare thing: the unsolicited email that brings joy, not exhaustion. Somehow, way back when I wrote about nightlife for this paper, I got on Chris Barrett’s mailing list and I’m still getting occasional updates on his whereabouts as a pianist and cabaret singer. Just enough of them to feel I’ve gotten to know, and more to the point like, this person I’ve never met or seen perform live.
His missives offer just enough information to keep me reading with interest, and a reward frequency that keeps me wanting more.
“Dear friends,” he usually begins, before getting down to the brass tacks of the piano circuit. “I wish I could tell you that I’ll be somewhere in the Hamptons, or at least in Manhattan,” he said in May of last year, “but, at this time, it’s not meant to be!”
Then he got personal: “With the sale of my summer house in the Poconos last July, I now spend my 12 months a year in south Florida.” If you were down there sunning yourself, in other words, Trattoria Novello on East Atlantic Boulevard in Pompano Beach was the place to be. Thursdays, please.
This was welcome news for Chris Barrett fans, as only two months earlier he’d resurfaced after a long absence to announce that “the gods had indeed smiled down upon me and presented me with my first public space booking in 12 months. . . . Yes, I’m still here, in good health, and quite ready to resume work!”
“I will,” he went on, “as always, perform songs from our Great American Songbook and feature known and unknown songs from my catalog of ‘The Best of Broadway.’ I am blessed to have been offered this opportunity to once again sit at my piano, greet my friends and customers, and present my life’s passion of performing great lyrics and singing the best songs of our time!”
You see the likability. The sincerity. He lamented the “difficult time” of the pandemic, and in closing invoked a song title from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Starlight Express”: “There’s a Light at the End of the Tunnel.”
Happily, he still ventures north, “with a good vacation stint” come August or September, and when he does, he can be caught at the Century Inn in Scenery Hill, Pa., an old stone beauty that’s been around long enough to have lodged our first low-born president, Andrew Jackson.
The last I heard from our man at the piano was his “warm Christmas wishes,” sent with directions to his YouTube performance of a witty “Just in Time for Christmas” (“Tis the season when you turn your thoughts to people you can’t please”). He sings it with a blue-balled silver tree over his shoulder.
Chris, should you indeed make it out this way again, you can expect a request for some Hoagy Carmichael from a new fan. But if your days here are indeed done, as you say, there’s always YouTube.
CABARET HOTLINE ONLINE
Critic At Large........Mona Finston
CHRIS BARRETT IN CONCERT
UPSTAIRS at SAN MARTIN RESTAURANT
143 East 49th Street, NYC
Saturdays through December 22nd 8:00 & 10:30pm
To borrow a phrase: Chris Barrett is a gentleman and a scholar (scholarly in the music of Broadway, standards, and music that was popular back in the 1970s and 80s, and more). And he is a gentleman from his perfectly coiffed head of white hair, to his natty attire, to the whimsical lady bug cuff links he sports.
From the moment you walk into the intimate setting upstairs at San Martin, Mr. Barrett greets you warmly as if this were his own living room because, well, it is. Rarely have I seen a performer engage his audience so completely even before he sings a note! But Mr Barrett is welcoming, funny and genuine. And then he sits down to perform.
I must say that I was captivated (and I don't think I've ever used that word in a review before) by his voice, which was warm and pitch perfect, his piano chops, and especially his performance. This man is a fine singer and an even finer interpreter of songs of all types and genres, from the bouncy and bawdy "At the Roxy Music Hall" by Rodgers and Hart to the lovely "Crazy World" from Victor Victoria, written by Leslie Bricusse (one of my all time favorites) and Henry Mancini. Barrett builds his songs both dramatically and musically, succeeding in creating moving and compelling stories of about 3-4 minutes each, with every perfectly articulated word given its due. And when the song demands it, this man sings out with a big voice and a range to match.
Throughout the hour+ set, which included gems from early Broadway such as "You Are Too Beautiful" from Hallejulia You're a Bum, to tunes from more current (relatively) shows such as Nine, Chess and Chicago. And I've never heard the most memorable song from Wildcat, "Hey Look Me Over," sung with such a plaintive quality. He even got me misty with his rendition of Melissa Manchester's hit "Come in From the Rain." The era, the style, the genre didn't matter, Barrett nailed them all with an honesty that simply pulled you in. He kibitzed with his crowd, provided personal patter about the songs and was exceptionally good natured as the patrons talked to him during his show, dishes broke, and diners from the restaurant area below came upstairs, opened the door and headed for the restroom. When I mentioned to him that this was a tough room to play, he said that he enjoyed it immensely. I believe he does. And it shows.
