Comedy Star Kathy Cogan Returns One Night Only to Pianos

Kathy Cogan grew up singing and dancing in West Orange, Connecticut, and Glen Rock. She also grew up to be 5'10", zaftig, auburn haired, a playwright and a heroine of the cabaret, club and off Broadway circuit in New York City and in her extended national and international show tours.

Cogan made West Orange her permanent base while in her early 20s; she is known as the mayor of her north side private street. Come Thursday at 8 p.m., Cogan's bringing it all back home in her latest interactive show, "KLUTZ OR SUPERHERO — YOU DECIDE." The fun — and believe me, it will be fun — inaugurates a new, once a month "Ladies Night" showcase at PIANOS, a cabaret-restaurant in Bloomfield.

As in her earlier hits, the audience will get involved. "I will be telling my stories, then asking audience members to come on up and tell theirs — I'll buy them a drink, too," Cogan said. Mostly, she'll be exorcising past events in her event-filled life by asking the audience to vote — story by story — was she a klutz or a superhero?

Based on her stellar list of past achievements and our extended conversations, I’m going with superhero.

Comedic superstar, too: Witness her smash United States and Canada eight-year tour in the acclaimed show "Late Nite Catechism," and the long runs of her own one woman shows "The Nail Room" and "Vatican II, What the Hell Happened?"

Here’'s some of her back story: Cogan cut her comedic and acting teeth in many Montclair theater companies: Whole Theater, under the directorship of Olympia Dukakis, 12 Mile West and Luna Stage. (Of these, only Luna Stage lives on, thriving in its new West Orange Valley Arts District home.) She delivered one of the three monologues in Jane Wagner's "Talking With" at the old Montclair Regional Performing Art Center.

When she went to Off Broadway in "Talking With," Cogan's phone started ringing off the hook.

"It was just crazy; I became part of the city's cabaret scene — playing at the Duplex, Rose’s Turn, Don't Tell Momma, 5 Oaks. I developed a large gay following, too." Cogan said. "I once asked Billy Stritch — Liza Minnelli's musical director — why. He answered, "Because we want to be you; you’re larger than life."

On the side during the day, Kogan had a local manicuring business. During a really snowy mid 1990s winter, she wrote "The Nail Room."

"You can't plow our street out, it has to be dug out," Cogan said. "I couldn't get into New York so I launched 'The Nail Room' Upstairs at Tierney's Tavern in Montclair, with Montclair based composer Diane Moser as my accompanist. I talked and I called an audience member on stage for a manicure, too."

It sold out, was extended and opened in NYC's Rose's Turn, where it sold out, too.
"It was based on my three best talents," Cogan said. "Singing, telling a damn good story and giving a damn good manicure."

The show moved to off Broadway and then to the original — and famed — Rascal's Comedy Club in West Orange. While playing in NYC, Cogan attracted the attention of the producers of "Late Nite Catechism" and Cogan was soon doing eight shows a week of "Late Nite," both nationally and in Canada. "I got to see the whole country — places everybody goes, places nobody goes," Cogan said.

"I've trained extensively in improv, including at Second City in Toronto, where all the original cast of 'Saturday Night Live' came out of. What I love about my shows, including 'Vatican II, the Explanation,' is interacting with the audience. I build in a lot of room for improvisation."

Cogan also likes that she can put her own shows into a cabaret space, as at PIANOS, or the kind of beloved small theaters she came up in. "All I need is a stool, a table and a glass of water. I can go anywhere, including fundraisers," Cogan said. "The audience doesn't have to go across the Hudson or spend a fortune."

Cogan has volunteered her shows and her time for many area charities including Taste of the Nation for the NJ Food Banks.

"I am really happy Melissa Hathaway of PIANOS contacted me about being the first person to come into the restaurant-cabaret’s new 'Ladies Night' series," Cogan said. "Hathaway told me, 'We want to bring theater back into the area.' "

"I feel," Cogan said, "like I've come full circle to be bringing in 'KLUTZ OR SUPERHERO — YOU DECIDE' there."

Tickets are on sale now for the Jan. 20 Ladies' Nights at PIANOS Premiere. PIANOS is at 36 Broad St., Bloomfield. Dinner starts at 7 p.m. The show starts at 8 p.m.

An all-inclusive $25 ticket includes the show, a buffet dinner and tax. Show-only tickets are available for $15. For information and reservations, call (973) 743-7209.