The Medicine Show! in New York! January 11, 2020

Ken Haller's The Medicine Show

Saturday, January 11, 2020
9:30 PM

Don’t Tell Mama
343 W 46th St. (between 8th & 9th Avenues)
New York City, NY 10036

Ken returns to New York City and the legendary Don’t Tell Mama to present “The Medicine Show!”

“Laughter, the old saying goes, is the best medicine. If so, “The Medicine Show,” the newest diadem in the crown of St. Louis cabaret star Ken Haller, was just what the doctor ordered. Sure, there were serious moments in this cabaret evening… that was all about home, hope, and holding fast to what counts in life. Through it all, Haller delivered the goods with that combination of theatrical smarts and vocal authority that has made him one of our town’s principal cabaret exports.”

– Chuck Lavazzi, Cabaret Scenes Magazine

Reservations at: https://donttellmamanyc.com/shows

Happy Hallerdays!

Happy Hallerdays Cabaret at The Blue Strawberry

Saturday, December 21, 2019
8:00 PM

The Blue Strawberry
364 N Boyle Ave,
St. Louis, MO 63108


I’ll be returning to the Blue Strawberry to reprise my critically acclaimed show of songs and stories celebrating holidays throughout the year.

“Fun and funny, but also touching and profound. The song choices are varied and sometimes even inspired. A tremendously entertaining evening from one of our best and most prolific cabaret stars. Haller never fails to deliver a combination of theatrical smarts and vocal authority that has made him one of our town’s principal cabaret exports.”

Chuck Lavazzi, KDHX

The Medicine Show – St. Lou Fringe 2019

Ken Haller's The Medicine Show

I am performing THE MEDICINE SHOW three times as part of the St. Louis Fringe Festival! If you can make it, I would be honored.

THE MEDICINE SHOW

The Medicine Show - St. Lou Fringe 2019

Kranzberg Arts Center Studio, Grand & Olive

THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 2019 – 6:00 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 2019 – 9:00 PM
SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2019 – 4:30 PM

TICKETS ONLY $15!

THE MEDICINE SHOW is my own journey toward becoming a doctor and realizing that ultimately we are all called to be Healers. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll have a couple of drinks, you’ll be out in an hour. What more could you want?

Advance tickets are available for my show on the St. Lou Fringe Website, and as you can see there’s a time to fit anyone’s circadian sleep cycle!

Tix will also be available at the door if you decide to come at the last minute.
I hope to see you there!

Happy Haller Days! – Gaslight Cabaret Festival

Happy Haller Days!

gaslight cabaretSaturday, November 10   8:00 PM
Sunday, November 18   7:00 PM

 

Featuring the vocal stylings of Ken Haller and Marty Fox, piano and Music Director.  In his take on the holidays, Ken is surprising, funny personal, moving, great company and just a little exasperating. Just like all our holidays.

Get Your Tickets Now! $30, $35

BEST ST. LOUIS CABARET PERFORMER 2015
– The GO! List, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Black Tulip Chorale presents “Kristen & Ken: A Cabaret Soiree”

Thursday, September 13 at 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM

The Monocle
4510 Manchester Ave, St. Louis 63110

Kristen & Ken: A Cabaret Soiree: St. Louis musical sensations Kristen Goodman and Ken Haller join forces to create an entertaining backdrop for the Black Tulip Chorale‘s Fund the Future pledge drive. This fundraiser event benefits the Black Tulip Chorale, St. Louis’ first and only LGBTQIA-friendly chorus that welcomes singers of all gender identities & sexual orientations.

Enjoy delicious specialty cocktails named after our special guest performers, a silent auction, and opportunities to sponsor BTC needs. Your gifts make upcoming concerts free to the public and dues affordable to anyone who seeks to join St. Louis’ first and only LGBTQIA-friendly chorus.

Silent Auction begins at 7pm.

Seating is limited and can be purchased in advance online.

The Medicine Show – Ken Haller at the Kranzberg Studio

 

Ken Haller
“The Medicine Show”

July 20-21, 2018

8pm

$25 General Admission


In the Kranzberg Arts Center
Produced by The Presenters Dolan

Ken Haller’s The Medicine Show peddles miracle cures compounded by Jason Robert Brown, Adam Guettel, Stephen Sondheim and other noted practitioners of the healing arts. In song and story, Ken shows us how becoming a doctor is just the first step in becoming a healer.

