'Ladies Who Brunch' Returns to Boston's Club Café Featuring Brand New Cast

Eden Casteel

MAC Award winner Eden Casteel may not yet be a household name, but she's working on it, and it's going to happen. "I am the definition of a late bloomer," asserts the. Columbus Ohio native. "I was classically trained as an opera singer, with a degree in opera from University of Cincinnati. But she soon discovered that opera wasn't panning out. "Some people will find it hard to believe that it is hard to make a living singing opera," quips Casteel.

Getting married, having a son, moving from Virginia to Michigan, getting divorced, and then meeting her now husband of 14 years through Facebook, Casteel's performing was low-key, teaching music in private schools. "I did my first cabaret in Michigan as a goodbye gesture, before moving to Rhode Island, where my then boyfriend, now husband, was living," recalls Casteel. This show showed her another way to feature her high soprano voice without doing opera, making her realize that her real love was musical theater, and not opera after all.

But when she moved to Rhode Island, she fell back into opera and teaching. Then something happened that changed the course of her musical life. "Out of the blue, I got a call from Ida Zecco, who was booking shows in her new cabaret series at the Arctic Playhouse in West Warwick, RI," reveals Casteel. "I had done a couple of small roles with a Rhode Island theater company, and Ida had heard of me. She thought I would be a good act for her cabaret series."

In December 2016, Casteel performed her second cabaret show, accompanied by Jim Rice, who also assisted Casteel on "Phantom of the Opera," where he shouted, "Sing my lady, sing!!!" with Casteel then hitting those iconic operatic high notes as her show's finale. Casteel had such a good reception that Zecco booked her again at the Arctic Playhouse, and Casteel now had the cabaret bug.

"I heard about the St. Louis Cabaret Conference, which they were doing online at the time. I was one of eight singers, and we met every Saturday for 8 weeks," remembers Casteel. "I played the piano for myself. It was wonderful to get coaching in real time and get comments on both my singing and playing." Tony Award-winner and Broadway leading lady Faith Prince was one of the coaches and she pulled Casteel aside saying, "Who are you?" She further bonding with Casteel when they discovered they had both gone to University of Cincinnati. "I told her I went into opera but belonged in musical theater, and she agreed," recounts Casteel, "Faith then helped me with my next cabaret show, 'Kahn Artist: a Tribute to Madeline Kahn,' which premiered in July 2022 at Arctic Cabaret.'

Things took off from there. Casteel performed "Kahn Artist" in Boston, Then on the advice and encouragement of her 2023 O'Neil Cabaret Conference coach Lennie Watts she brought "Kahn Artist" to New York in October 2023, where it became a runaway hit. "Just after our 'Ladies Who Brunch,' show, I will perform 'Kahn Artist' for the 11th time in New York this past year," marvels Casteel. "I've done the show in New York 22 times overall."

Because Casteel is one of three performers in the "Ladies Who Lunch" show, each performing small sets alternating with one another, producer John O'Neil carefully curated their sets to give the show a well-paced structure, choosing songs from a longer list given to him by each singer, then arranging their order to create a proper arc to the show. Asked if anything from "Kahn Artist" will appear in one of her small sets, Casteel reveals, "John chose, "Not Getting Married Today," then adds, "I'm also doing a song I wrote about Rosh Hashanah even though I'm Catholic. It won a MAC Award. It's called 'What Are You Doing Rosh Hashanah Eve,' a spoof on the Frank Loesser chestnut, 'What Are You Doing New Year's Eve.'."

As a natural coloratura soprano, Casteel loves singing anything, light, high and fast "I do a lot of high notes in the show, A little Kristen Chenoweth a little Minnie Ripperton. I'm good at," she boasts! But then she also loves Linda Ronstadt. "My whole life I've been vacillating between those two kinds of singing: Mozart and Bach, then singing 'You're No Good.' Cabaret is the place that lets me sing them both. I like singing those high notes but then I want to belt. I love the variety."

For more on Eden Casteel, visit her YouTube page.

Valerie Sneade-Roy

Worcester, Massachusetts native Valerie Sneade Roy was also a late bloomer, not really discovering her singing talent until she was in high school. "My story is sad on many levels. A bit heartbreaking," Sneade-Roy concedes. The sad part is that her elementary school had to cut out the band and let go of music teachers thanks to Proposition 2-1/2, so she never really had the mentoring or even the opportunity to sing. It was her first high school boyfriend, Donald, who heard her humming one day, saw a singing talent there, and encouraged her to sing at parties.

The heartbreaking part was that in her junior year, on graduation day, Donald, a senior, who was graduating that day, died in a motorcycle accident. A year later, on her own graduation day, Sneade-Roy wanted to honor Donald by singing at her graduation ceremony. The band leader said, "You don't sing!" Even her brothers, who both play the guitar, said the same thing. But the younger of her two brothers offered to accompany her, though with great trepidation and skepticism. "Everyone expected me to fold, and my brother's hands were trembling as he played. But I walked out, liked I owned the place, and sang, and it changed the entire trajectory of my life. That's how I became a singer."

