Cabaret Shows with Samantha Heller, Lee Lobenhofer, Michael Coppola

Week of August 30, 2025

Sometimes When You Fall, You Fly: What I learned about life, love, and tofu. From New York City’s famed cabaret club Don’t Tell Mama on West 46th Street to Rancho La Puerta. Singer and performance artist Samantha Heller performs songs from the past and present as she takes you on a fun and inspiring journey through the ups and downs of her experiences in relationships, living in New York City, and navigating the passage of time. Enjoy an evening of songs you can relate to and sing to and stories that will move you and make you laugh.

No Time at All Samantha and her team of talented artists will present performances of No Time at All and Triangulating Talent. No Time at All premiered in March 2025 at New York’s most famous cabaret club, Don’t Tell Mama, to rave reviews. No Time at All includes a variety of songs from show tunes to pop with a smattering of jazz. With her wry sense of humor, Samantha shares her experiences of living in New York City and how life has led her to a most important revelation.

Triangulating Talent Triangulating Talent is a 3 act compilation of the creative stories and musical expressions of Lee Lobenhofer, Michael Coppola, and Samantha Heller. In Act I, Lee shares stories and songs from his experiences as Broadway performer, director, and teacher. In Act II Michael showcases his jazz harmonics and stylings on the Hydra, a unique 9 string guitar, he invented. In the last act all three artists join together to perform some of their favorite songs.

Samantha Heller: Singer/Sirius XM Host

 

 

 

 

Michael Coppola: jazz guitarist
Michael Coppola is listed as “The master of the 9 string guitar” in jazz critic Scott Yannow’s book The Great Jazz Guitarists. Michael has played at major jazz and guitar events such as the Montreal Jazz festival, the Namm show, New Haven Jazz Festival and the Chet Atkins festival. He has also played at New York City clubs such as the Blue Note, Knickerbockers and the Iridium. where he was invited to perform with the legendary guitarist Les Paul, and has of course performed at countless CT clubs and concert venues. Michael has several recordings as a leader, including “Return of the Hydra” which was a top ten pick for Coda magazine in 2004.  Coppola has been featured in many guitar-based magazines such as Just Jazz Guitar, 20th Century Guitar, Guitar Player, Fingerstyle Guitar and more. His composition “Movin’ was a winner in the “John Lennon Song Competition” jazz division.  He began playing guitar at age 11, later taking jazz lessons with Sal Salvador at 15. Michael added classical guitar to his music studies the following year, and pursued it along with classical composition after high school at the Boston Conservatory of Music and The Vienna International Music Center in Austria.   In 1986, after a stint in the John Mehegan Trio, Michael began expanding the harmonic possibilities of the guitar by adding two extra inner higher octave strings between the 4th and 5th, to easily achieve the tight voicing pianistic sounds of Bill Evans. In 2000, he added a 9th string to the new group, completing the “Hydra” guitar. From this instrument, in Michael’s hands, one hears not only pianistic comping, but unique harp-like sounds woven into traditional guitar type lines.  In addition to extensive solo guitar playing, Michael performs with small groups and duos with vocalists, bassists and other guitarists, including many of today’s notable players such as Gene Bertoncini, Jack Wilkins, Tony Purrone, Howard Alden, Robert Conti and more.

 

Lee Lobenhofer: Director, actor, singer
Lee Lobenhofer is a Broadway and international performer who played principal roles in 5 Broadway shows including CATS, Grand Hotel, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Whoopie Goldberg, Shogun The Musical, and I Married an Angel. He appeared in Broadway national tours such as  Cats, Joseph, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Music of the Night, and multiple international tours and regional theaters. Lee can be heard on the Donny Osmond soundtrack of Joseph/ Dreamcoat, where he originated the role of Reuben. After his greatest productions, his two children Emma and Matt, he decided to come off the road to be the best father he could be. He began teaching acting and directing shows at LaGuardia High School (the Fame school). He has been there for 25 years and has had the privilege of teaching and launching the careers of performers like Timothée Chalamet, Michaela Diamond, Lola Tung and Jharrel Jerome. These days you can’t watch any performing awards shows without seeing LaGuardia grads, many of whom he had the honor of teaching.