This is the kind of show that tourists and born and bred New Yorkers should see if they want to know what this city was (and still is) like at its sophisticated best. And by the way, the food at San Martin was quite good as well. A terrific and tasty evening was had by all.
BLACKTIE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE By Ward Morehouse III
Pianist/Singer Chris Barrett brings more than elegance and old world charm to La Rivista on Restaurant Row every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with two sets a night, at 8PM and 10 PM. And you haven't seen someone play the piano and sing with such ease and charm unless you were fortunate enough to see the late Bobby Short at The Carlyle or even Cole Porter himself. His "dance" medley, including "Shall We Dance," "Change Partners" and "It Only Happens When I Dance With You" were the next best thing to watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers do those numbers while dancing. In fact, I have excepted Ginger herself to float into La Rivista any moment.
Mr. Barrett's repertoire of songs of legendary American composers is never-ending yet each time he sings he has a fresh and winning smile that makes you feel this is not only the first time he's done the song - - but the first time anyone's done it!
Mr. Barrett's longtime fans, of which there are a great many, will be at least figuratively rocked to the rafters of La Rivista. As will newcomers to the "Chris Barrett songbook," as I call it. He sings and plays with devastating authority that even though he didn't sing Cole Porter's "You're the Top" on opening night, the classic song from Porter's musical "Anything Goes," Porter himself, who was known the trifle with the song to put in more of his own private "tops," aside from "Waldorf salad," and "a Berlin ballad," might have might well have added, "A Barrett Ballad" to his song had he heard Chris Barrett do it. La Rivista is at 313 West 46th Street just west of Eighth Avenue.
Pianist/Singer Chris Barrett brings more than elegance and old world charm to La Rivista on Restaurant Row every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with two sets a night, at 8PM and 10 PM. And you haven't seen someone play the piano and sing with such ease and charm unless you were fortunate enough to see the late Bobby Short at The Carlyle or even Cole Porter himself. His "dance" medley, including "Shall We Dance," "Change Partners" and "It Only Happens When I Dance With You" were the next best thing to watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers do those numbers while dancing. In fact, I have excepted Ginger herself to float into La Rivista any moment.
Mr. Barrett's repertoire of songs of legendary American composers is never-ending yet each time he sings he has a fresh and winning smile that makes you feel this is not only the first time he's done the song - - but the first time anyone's done it!
Mr. Barrett's longtime fans, of which there are a great many, will be at least figuratively rocked to the rafters of La Rivista. As will newcomers to the "Chris Barrett songbook," as I call it. He sings and plays with devastating authority that even though he didn't sing Cole Porter's "You're the Top" on opening night, the classic song from Porter's musical "Anything Goes," Porter himself, who was known the trifle with the song to put in more of his own private "tops," aside from "Waldorf salad," and "a Berlin ballad," might have might well have added, "A Barrett Ballad" to his song had he heard Chris Barrett do it. La Rivista is at 313 West 46th Street just west of Eighth Avenue.
CABARET SCENES MAGAZINE
Chris Barrett Upstairs @ San Martin
Time was when New York nights were alive with music as pianist/singers, in cafés and clubs uptown and down, opened the pages of the Great American Songbook and performed the works of our finest popular and theater songwriters. That spirit and that art—represented in the past by such saloon singers as Bobby Short, Buddy Barnes, Danny Apolinar, Murray Grand and others—are still thriving, thanks to Chris Barrett.
Playing piano and singing two hour-long sets—8 pm and 10:30 pm—each Saturday night, Barrett is at home through late December at the San Martin restaurant on East 49th Street. All you need do, in Cole Porter’s words, is “follow me and climb the stairs.” There, one flight up in the intimate dining room, you can order a fine dinner and wine, and settle in to Barrett’s music. Choosing numbers from his vast repertoire as the mood strikes—his and the room’s—he brings his fine baritone and piano skills, along with his infectious love of the songs, to interpreting works by Rodgers (with Hart and Hammerstein), Porter, Berlin, Sondheim, Coleman and Leigh, Lerner and Lane, Brel, Kander and Ebb, Bart Howard, John Wallowitch and many, many more.
Adding to the evening’s spirit, you might find yourself surrounded, among the tables, by theater and cabaret personalities, musicians, and fans. One recent evening, KT Sullivan, following her own cabaret show, stopped by for late dinner and, singing from her table,— accompanied unrehearsed by Barrett—contributed a moving rendition of Howard’s “The Walk-up.”
The American Songbook, past and present, is in excellent hands—and voice— thanks to the warm, embracing, entertaining talents of Chris Barrett.
Peter Haas
Cabaret Scenes