Rainbows and Stars with Katie Connor

reservationsDine With Us.

It’s Pride Month and The Napoleon Room has created a new series called RAINBOW AND STARS celebrating our gay community and our allies. PRIDE PARTIES are interspersed throughout the June featuring and thanking many of our biggest fans for their support throughout the year. Tonight’s PRIDE PARTY is hosted by Katie Connor who will be welcoming to the stage Toni Ballard, Ted Grace & Phil Kassel, for a trio of showcases. We will wind up the party with an open mic as we do every night at the Napoleon Room.

Katie Connor has been a regular performer in the Napoleon Room since 2010 and she loves her Club Café family! Katie brings a fun mix of standards, Broadway and Pop for a unique, powerful and whimsical show! Her voice has often been compared to Patsy Cline and Judy Garland. She recently played Samantha in Monsters; A Midlife Musical Meltdown, and Patsy Cline in Always, Patsy Cline at the Deertrees Theatre in Harrison, Maine.

Chicago native Toni Ballard, profiled in Scott Yanow’s book, “Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide,” has become an open mic regular at Club Cafe over the past four years and has presented two Josephine’s shows. She has performed with numerous jazz groups and big bands, including the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, the Boston Big Band, and the Ryles Jazz Orchestra. Her CD “I’m Your Pal” features special guest, late guitar icon, Larry Coryell. A former jazz radio host on WGBH and WICN, her award-winning jazz TV show “Studio 3” that ran from 1994-2000 on Worcester’s WGMC-TV3 is now part of the Jazz History Database.

Ted Grace has been performing at open mics and piano bars in the Boston area for over 30 years. This is his first appearance in the Napoleon Room since last winter’s two sold out performances at Josephines. Ted has studied with several jazz vocal coaches, including Donell Patterson, Bob Christopherson, and Dane Vannatter. Ted is a MAC AWARD nominee for his song AUTUMN OF MY LIFE BLUES

Phil Kassel is a career public interest lawyer who sings songs from most every genre at local joints and open mics. His numerous previous shows feature an engaging mix of widely disparate styles of music. He’s appeared at such venues as Club Café, Jimmy Tingle’s, Ryle’s; as well as the Amazing Things and Cambridge Multi-Cultural Arts Centers. Beverly Creasey of Theatremirror.com said Phil “brought down the house” at a local music Festival, noting his ability to adjust to the demands of a song with a “dark, sardonic vocal pitch” or by “lightening to a soaring tenor.”