Stu Hamstra of Cabaret Hotline Online calls LIVING STANDARDS “one of the most truly exciting shows that I have seen in many a year!”

“This was not just a “class act”, this was a young lady who reminded us all what cabaret is all about! If I was a songwriter, I would indeed be overjoyed to be included and have my song presented so beautifully, so elegantly, so perfectly. And special note to Francesca Blumenthal: I’ve heard heard just about every great cabaret singer perform your classic “The Lies of Handsome Men” but never has anyone done quite the performance as Ms Mulder! The show was entertaining from start to finish. No histrionics, no overdone emotional drama – just beautiful vocals, faithful to the setting of each song! Marissa captured the uniqueness of each lyric and still gave each song her own special style.”

Stu Hamstra review

To which we can only say, what do you mean “one of,” Stu? 🙂

Jerry Osterberg reviewing in the New York Sheet Music Society’s newsletter calls LIVING STANDARDS “an extraordinary collection of
compositions”

“Working closely with the always-engaging Marissa Mulder, Tom presented Living Standards, an extraordinary collection of compositions of more recent vintage. From the very first song–“They Don’t Write ‘Em Like They Used To” (Tom Toce & Bill Zeffiro) to the encore–“You Make Me Laugh” (Shelly Markham & Tom Toce), the entire performance was charming, poignant, and elegant. To have the benefit of decades of exceptional songs from which to choose is a wonderful thing. While the debate will undoubtedly continue as to whether or not today’s composers and lyricists are capable of producing songs of quality, Tom Toce has provided strong evidence that the simple answer is yes! In spending months to put together the program, and recruiting such exceptionally talented performers as Marissa Mulder and Nate Buccieri to present the results, he may well have motivated us to do some serious searching of our own.”

Jerry Osterberg review

Thanks, Jerry!

Here’s a playlist of videos featuring Marissa Mulder singing songs from LIVING STANDARDS, produced and directed by Tom.

Living Standards You Tube page

Stephen Holden calls LIVING STANDARDS a “wonderful show” consisting of “carefully selected excellent songs”

NY Times review

We couldn’t agree more!

Chicago Tribune critic raves about Andrea Marcovicci’s NO STRINGS and singles out Tom’s song “The Night I Fell in Love with Paris”

Howard Reich writes:

“Perhaps no song in her program summed up this sentiment [how our journeys – in one way or another – are inextricably bound up with what we’re really looking for: love] more knowingly than a new work, Tom Toce’s ‘The Night I Fell in Love with Paris.’ Marcovicci sang this nocturne with long lines, a dreamy tone and a heightened sensitivity to the meaning of each word. And there was humor, too, as Toce’s lyric gently satirized the mythology of Paris, even as he embraced the city’s palpable romance. Marcovicci brought forth these gently comic asides with a smile in her voice, positioning ‘The Night I Fell in Love with Paris’ as a decidedly modern-day response to the City of Light (her spoken introduction helped listeners decode Toce’s contemporary references).”

LIVING STANDARDS opens to rave reviews, including one from Stephen Holden in the New York Times

Starring Marissa Mulder and produced and directed by Tom Toce, this cabaret show thrilled audiences at the Metropolitan Room for four performances in May and June. Holden writes:

“In contemporary songwriting, how true is the commonly voiced adage ‘They don’t write ’em like they used to’? That received wisdom is powerfully challenged in the singer Marissa Mulder’s wonderful new show, ‘Living Standards.'”

Look for more performances later this year!

Tom performs at the Metropolitan Room!

Tom has been a frequent “industry representative” at Bernie’s Sing Your Heart Out New Talent Showcase, offering a songwriter’s perspective to new performers. On April 24, however, Tom appeared as one of the performers, singing his MAC Award-winning song “Shalom, Santa” and a new song, “Younger Than My Years.”

