Paulo Szot, Michael Feinstein Celebrate Holiday Season At Feinstein’s/54 Below In New York

Feinstein’s/54 Below is celebrating this year’s holiday season with concerts by two of its top performers, Paulo Szot and Michael Feinstein.

This weekend Szot is singing songs he has performed on Broadway—in South Pacific, and more recently, Chicago—as well as holiday tunes.

Feinstein, who has a creative partnership with the club, next month will present a new, two-part program, “Get Happy,” celebrating next year’s centennial of the birth of Judy Garland, who was born on June 10, 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minn.

Both Feinstein programs will feature big-screen film clips; never-before-seen photos; and audio recordings. The programs were executive-produced by Liza Minnelli, the older of Garland’s daughters and a longtime friend of Feinstein. 

The first of Feinstein’s two Garland shows will be performed from December 15 through 19 and explore her early life and career from vaudeville through the MGM years. The second show, performed from December 22 through December 26, will explore Garland’s later years, including concert and TV performances and post-MGM films.

In a recent interview, Feinstein—a former trustee of Garland’s estate who is also friendly with Garland’s two other children, Joey and Lorna Luft—said he had been “very involved with various matters regarding her legacy. I wanted to create a celebration of her that is a combination of a little bit of history and tremendous entertainment, to put her legacy in perspective,” adding that many people who knew her frequently speak of “her vitality and humor.”

“So this is a personal love letter that shares what I’ve learned about her. I hope it will increase the audience’s appreciation for her, and reveal some new things about her,” he said.

Feinstein will go on tour with the Garland show next year, performing it with orchestras and at performing arts centers; this program will combine the two he will present at Feinstein’s/54 Below. 

Beside performing at the New York club this week, Szot shortly will appear in a production of Chicago in his native Brazil.

He said recently that he had to relearn his role, Billy Flynn, in his native Portuguese, and that he was “very excited to present it to my family, my mom, my friends over there.”