If you're going to hang a shingle outside a nightclub entrance, there is unlikely any better name to put on it than "Feinstein's." As in Michael Feinstein, the singer, pianist, musicologist, and champion of the Great American Songbook. For 14 years, his name has brightened the always-threatened yet somehow always-surviving cabaret nation with Feinstein's at Loews Regency in New York.
But with the hotel undergoing major renovations, Feinstein's had to shut up shop on Jan. 1. Actually, he was ready to vacate. "It took us two hours every night to put in the stage and the piano, and two hours every night to break it down, because that's where the hotel had its 'power breakfasts' in the morning. It drove me crazy that it wasn't a 24-hour dedicated room, and it cost $150,000 a year just to set up and take down."
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, the Rrazz Room at the Nikko Hotel closed its doors the night before, following an ugly dispute with the hotel management. Beginning May 8, Feinstein's at the Nikko will be the new name above the door of the 140-seat room. It was a serendipitous coincidence of exits and entrances.
"But one really does not have anything to do with the other," Feinstein, 56, said during a recent phone call from New York. "We're in discussion with a new location for Feinstein's in New York that I think is going to be perfect." As for simply moving into the former Rrazz Room, it has not been as simple as turning the key and switching on the lights.
"It's a costly thing to do because everything in the room is new, new lighting and sound systems, as well as decor," he said. "With my name on the room, I'm responsible for what goes on there, because it directly reflects on me." That the New York operation is in a state of suspension did provide Feinstein and his colleagues time to fine-tune the details.
"For a number of years, I've had the ambition to open Feinstein's in other cities, and this one is perfect for me because I'm always looking for excuses to spend more time in San Francisco. My nightclub career actually started there in 1985, when I was the first person to play the Plush Room."
These days, Feinstein is far more likely to be found in concert halls then in cabarets. While he performed at a couple of by-invitation shows last week at the Nikko, his next SF appearance will be on July 12 at Davies Hall, in an all-Gershwin concert backed by a 17-piece big band. Not until after the July concert will he begin contemplating an engagement in the room that bears his name.
Feinstein's at the Nikko will have its official launch when Tony-winning Broadway star Sutton Foster begins a six-performance run on May 8. The spring schedule also includes movie, television, and showroom veteran Mitzi Gaynor in Razzle Dazzle! My Life Behind the Sequins (May 15-18).
Sisters Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway join forces in Boom, which includes reminiscences of growing up together interwoven with songs by Paul Simon, Carole King, Carly Simon, and the Beatles. Cabaret veteran Andrea Marcovicci will then present Moonlight Cocktail on June 7-8.
Las Vegas favorite Clint Holmes will offer This Thing Called Love on June 12-16. The legendary Barbara Cook will be imploring audiences Let's Fall in Love Again on June 19-23. Grammy Award-winning vocalist Steve Tyrell offers It's Magic: The Songs of Sammy Cahn on June 25-29.
Feinstein is a passionate proponent of the Great American Songbook, a somewhat amorphous term for those songs that have entered the fabric of society. It was a passion that started in childhood as he became obsessed with collecting 78 RPM records, with a special interest in all things Gershwin. Skipping college after graduating from high school in Columbus, OH, he began playing in piano bars before moving to Los Angeles at age 20. In an incredible stroke of stars aligning, he was hired by Ira Gershwin, George Gershwin's lyricist brother, to organize Ira's vast files of recordings, sheet music, scripts, unpublished works, and even napkin-doodling. A one-month assignment turned into a six-year job.
"Music is not communal the way it once was when everyone had the cast albums of The Music Man or My Fair Lady," Feinstein said. "These songs will never be mainstream again, but they will go on. It will always exist because it is a unique expression, and my job is to bring it to as many people as I can."