On June 13, Tom was a guest artist in Dana Lorge’s Variety Show. Tom again sang “Younger Than My Years,” which is a co-write with Jeep Rosenberg, and “More and More,” co-written with Joe Mulroy.

Tom to be a guest judge at the next Metrostar Talent Challenge in August

Tom joins an array of guest judges including his HOPELESSLY IN LOVE pals Carole J. Bufford, Lauren Fox, Marissa Mulder, and KT Sullivan. “MetroStar” offers a career-boosting package of prizes and professional encouragements, including a fully produced primetime Met Room engagement and live recording. Marissa Mulder was the 2011 Metrostar winner.

Return to John Bohannon’s Jazz Cafe

On April 28th, Tom returned to the Jazz Cafe on WHRU, hosted by John Bohannon. John’s interview with Tom covered his songwriting career and focused on the Hopelessly in Love CD, from which John played several tracks. Tom also performed two songs live in the studio.

Sound Advice
Talkin’ Broadway
March 2014

Talkin’ Broadway CD review!

Studio recordings of a cabaret revue directed by Peter Napolitano (last year’s MAC winner for Best Director, and nominated again this year) bring to disc the lyrics of Tom Toce. Covering a wide span of years, the pieces are collaborations with several composers and include two on which he quite ably wrote his own melodies. On this MAC-nominated album, it’s especially fortuitous that they are interpreted—and truly embraced—by a talented trio of cabaret performers whose own solo shows have been quite rewarding. They are two ladies who are prior cabaret award winners with presence and increasing polish, Carole J. Bufford and Jennifer Sheehan, who are joined by Jack Donahue, who has the most recording studio experience and again shows his special sophisticated emotionalism. As a bonus, dreamy-voiced jazz star Jane Monheit (no stranger to awards, such as the Nightlife Award) is a guest singing the amorous “The Night I Fell in Love with Paris,” a recent item with Toce’s own tune. (The run of the live show had a rotating cast of guests shining up this gem.)

Capturing our ears immediately with the aptly titled “Listen” (melody by Zina Goldrich), the repertoire is well paced and positioned and the numbers wisely assigned to bring out strong qualities in each of the three main singers, without allowing any to be typecast as “just” a certain type. Each gets chances to be dramatic, doting, and determined in solos, and they blend especially well. Carole’s feistiness is well used in two sassy songs about being glad to end a relationship, reveling in the good riddance aspect. While her live solo shows have featured plenty of powerhouse belting and bravura bluesy stuff, and she’s been the go-to gal for such in past group shows, that’s not suited to this lighter, poppier fare and she adjusts well and still shines without burning the torch. A mischievous quality informs some of her work here which suits Toce’s playful side. In the comical “Shalom, Santa” she has grand fun with the holiday-fueled frustration of a kid whose “daddy is a lapsed Catholic” and whose “mama is a cultural Jew.” For this special character piece, theatre writer Douglas J. Cohen (No Way to Treat a Lady, Children’s Letters to God) shares a MAC nomination with the lyricist in this year’s MAC Special Material song category.

Jennifer, who’s made a mark the last several years with romantic standards, reveals a refreshing more contemporary and plucky persona with this material. Her “Say You’ll Remember” (music: Peter Millrose) gets an appropriately bittersweet touch. Jack gets some of the meatiest material in three solos, connecting convincingly and compellingly with the mature looks at loneliness. In the Caribbean-flavored urging for men to learn to “Emote,” the tongue-in-cheek chastising is a delight, but clearly he internalized the message long ago. The CD is a fine balance overall and pianist Matthew Martin Ward and bassist Boots Maleson nimbly adjust to (and bring out) all the styles with seeming comfort and ease.