“In this 65-minute show of stories and songs, I look at what captivated me about medicine and the realization that being a doctor is not the same thing as being a healer. I will be accompanied by my brilliant Music Director, Marty Fox, and I hope you will join us for this very personal show.”  ~ Ken Haller


Here’s what the critics have to say about Ken Haller:

 

Cabaret Scenes critic Chuck Lavazzi calls “The Medicine Show,” “…fast and funny… truly moving” and adds “Haller delivered the goods with that combination of theatrical smarts and vocal authority that has made him one of our town’s principal cabaret exports.”

(Read the full review here: http://cabaretscenes.org/2017/05/03/ken-haller-the-medicine-show/ )

“Pediatricians have many talents—Ken is a dear friend and a wonderful pediatrician—and he does a moving and delightful cabaret show with songs and stories about families and growing up—and turning into yourself.” – Perri Klass, MD, New York Times columnist

BEST ST. LOUIS CABARET PERFORMER! The GO! List, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sunday, April 26, 2015:

“Cabaret performers come and go, but Ken Haller, a pediatrician by day, is a St. Louis legend. If you’re interested in what makes the Great American Songbook great, you owe it to yourself to give this man a listen.” – Calvin Wilson

MAMA’S BOY

“Tender, loving…hilarious. A great show from a great guy.” – Katie Dunne McGrath, KDHX.org

“A stellar performance…an extraordinary cabaret performer.” – Lois Caplan Miller, The Jewish Light

SONG BY SONG BY SONDHEIM

“Haller’s show is a gem… His sincerity and authority carry the day in this very personal creation. This is a terrific show. It’s a model of what cabaret should be!” – Gerry Kowarsky, Two on the Aisle, HEC-TV

“Haller is a charming and talented performer with a voice as smooth as a brandy Alexander… A Classy Act. A Classy Guy.” – Robert Alan Mitchell, KDHX.org

THE TV SHOW!

“…a tremendously entertaining and often extremely funny romp through TV land… fun for the whole family!” – Chuck Lavazzi, KDHX.org

“…a sheer delight…a pleasant trip down memory lane…touching a nerve with all of us who experienced this golden age.” – Chris Gibson, BroadwayWorld.com

Acting Like a Doctor: Strengthening Doctor-Patient Relationships Through Theatre at SLU

Dr. Ken Haller, professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University, leads first-year medical students in a writing exercise during his Acting Like a Doctor class.

ACTING LIKE A DOCTOR: STRENGTHENING DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH THEATRE AT SLU

by Emily Hellmuth

The doctor-patient relationship is one that we all face at some point in our lives. It is also one that can be challenging given the sensitive nature of the conversations, particularly if we do not understand each other. Ken Haller, professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University and A&E board member, is using theater with his medical students to improve that relationship.

“In addition to anatomy, physiology and biochemistry, we put a great deal of emphasis at SLU Medical School on nurturing mindfulness and empathy in our students as we prepare them to see patients in the real world,” Haller explained.

Part of that preparation is developing the softer skills required of being a doctor, something Haller aims to do in the Acting Like a Doctor elective he teaches with first-year medical students.

“While not that many medical students have been actors, every med student has seen actors at work and knows how powerful their work can be,” he added.

One recent class meeting began with students identifying their greatest fears in becoming doctors.

“I’m afraid of not having the answer, but that’s why my communications skills are so important,” one student explained. “I need to have the right words to comfort even if I don’t have the actions.”

This is the kernel of Haller’s class – using theatre and acting techniques like role play and improv to teach students how to empathize with their patients and their families and how to play the role of doctor even when they don’t feel like it.

“When you’re seeing patients, you have to act like a doctor even when you don’t feel like a doctor. This, of course, is what actors do: If we act like this person we are portraying, and the audience believes us in that role, we become that person,” Haller, an actor himself, explained.

The students in the elective are all in their first year of medical school, before they being patient interactions, but Cynthia Morris says the class still finds its way into her practice as a pediatric neurology resident.

“I am more comfortable standing and speaking in front of a group and I learned good ways to handle some more difficult patient scenarios, especially how to speak kindly and patiently with families who do not want things that I feel are very important for their child,” she explained.

Monica Goodland, a MD/PhD candidate at Saint Louis University, adds the elective gave her the tools she needs to understand her patients.

“If I can quickly assess that history from my patient – Do they seem guarded? Do they seem like they are not giving me the whole story? Is there someone else in the room who may be influencing the dynamic of the visit? – I can really be the physician my patient needs,” Goodland said.

As Haller explains during a recent session, the theatre elective is about more than silly role play scenarios. It is about how doctors relate to their patients and learn to trust themselves in the role of doctor so that they can think on their feet and better understand – and, ultimately, heal – their patients.

