Critics’ picks: Best live music in NYC

Mosher is one of those talents you need to see to believe: warm, funny, biting, ferociously committed. In her biweekly series—now held at the Green Room 42 after years at Birdland—she invites a gaggle of performers from Broadway and beyond to show their talents. Guests at the April 15 edition include Jelani Remy, Jeff Harnar, Richard Jay-Alexander, Ava Nicole Frances, Keve Wilson, Yael Rasooly, Ivory Fox, Juson Williams, Annie Thomas, Ella Miller and Izzy Casciani.

The longtime New York entertainer, drag performer and political activist Marti Gould Cummings hosts a new weekly late-night talk show at Red Eye, joined by different guests from the theater world each week and Yaz Fukuoka at the piano. The series kicks off this month with an impressive roster of interviewees: Broadway soprano Ali Ewoldt (April 2), songwriters Stephen Trask and Our Lady J (April 9), musical comedian Cat Cohen (April 16), silver-voiced leading lady Melissa Errico (April 23) and masked country star turned Cabaret emcee Orville Peck (April 30).

PJ Adzima, who currently plays the hopeful but hopelessly repressed Elder McKinley in Broadway's The Book of Mormon, hosts a neovaudevillian monthly variety show at the Slipper Room that proffers an eclectic mix of musical-theater, comedy, drag, circus and burlesque performances. A down-and-dirtier version of the show also plays there every week on Saturdays at midnight.

Understudies, alternates and standbys get their moments in the sun in Stephen DeAngelis's longevous cabaret series, which began in 2003 and has so far shone a spotlight on more than 1,200 performers. The April edition features sometime Gypsy Rose lead Tryphena Wade, Kelly Belarmino, Andrew Montgomery Coleman, Sam Hartley, Hannah Kevitt, Jessi Kirtley, Michael Milkanin and Sunset Boulevardiers Emma Lloyd and Diego Andres Rodriguez. Rachel Dean is the musical director and accompanist.  

Part cabaret, part piano bar and part social set, Cast Party offers a chance to hear rising and established talents step up to the microphone (backed by the slap and tickle of Steve Doyle on bass and Billy Stritch at the ivories, plus the bang of Daniel Glass on drums). The waggish Caruso presides as host.

He’s worked with Liza Minnelli, Kylie Minogue and just about every downtown act in NYC. Now composer, pianist and performer Lance Horne hosts his own wild night of singing, drinking and dancing, strip-teasing and bad behavior at the East Village nightlife hub Club Cumming. Expect advanced show-tune geekery and appearances by Broadway stars looking to get down by the piano. Plan to sleep in on Tuesday.

Talented singers from the Broadway and cabaret worlds sing side by side in this monthly dive into the fathomless depths of the late musical-theater deity Stephen Sondheim. Guests at the April 27 edition include three cast members of Sondheim shows on Broadway—Jeff Blumenkrantz from the original Into the Woods, Leah Horowitz from the 2011 Follies, and Ramona Mallory from the 2009 A Little Night Music (whose parents, Mark Lambert and Victoria Mallory, were theat shows original juvenile leads in 1973!)—as well as Jacob Hoffman, Jon-Michael Reese, Sierra Rein and T. Oliver Reid. The saucy Rob Maitner plays host, and music director John Fischer is at the piano. 

The smart and droll Paul F. Tompkins (BoJack Horseman), a master of character improv and a  booming voice in comedy podcasting, brings his spirited old-school variety show to New York City, joined by musical director Jordan Katz and the Varietorchestra. Hosted by Tompkins, this traveling vaudeville features splashes from the local pool of comedians, musicians and other entertainers.  

Grab your tambourine, toss on a black lace shawl and sleep with your boyfriend’s drummer: The Jackie Factory's annual commune honoring rock and roll's greatest sorceress makes Comic Con look quaint. Bow down and worship at the altar of white witch Stevie Nicks as a grand coterie of drag queens, musicians and style icons from across the country twirl in endlessly mesmerizing performances. This year's 33rd edition, "Dances of Rhiannon," celebrates Nicks's signature stage moves. Founders and nightlife icons Chi Chi Valenti and Johnny Dynell are joined this time by returning favorites Vikki Martin, Maryanne Piccolo, Mike Greco, Niki Luparelli, Danielle Marie Fusco, Bright Light Bright Light, JMV (Just My Vibe) and local Butoh star Vangeline—along with newbies Lexxe, Anthony Cherrie, Krystofer Maison, Eddie Lockwood and the Welsh tribute act Rhiannon UK. DJs Sammy Jo and Tommie Sunshine keep you grooving between sets. 

The irrepressible Paul Iacono, who played the title role in MTV’s hung-teen series The Hard Times of RJ Berger, uses hits by Elton John and Bernie Taupin to regale audiences with tales of times he spent as a youth with the wind to his candle: the legendary Broadway battle-axe Elaine Stritch. (Stritch's never-realized final project was an Elton-themed cabaret.) Green Room impresario Ben Rimalower directs, and musical director Drew Wutke helps Iacono hit the John.