The Toce touch with words employs varied techniques and vocabularies while remaining casually conversational and modern. But there’s a nod to past generations of wordsmiths with his caring use of rhyme schemes, surprise twists, passing references to earlier standards, and satisfying verbiage: the pleading “‘Say You’ll Remember’ so I can forget”; “Maybe staying above the fray would fly if life were a float”. While not all songs are richly sprinkled with these, they are worth waiting for and relishing. That’s easy to do with the inclusion of a lyric booklet, but with the fine production and enunciation and hitting-the-punchline skill sets of the singers, you won’t miss words. Hopelessly in Love offers hope that sparkling revues and songcraft are not endangered species.

Review by Rob Lester

A new cabaret show featuring standards by living songwriters
starring Marissa Mulder
produced and directed by Tom Toce

LIVING STANDARDS is an exciting new cabaret show that addresses the complaint “they don’t write ‘em like they used to.” Of course they do, if you know where to look! Starring Marissa Mulder (three 2014 MAC nominations) and produced and directed by Tom Toce (two 2014 MAC nominations), LIVING STANDARDS presents late entries to the Great American Songbook. Songs written by living composers and lyricists. Songs that are every bit as witty, elegant, touching, and intelligent as the Gershwin/Kern/Porter standards of days past.

LIVING STANDARDS will include work by the best of today’s cabaret songwriters, writers such as Francesca Blumenthal, John Bucchino, Craig Carnelia, Julie Gold, and Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich, as well as songs from singer-songwriters like Christine Lavin, Dar Williams, and Anaïs Mitchell. Some songs will be well known in the cabaret community, having achieved “standard” status through numerous recordings or industry awards. Other songs will be less well known, but in the opinion of the show’s creators, equally deserving of the high status.

Once upon a time, the Great American Songbook produced the hit songs of the day. Once upon a time, songwriters could make a living writing them. That day has passed. You won’t find these songs on any hit parades. But by our standards, LIVING STANDARDS offers current songs by living writers, songs that are or ought to be considered standards, by any standard.

Marissa Mulder is the winner of the 2013 Julie Wilson Award and the 2013 Noel Coward Award. Her Tom Waits show, “Tom…In His Words,” was a unanimous hit, one that Stephen Holden of the New York Times called “Far and away the season’s best cabaret show.” She was named the Rising Cabaret Star of the Year by Time Out Magazine. The NiteLifeExchange named her as one of the 50 most important people in cabaret to watch in 2014.

Tom Toce is a veteran theater and cabaret songwriter. HOPELESSLY IN LOVE: THE LYRICS OF TOM TOCE was one of the most successful shows at the Metropolitan Room in 2012 and 2013. Marissa appeared in that show, as well as Carole J. Bufford, Jack Donahue, and Jennifer Sheehan. Tom’s song “Bye-Bye, Aloha, Yo!” was nominated for a MAC Award for best special material. Tom is a two-time Jeopardy! champion (his encyclopedic knowledge of the Great American Songbook helped) and a member of the Jeopardy Hall of Fame, for high score in a single game.

LIVING STANDARDS
A new cabaret show featuring standards by living songwriters
starring Marissa Mulder
produced and directed by Tom Toce

LIVING STANDARDS is an exciting new cabaret show that addresses the complaint “they don’t write ‘em like they used to.” Of course they do, if you know where to look! Starring Marissa Mulder (three 2014 MAC nominations) and produced and directed by Tom Toce (two 2014 MAC nominations), LIVING STANDARDS presents late entries to the Great American Songbook. Songs written by living composers and lyricists. Songs that are every bit as witty, elegant, touching, and intelligent as the Gershwin/Kern/Porter standards of days past.

LIVING STANDARDS will include work by the best of today’s cabaret songwriters, writers such as Francesca Blumenthal, John Bucchino, Craig Carnelia, Julie Gold, and Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich, as well as songs from singer-songwriters like Christine Lavin, Dar Williams, and Anaïs Mitchell. Some songs will be well known in the cabaret community, having achieved “standard” status through numerous recordings or industry awards. Other songs will be less well known, but in the opinion of the show’s creators, equally deserving of the high status.