To read more about how the arts foster connections and promote a vibrant St. Louis, click here.

Song by Song by Sondheim 2018

This will be the Year of Stephen Sondheim in St. Louis, as he is honored with the prestigious 2018 Saint Louis Literary Award. To salute the master lyricist and composer, Ken Haller is thrilled to reprise his critically-acclaimed debut cabaret show:

“Song by Song by Sondheim”
Fri & Sat, April 6-7, 2018, 8:00 PM
Tickets at https://www.metrotix.com/events/detail/presenters-dolan-ken-haller-song-by-song-by-sondheim

Weaving songs as sentimental, witty, lacerating, sweet, and rollicking as “Not a Day Goes By,” “Everybody Says Don’t,” “Losing My Mind,” “Not While I’m Around,” “Marry Me a Little,” and his own unique take in “Send in the Clowns” into a “wonderful… funny… terrific… intimate” 65-minute narrative, Ken, accompanied by his Music Director, Marty Fox, displays the gifts that led the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to name him Best St. Louis Cabaret Performer 2015.

Critical raves for Ken Haller and “Song by Song by Sondheim”

“Haller’s show is a gem… Haller gives [Sondheim’s] songs a new, very intimate context, that lets them work in the same way they do in the original shows, [and] his sincerity and authority carry the day in this very personal creation. This is a terrific show. It’s a model of what cabaret should be!” — Gerry Kowarsky, Two on the Aisle, HEC-TV

“Ken Haller once again delights a St. Louis audience with his very special evening of songs by Stephen Sondheim. He first presented this masterfully-crafted cabaret evening some seven years ago at the Kranzberg. Since then he performed it in New York. Thoughtful, lonely, funny, loving – [This] show is well worthy of revival. – Steve Callahan, kdhx.org

“Saw this and it was wonderful! Grab a ticket while you can.” — Gail Pennington, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Ken Haller combines amazing warmth and intimacy, in an act that sets him far above nearly everyone else in town.” — Richard Green, TalkinBroadway.com

“Haller is a charming and talented performer with a voice as smooth as a brandy Alexander… A Classy Act. A Classy Guy.” — Bob Mitchell, kdhx.org

“Ken Haller’s cabaret show is terrific. There are some really beautiful moments. The whole show is Sondheim, and it’s such a good song list! Extremely funny but also extremely personal and warm and emotional.” — Scott Miller, Artistic Director, New Line Theatre

Best St. Louis cabaret performer

Ken Haller

Ken Haller (left), a cabaret-singing pediatrician, rehearses for an upcoming performance with musical director Al Fischer at his Shaw neighborhood home in St. Louis on May 22, 2012. Photo by Sid Hastings

Ken Haller

Cabaret performers come and go, but Ken Haller (a pediatrician by day) is a St. Louis legend. If you’re interested in what makes the Great American Songbook great, you owe it to yourself to give this man a listen. ~ CW

Click Here to view this article on STLToday.com

Fourth annual Briefs Festival showcases eight playwrights

By KATIE COOK

Dr. Ken Haller, far left, Joan Lipkin and John Schmidt are participating in next week’s Briefs Festival. The trio talked to ‘Cityscape’ host Steve Potter, far right, about the event on Friday at St. Louis Public Radio in St. Louis.
CREDIT ALEX HEUER / ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO

What do a gay mermaid looking for love, a Jewish mother who competitively wants her single son to have the biggest wedding, and a lesbian version of Dr. Seuss have in common?

They are all themes in this year’s Briefs Festival of Short LGBT Plays, a festival that brings together numerous directors and actors to showcase the work of eight different playwrights under one roof.

The eight plays being performed at the festival on March 27-29 at the Centene Center for the Arts have been selected out of more than 170 submissions from across the country.

On Friday, “Cityscape” host Steve Potter talked about the festival with Joan Lipkin, the festival’s co-producer and artistic director of That Uppity Theatre Company; Dr. Ken Haller, a pediatrician and actor; and John Schmidt, a playwright and the winner of the Ken Haller Playwriting Competition for LGBTQ and Allied Youth.

Briefs: A Festival of Short LGBT Plays

  • When: 8 p.m. March 27, 2015; 4 and 8 p.m. March 28, 2015; 2 p.m. March 29, 2015; the Ken Haller Award Reception is 6:30 p.m. March 27, 2015.
  • Where: The Rialto Ballroom at Grand Center, 3547 Olive St., St. Louis
  • More information

“Cityscape” is produced by Mary Edwards and Alex Heuer and sponsored in part by the Missouri Arts Council, the Regional Arts Commission, and the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis.