In the Wings

It was originally scheduled to run five weeks — to fill a winter’s lull — and ran for 15 months. Now it looks like the great cabaret experiment at The Castle at Tarrytown may have run its course.

John Treacy Egan, the Larchmont-raised Broadway actor from “Bye Bye, Birdie,” “The Producers” and “The Little Mermaid,” dropped me a line to say that after more than a year of well-attended shows — bringing the likes of Tony-winner Tyne Daly (“Gypsy”), Euan Morton (“Taboo”), Cris Groenendaal (“Phantom”) and Quentin Darrington (“Ragtime”) to Westchester to sing with your supper — The Castle has decided to pull the plug on the venture. The original idea, sprung in February 2009 by Castle banquet manager (and cabaret bon vivant) Peter McClung, Castle general manager Gilbert Baeriswil and Egan, was to fill the slow winter months at the upscale Equus restaurant by offering Westchester premiere cabaret acts.

Barring a reversal on the part of management, Dobbs Ferry’s Rebecca Spencer (“Jekyll & Hyde”) will be the regular series’ final act, at 8 p.m., May 16.

She will be joined by her musical director Philip Fortenberry, conductor for the Las Vegas production of JERSEY BOYS. Las Vegas Life magazine chose her Las Vegas concert debut as one of its top picks. Spencer will sing hits from her new CD, “Fair Warning,” and her award-winning “Wide Awake and Dreaming” which earned her the 2004 BACK STAGE Bistro Award for outstanding recording.

The original idea was to keep the Castle occupied on a few Sunday nights, until the spring wedding season perked up business. But they kept on adding shows and adding shows, with some high-profile folks coming to the intimate room with Hudson views, and a fine restaurant to boot.

Egan opened his Rolodex of performing friends to fill the calendar, even as he returned to Broadway for “Bye Bye Birdie” last fall.

On a brighter note, Egan is off to Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera this summer to play Max Bialystock in “The Producers.”

Photo by Joe Larese: Gilbert Baeriswil, John Treacy Egan and Peter McClung, announcing Cabaret Sundays at The Castle in February 2009.