Like Casteel, Sneade-Roy started out studying opera, but with different intentions. "You learn the rules so you can break them," retorts Sneade-Roy. When she could, she studied with theatrical coaches and performed in musical theater. To hone her vocal technique, she studied with Phil Hall in New York, taking the bus there and back two-hours each way in the same day for a two-hour lesson, building up a 60-song repertoire in a matter of months, motivated by fierce determination. "I truly feel I was given the gift of song," declares Sneade-Roy. "It is the best gift I was ever given."

The gift seems to have run in the blood of the Sneade family. "My uncle was a very talented guitar player at a level that he probably should have been playing professionally with rock bands in the '70s, like Led Zeppelin," maintains Sneade-Roy." He was a gay man from a big Italian family. He couldn't be out with his family, and he was playing this style of music where women were throwing themselves at him, but he couldn't do anything with that!"

Her uncle taught Sneade-Roy's oldest brother how to play lead guitar, and the younger brother picked it up and taught himself when he was laid up for months with a broken leg. He then learned bass guitar, and the two brothers formed a band when Sneade-Roy was in her late teens. "They worked for decades doing wedding gigs. They never let me sing in their band, because they said I sounded like Judy Garland singing Janice Joplin," laments Sneade-Roy. "Ironically, I'm an Equity Actress and I'm singing professionally. Now they think I'm too good for them, so I've never sung with their band."

Another turning point for Sneade-Roy was meeting her longtime musical director and now close friend, Jim Rice, another Worcester native. When Rice was music director for Worcester Foothills' "HMS Pinafore," in which Sneade-Roy was cast, he approached her and said, "I like you. You need a call list so you could walk in anywhere and sing." He liked Sneade-Roy's high mix and a strong belt, with good technique she had learned from Phil Hall, but Rice thought she needed presentation polish.

"Jim taught me to be more conversational in my singing to tell the story," recalls Sneade-Roy, "and to take risks and to trust what I was doing." As serendipitous as that sounds, Sneade-Roy had to work hard to build a relationship with Rice. "Jim is tough love," asserts Sneade-Roy. "He doesn't hand out compliments. He's never going to hold your hand and tell you it's going to be OK, and he wants you to surround yourself with people better than you."

Sneade-Roy knew Rice needed a female vocalist for a "Steve and Eydie" show he was working on and Sneade-Roy wanted the part. "He wouldn't let me audition for it, because he felt I was too contemporary on Broadway, and I said, "Give me 3 songs,'" notes Sneade-Roy. "I listened to Eydie's work over and over again, and six months later, I auditioned for Jim, and he said, "I was wrong." Sneade-Roy was not only cast in the "Steve and Eydie" revue, performing the show together in numerous venues, including the famed Mechanics Hall in Worcester, but they have become a duo, performing the" Jim and Val Show" monthly at the Club Café's Napoleon Room, as well as other venues in the region.

With Rice as musical director for the "Ladies Who Brunch," Sneade-Roy will be right at home, but she and Rice don't plan to rest on their laurels. "I'm really focusing on the cabaret format with stories that connect with song. The stories are as important as the song itself," explains Sneade-Roy. "I chose my material based on my pattern and what stories I want to share. At the Napoleon Room during open mic nights, there are so many distractions that you have to keep things peppy and there isn't a lot of opportunity for patter and storytelling. So, this is my opportunity to do what I can't do on a regular Napoleon Room night."

Sneade-Roy will perform a variety of musical styles from gospel to cabaret, pop, and Broadway. It's varied. She'll also include a country song by Wynona Judd which she describes as a great cabaret song, with great imagery. Then there is a song, "Let Me Be Strong," by Barbara Baig, from her recording with Rice that they produced 20 years ago. "This feels like the right time to revisit this material," notes Sneade-Roy, "and perform it with what I know now."

Michelle Currie

If ever there was a stalwart fixture in the LGBTQ piano bar scene, it would be Michelle Currie, who has played for decades in various Boston boîtes, such as Diamond Jim's, and the old Napoleon Club, and in more recent years for the Front Porch in Ogunquit, ME, where she and her wife Stacy Cooper moved over a decade ago.

It was Currie's piano bar routine at the Front Porch that also became a lifeline for people during the early days of pandemic lockdown. During the pandemic, Currie decided to continue performing from home by live streaming her performances on the same nights she would normally have been at the Front Porch. It started out as 1-2 hours, but sometimes, if there was a lot of listener response, Currie would just keep on playing, sometimes 3-5 hours.

"Stacy was sitting off-camera communicating the chats to me on a board so I could see them, and she would let me know who was joining so I could say hello to each listener by name," recalls Currie. "I felt like I was doing something for everyone else, but it was also a godsend to me to be able to connect with people. And the music was bringing comfort to everyone, especially at that time."

What people didn't know, other than their close family, Currie and Cooper were early cases of Covid-19, before they knew how to treat it, and it seriously debilitated both of them. "One night, after I finished playing one of my live stream shows, I had 103 degree temp, and I almost passed out," Currie recalls.

