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BACK STAGE Bistro Bits
By John Hoglund
Across the street at Danny’s Skylight Room, the amaz­ing Annie Hughes opened her latest show, “In My Life,” last Friday. I ran out of adjectives years ago trying to describe her show-stopping coloratura work and the sheer beauty of her voice. Like Barbara Cook, she is a soprano who can sing lyrical legit pieces yet have fun with jazzier arrangements. Accompanied by musical director Daryl Kojak, Hughes offers everything from the Beatles (“Seventeen”) to Jason Robert Brown (“Alice’s Song”).

She was especially expressive with a heartfelt pairing of Eden Ahbez’ “Nature Boy” and John Latouche and Jerome Moross’ “Lazy Afternoon” (from “The Golden Apple”). But Hughes really excels at musical comedy. She was joined by a special guest, handsome baritone Rob Langeder, and they made a dynamite duo as they performed comic songs by Linda Wallem and Peter Tolan. The night’s highlight was “Literate Broadway,” which included a musical of “Dick and Jane” as if it had been written by Stephen Sondheim. It was wacky and wonderful - and that describes Hughes, too. She’s playing Fridays at 9:15 pm through November at Danny’s.

CABARET SCENES MAGAZINE
By Peter Leavy
Annie Hughes is a contemporary songwriter's dream. Although there was a sprinkling of standards, In My Life, her show at Danny's Skylight Room, gave new composers and new songs precedence. With her strong and beautiful soprano voice, she can be touching or very funny and manages satiric numbers like a charm.

Entering with an a cappella version of A Walkin' and a Talkin', a traditional American ballad about a false lover, she was equally fetching with Secret Love and a medley of Nature Boy and Lazy Afternoon . Throughout the show, Annie loosely wove a musical tapestry of the emotional highways she has traveled, from a countrified version of the Lennon/McCartney 17, to Todd Hoffman's One Room Apartment, and a swinging In the Mood by Andy Razaf and Joe Garland.

Linda Wallen and Peter Tolan contributed two witty numbers, Literate Broadway, which spoofs the possible results of familiar Broadway composers turning to classic themes. Also, as Annie was joined by guest vocalist Rob Langeder, The Jewish Song, which celebrates the ways in which anyone living in New York a while becomes part Jewish by assimilation. Langeder is an attractive new face with a good voice. If Annie's Yiddish inflection was better than his, chalk it up to her far longer residence in the Big Apple.

Daryl Kojak, known for his elegant approach to jazz, made a sterling accompanist and music director, and served as songwriter, with Margaret Emory, of the show's title number.

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