One of the city’s mainstays for entertainment and comedy, Paul Hope, is inviting the public to his performing home, Ovations Night Club, for a look at his hacienda-turned-swankienda during Bachelor Pad Royale. The 60s-themed show is a trip to the James Bond era soundscape that filled our youth and ignited the imaginations of living all the highlights of the single life with nary a care nor a remorseful thought.
Tunes include “From Russia With Love,” “Diamonds Are Forever,” “You Only Live Twice,” “Mona Lisa,” “Never On Sunday,” “Make It Easy On Yourself” and “Windmills of Your Mind” will fill the night that punctuate the retro-themed evening guaranteed to leave the audience shaken and not stirred.
Guest artists who fill the show are Jake Cummings, Brad Goertz, Pantelis Karastamatis, Lauren Salazar, Laura Smolik, Tamara Siler, Whitney Zangarine and Musical Director/Pianist Jerry Atwood. Zangarine stopped her plentiful rehearsal schedule to share her thoughts on the theme and history of the Ultra Lounge-themed shows.
“Paul Hope Cabaret typically focuses on Broadway and musical theater performances, focusing on predominantly American lyricists and songwriters,” said Zangarine. “Ultra Lounge is our chance to kind of break free from that and look at other popular music genres. We look at pop songs, sometimes folk songs, easy listening from time to time but still within our favorite decade, though we’re still looking at the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, but it’s usually more popular music for the general public. For people who maybe don’t have a Broadway itch, they’re going to hear some things that they heard on the radio or from popular movies at that time.”
The inspiration behind the performance, which is now in its fourth iteration, comes from the most mundane of places. Hope says it came from a package of compact discs laying around his house that were filled with lounge music.
“There is a series of CDs that are called Ultra Lounge that were like mostly instrumental cuts from ’50s,” Hope said. “The music is really fun, and each of the CDs has a theme, and it has a different title, which I have been stealing, and each of the CD booklets has features a couple of vintage cocktail recipes that go with the theme of the CD. I thought when I first discovered this series it would be perfect for a themed party. I thought we could try doing a cabaret using these themes.”
While the programming does not follow the same set list included on the CDs, the theme had staying power, which also made a easy foray into specialty cocktails for the evening. Previous formats have included “Mambo Fever,” “Tikis in the Mist” and “Space Capades.” This year’s theme of bachelor pad royal will include specials the Rob Roy and vesper martini.
Hope is not the only one who gets caught up in the fun of the theme, he says.
“The singers, all of whom are younger than me, are just discovering these songs,” Hope said. “Most of them are from a different generation, and they are unfamiliar unless there has been a revival of the Broadway titles.”
But sometimes what is nostalgic for some becomes a new love for the freshly initiated, Hope said.
“For instance, Pantelis Karastamatis is singing ‘From Russia with Love,’ and he’d never heard the song. He said he loves this song now because it is so sexy,” Hope said.
Zangarine wil sing “To Sir With Love,” which she was not familiar with, but she lands a little closer to home with “You Only Live Twice,” in which she gets to be a Bond girl.
“I would have never in my wildest dreams put that on my bingo card for my life, but for this cabaret I get to glam out and be a blond girl for a number, so that feels very iconic,” Zangarine said.
As always, the format for Ultra Lounge will stick to its regular template with both singing and background information that helps show the throughline of the show. It also provides an easy entry point into what what could be a daunting exploration for some people.
“This is a great opportunity to come experience Paul Cabarets if you haven’t before,” Zangarine said. “We love our musical theater and Broadway, but that may not be a great access point for everybody that might be interested in our shows.
“If you want a different experience or maybe a more varied goal for the evening, the Ultra Lounges are the way to go because you’re going to hear a couple of different genres, a couple of different known voices and known songs from that time period, and you’re still going to get the great background information and storytelling from Paul that a lot of our audiences really respond to. You’re going to learn something that you probably didn’t know, because he always does his homework, and the audience can get a feel for what else we have to offer throughout the year.”
Paul Hope Cabaret’s “Bachelor Pad Royale” takes place at 7:30 p.m., July 13, 20 and 27 at Ovations, 2536 Times, Ste. B. For information or tickets, visit events.ticketleap.com/tickets/paulhopecabaret/phc-8th-season-2025-26. $26.50-$154.