Currie's recovery, though slow and not completely over, was faster than Cooper's, who has had to be homebound these past 4-1/2 years as one of the two most serious cases of "Long Covid" in the State of Maine. "She can't drive, or leave the house yet," reports Currie, "But she can now manage things at home, which allows me to leave the house for short periods. We vowed for better or worse, in sickness and in health, so I'm there for her."

With Cooper's small improvement, Currie has been able to maintain her gigs at the Front Porch which are short and close to home, and to branch out to some gigs in Boston and elsewhere. Like Casteel and Sneade-Roy, Currie has been booked by Ida Zecco at the Arctic Playhouse's Cabaret Club in Rhode Island, a gesture Zecco has made to support her talented friends in the community. "I'm so thrilled to be at Club Cafe and Arctic Playhouse, now that I can leave Stacy alone for a bit," says Currie with audible relief.

Currie's household, like Sneade-Roy's, was very musical, her parents being involved with the Worcester County Light Opera, and the Shrewsbury Players Dinner Theatre. Currie studied piano and performed in theater by the age of eight, and at 12, she was the pianist for the Worcester County Light Opera's Children's Summer Workshop. At one of the many cast parties held at her house growing up, her dad even woke her up at midnight, saying their pianist had left and could she come down and play for the party. "I played until 3 in the morning," remarks Currie. "I was 12 years old at the time!"

Currie always felt most at home with musical theater songs growing up. It was the music of her parents. "I listened to a lot of Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, good god, yes, and Liza Minnelli, who was a favorite of mine," confesses Currie. "I also liked Joel Grey and Barry Manilow. All of that came in handy playing at the Napoleon Club all those years ago, and of course at the Front Porch.

For her sets this Sunday, Broadway songs will be on the menu, but she will also mix in some other genres. "They'll be songs by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, the Beatles, 'Both Sides Now' by Joni Mitchell, a song from 'Waitress,' and my staple, which is always in there, 'Fifty Percent,' from 'Ballroom,'" lists Currie. "It is all music I love to do. It was fun to choose some material people might not have heard me do before."

Currie is another singer, like Casteel, who has performed primarily while accompanying herself at the piano. "My job is to be behind the piano, and it has been my job forever," announces Currie. "But I love to sing out in front more than anything in the whole world and I don't get to do that that often. Only one person other than my wife fills my life with such joy, and that is Jim Rice." Currie has a special bond with Rice, both being from Worcester. "I relax in a different way. I breathe differently when I'm at a piano than when I'm standing up or sitting on a stool," describes Currie. "I enjoy both, but there is a thrill to come out from behind the piano. Ida was the first one to get me to do that. It was in Worcester at my first cabaret show. I was scared shitless! I lost my prop! Then it became its own thing."

Casteel's experience as a pianist/singer is similar. "I play for other cabaret singers. I also play for myself, but it can be distracting. I try to imagine,' How does Billy Stritch do it?'" ponders Casteel. "I asked him how he does it. He turns his bench at an angle so he can face his audience while he plays and sings. He says, 'You're just sore afterwards.' So, I do that and make sure I stretch before and after. But when I have someone as wonderful as Jim Rice play for me, I'd rather have him play."

Casteel couldn't be more excited to perform with Sneade-Roy and Currie. "I've known Valerie for a couple of years now watching her perform with Jim, and a nicer woman never lived," declares Casteel. "She's always very welcoming to me and other singers. She treats the room like it's her living room and everyone is invited." Because of Currie's homebound status, Casteel will be meeting Currie in person for the first time this Sunday. "I can't wait!" exclaims Casteel. "I've heard about her for years. Her talent speaks for itself. I get to watch these two great performers bring their A game. I will sit and be a fan girl when I'm not on stage.

Sneade-Roy is ecstatic to be performing with Casteel and Currie. "If there is someone who I could be when I grow up, it would be Michelle Currie," proclaims Sneade-Roy. "She sings from her toes. She just fills a stage and a room with her presence, her body and her spirit. She has such soul and depth. And, of course, she's a Worcester girl. I am so honored and privileged to sing alongside her." Sneade-Roy feels a different sort of kinship with Casteel. "She and I are cut from the same cloth. We are always cheering people on, taking people under our wing, feeling like there is enough sand in the sandbox for everyone." They are both comfortable standing in the back of the room watching other singers and being a cheerleader. "We both feel like we want to give back to the community by helping other singers. It's not just about me but for everyone else. Taking people's minds off the world. It's very healing. Music is very powerful. This will be one amazing set of songs. I will be in the back of the room when the other two are singing, because I want to see them on stage.

Currie's excitement is palpable. "Truthfully, I can't tell you how many times I've said to Jim Rice, 'I would love to be on stage with Valerie,'" says Currie. "Eden, I will be meeting on Sunday for the first time. I have friends that know her and love her. I'm excited to be on stage with these two talented ladies. Singing the final number together with the two of them will be epic."

Watch Michelle Currie sing "In This Life".

John O'Neil will present Eden Casteel, Michelle Currie, and Valerie Sneade Roy in "the Ladies Who Brunch, Sunday, October 13, 11:30 AM at the Club Café's Napoleon Room, 209 Columbus Avenue, Boston, MA 02116. Tickets are $20 online/$25 at the door. For reservations, visit Club Cafe