Once upon a time, the Great American Songbook produced the hit songs of the day. Once upon a time, songwriters could make a living writing them. That day has passed. You won’t find these songs on any hit parades. But by our standards, LIVING STANDARDS offers current songs by living writers, songs that are or ought to be considered standards, by any standard.

Marissa Mulder is the winner of the 2013 Julie Wilson Award and the 2013 Noel Coward Award. Her Tom Waits show, “Tom…In His Words,” was a unanimous hit, one that Stephen Holden of the New York Times called “Far and away the season’s best cabaret show.” She was named the Rising Cabaret Star of the Year by Time Out Magazine. The NiteLifeExchange named her as one of the 50 most important people in cabaret to watch in 2014.

Tom Toce is a veteran theater and cabaret songwriter. HOPELESSLY IN LOVE: THE LYRICS OF TOM TOCE was one of the most successful shows at the Metropolitan Room in 2012 and 2013. Marissa appeared in that show, as well as Carole J. Bufford, Jack Donahue, and Jennifer Sheehan. Tom’s song “Bye-Bye, Aloha, Yo!” was nominated for a MAC Award for best special material. Tom is a two-time Jeopardy! champion (his encyclopedic knowledge of the Great American Songbook helped) and a member of the Jeopardy Hall of Fame, for high score in a single game.

MAC Nominations

Tom’s CD Hopelessly in Love: The Lyrics of Tom Toce has been nominated for a 2014 MAC Award for best recording of the year!

Tom’s song “Shalom, Santa,” with music by Douglas J. Cohen, has been nominated for best comedy song!

And the winner is: “Shalom, Santa” for best comedy song!

Hopelessly in Love did not win best recording–but Marissa Mulder’s CD TOM . . . IN HIS WORDS did! Congratulations Marissa and all the nominees!

to the tune of Taylor the Latte Boy, by Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich

Marcy is an old friend, and I wrote this for an important birthday, which was not her 30th.

Marcy the Birthday Chick

There’s a girl who works with Zina,
And her talent’s undeniable.
You can tell it’s undeniable because of many songs.
I decided for this party, I would like to bring a present,
‘Cause a friend should bring a present,
But a friend should not buy thongs.
It was crucial at this party
I should sing my lovely present.
I should sing my lovely present
In an a capella way.
So I jotted down some lyrics,
And I hope that Marcy likes them,
And I ran it all by Zina,
To be sure it scanned okay.
And I ran it all by Zina, who pointed out my voice is lame.
So I asked if she would help me
Or at least would help me spread around the blame.

Marcy, the birthday chick,
Bring her nakhes, bring her shtick.
Marcy, the birthday chick . . .
We love you, we love you, we love you.

Well I had to get my nerve up
To perform my little parody.
If you’re going to do a parody,
You have to make it good.
And to sing it at a party?
Well, you have to have an ego,
Which has never been my problem,
So I figured that I could.
It should be not flip but clever,
And should never mention latte,
Well, unless it’s Lotte Lenya,
‘Cause I sort of sing like her.
Here on in she’ll flip whenever
Someone mentions Lotte Lenya,
And a little Lotte Lenya, is a lotta, as it were.
But to bring it back to Marcy, let’s tell her that we think she’s swell.
And the hell with Lotte Lenya—and the hell with rhythm, tone, and pitch as well.

Marcy, the birthday chick,
Bring her nakhes, bring her shtick.
Marcy, the birthday chick . . .
We love you, we love you, we love you.

You know that she’s the kind of girl
Who’s fun and smart and flirty.
And nobody believes in a couple of years
That this little baby face will turn thirty!

Marcy, the birthday chick,
Bring her nakhes, bring her shtick.
Marcy, the birthday chick . . .
We love you, we love you, we love you.

Marcy is grown, Lord, keep the pony.
Better you should send her a man—or a Tony!
Marcy, the birthday chick . . .
We love you, we love you, we love you.
We love you, we love you, we love you.