Eric Michael Gillett

Eric Michael Gillett

Best of My Love

 

Eric Michael Gillett’s first new solo show in five years brings him to the stage of the Bendheim Performing Arts Center for the first time, following critically acclaimed national engagements for his evening of radio pop songs, Hook, Line & Singer.

 

In Best of My Love, the MAC and Bistro Award-winning vocalist and director takes a wry of and moving look at the intricate ways of the heart and the universal paths we all tread as we stumble our way toward true romance.  Backed by jazz and Broadway musical director and arranger, Barry Levitt, Gillett’s repertoire for this engagement includes an eclectic array of material, from Sondheim to Jim Brickman, from Porter to Rodgers, from classic theater love songs to more contemporary standards.  This musical journey is a valentine to some of the greatest love songs of all time, including “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me,” “Begin the Beguine,” “All or Nothing at All,” “A Nightingale Sang in Berkely Square,” and more.  Arrangements are by Mr. Levitt and by Eric Michael’s long-time collaborator, Don Rebic.

 

Gillett’s Best of My Love has been received ecstatically by audiences in New York City and Cabaret Scenes says, “This is how to do cabaret!  While his voice is stupendous, it’s his heart that makes this show so special.”  The New York Times adds praise for Gillett’s “lusty pop tenor” and his “vocal kinship to Johnny Mathis.” Other reviews for Eric Michael Gillett include “The greatest showman in cabaret” (Scott & Barbara Siegel), “A winner!” (Toronto Sun), “Gillett is outstanding” (Daily Variety), “The best male voice in cabaret” (Theatre Scene), and “A cabaret presence to be reckoned with” (NY Post).  The Los Angeles Times adds, “There’s no easy listening blandness about Gillett’s muscular tenor or his expressive celebratory delivery.”

 

Of Best of My Love, Stephen Holden of the New York Times says, “An unusually sensitive director of cabaret shows by others (Karen Akers, KT Sullivan), Gillett applies the same kind of thoughtful dramatic arc to his own program.” and praises this evening of “unstinting personal honesty.”