Roxy Bar Presents: Pianist Michael Garin

Michael Garin, the Roxy Hotel’s resident pianist, plays at Roxy Bar for an evening of live piano built around his deliberately free-ranging musical approach. The venue describes a set that blurs pianist and DJ, moving among references as far apart as Shaggy, Om Kalthum, Rossini, Jobim, Frank Zappa and Raymond Scott. Garin also takes requests, sometimes invites children to play along, and brings his own comic touches to the performance, including tap dancing from the piano bench. The night is presented as part of his regular residency at the bar.

A Drama Desk Award winner, Garin has been part of New York nightlife for decades. His résumé includes Elaine’s, the Monkey Bar, the Rainbow Room and the VIP Room at Limelight. In the mid-1990s he hosted midnight burlesque shows credited with helping launch the burlesque revival, and he co-created and co-starred in Song of Singapore, the environmental musical associated with his Drama Desk Award. His work also includes acting stints with Spike Lee. Pianist, songwriter, singer, poet, actor and song-and-dance man, he has shaped performances to their room and occasion, while his daily promotional poems have built a following online.