Roxy Bar Presents: Pianist Michael Garin

Michael Garin plays Roxy Bar’s early-evening resident piano set, part of his Tuesday through Saturday run at the room. The program is presented as a free-ranging stream of music rather than a conventional recital: the venue describes Garin moving among material associated with Shaggy, Om Kalthum, Rossini, Jobim, Zappa and Raymond Scott, while taking requests and occasionally inviting children to play along. His performance can also include comic interventions, including seated tap dancing and his recurring line about being “in his office” for requests.

Garin has been a fixture of New York nightlife for decades. A Drama Desk Award winner, he has worked at Elaine’s, the Monkey Bar, the Rainbow Room and Limelight’s VIP Room, and co-created and co-starred in Song of Singapore, described by the venue as an environmental musical. His career also includes hosting midnight burlesque shows in the mid-1990s, which the listing says helped launch the burlesque revival, as well as acting work with Spike Lee. Beyond the piano, Garin is identified as a songwriter, singer, poet, actor and song-and-dance performer. He also writes daily promotional poems in an Ogden Nash style and has released Hey Look! It’s Michael and Mardie.