Roxy Bar Presents: Pianist Michael Garin

Michael Garin plays a solo piano set as Roxy Bar’s resident pianist, bringing his long-running downtown New York engagement to the room. The evening is built around his wide-ranging, request-friendly approach, with material that can move among Shaggy, Om Kalthum, Rossini, Jobim, Frank Zappa and Raymond Scott. Garin also sings, and the set makes room for his own comic asides, including his habit of calling the piano bench his “office” while taking requests.

A Drama Desk Award winner, Garin has been a fixture 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 that earned his Drama Desk Award. His work has also included acting with Spike Lee, alongside a career as a pianist, songwriter, singer, poet and song-and-dance performer. The Roxy describes his playing as blurring the line between pianist and DJ, with a “goofy, stylish, and very smart stream of musical consciousness.”