Biography
Born Karen Orth-Pallavicini on October 13, 1945, in New York City, Karen Akers built careers as both a cabaret singer and an actress. Her background blended multiple European strains: an immigrant father from Austrian and Swiss/Italian nobility who abandoned his title upon arrival in America stood alongside an American-born mother whose lineage included Russian, Norwegian, and French roots on one branch and Scots-Irish on the other. Although she first sought work as a folksinger during the 1960s and tried out for Broadway productions, by the 1970s she had set aside her acoustic guitar to focus on nightclub engagements. Early in the following decade her growing visibility on that circuit prompted PBS to produce the special Presenting Karen Akers, which Sterling Records issued in 1981 as her debut album.
Her Broadway bow came in Nine, Tommy Tune’s musical drawn from Federico Fellini’s autobiographical film 8½, where she portrayed Luisa Contini, wife of the philandering director Guido Contini, and introduced the Maury Yeston numbers “My Husband Makes Movies” and “Be On Your Own.” Opening May 9, 1982, the production ran 732 performances before closing February 4, 1984. For her work Akers received a Theatre World Award and shared a Tony Award nomination for Featured Actress in a Musical with two castmates, ultimately losing to fellow performer Liliane Montevecchi; Columbia Records documented the show on its original Broadway cast album.
She first sang at Carnegie Hall in 1983. Her screen debut arrived two years later in Woody Allen’s comic fantasy The Purple Rose of Cairo, and MCA Records included her contribution on the accompanying soundtrack album. Subsequent film roles included a part in Mike Nichols’s 1986 adaptation Heartburn of Nora Ephron’s autobiographical novel and an appearance in the 1988 comedy Vibes. Around the same period she began guest spots on network series, among them a December 1987 episode of Cheers, while also completing her second album, In a Very Unusual Way, issued by Cabaret Records in 1987.
A second PBS presentation, Karen Akers: On Stage at Wolf Trap, reached home video via View Video in 1989. She returned to Broadway that November in Grand Hotel, Tommy Tune’s musical version of the novel and film, featuring a score by Robert Wright, George Forrest, and Maury Yeston; cast as Raffaela, confidante to the Countess, she performed “Twenty-Two Years,” “Villa on a Hill,” “What She Needs (What You Need),” and “How Can I Tell Her?” The production ran 1,018 performances through April 19, 1992, and RCA Victor eventually released its original Broadway cast album in 1992. During this span she also recorded her third album, Unchained Melodies, for DRG Records.
In September 1993 she married Kevin Power, and the couple later established residence in the south of France. Akers meanwhile rose among the foremost cabaret artists, regularly headlining such rooms as the Oak Room at New York’s Algonquin Hotel. June 1994 brought her fourth album, Just Imagine…, again on DRG. Cabaret Records followed with Under Paris Skies, a January 1996 collection sung entirely in French, while DRG issued Live from Rainbow & Stars the next September, drawn from performances at the Rockefeller Center nightclub. Feels Like Home appeared on DRG in May 2001. The Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs presented her its Board of Directors Award for lifetime achievement in 2002. DRG released her eighth album, If We Only Have Love, in June 2004; at that moment she was already scheduled for an October 18 engagement at the Café Carlyle and a six-week return to the Oak Room beginning April 12, 2005. Two further DRG titles followed: Like It Was on June 6, 2006, and Simply Styne on April 1, 2008.
Her Broadway bow came in Nine, Tommy Tune’s musical drawn from Federico Fellini’s autobiographical film 8½, where she portrayed Luisa Contini, wife of the philandering director Guido Contini, and introduced the Maury Yeston numbers “My Husband Makes Movies” and “Be On Your Own.” Opening May 9, 1982, the production ran 732 performances before closing February 4, 1984. For her work Akers received a Theatre World Award and shared a Tony Award nomination for Featured Actress in a Musical with two castmates, ultimately losing to fellow performer Liliane Montevecchi; Columbia Records documented the show on its original Broadway cast album.
She first sang at Carnegie Hall in 1983. Her screen debut arrived two years later in Woody Allen’s comic fantasy The Purple Rose of Cairo, and MCA Records included her contribution on the accompanying soundtrack album. Subsequent film roles included a part in Mike Nichols’s 1986 adaptation Heartburn of Nora Ephron’s autobiographical novel and an appearance in the 1988 comedy Vibes. Around the same period she began guest spots on network series, among them a December 1987 episode of Cheers, while also completing her second album, In a Very Unusual Way, issued by Cabaret Records in 1987.
A second PBS presentation, Karen Akers: On Stage at Wolf Trap, reached home video via View Video in 1989. She returned to Broadway that November in Grand Hotel, Tommy Tune’s musical version of the novel and film, featuring a score by Robert Wright, George Forrest, and Maury Yeston; cast as Raffaela, confidante to the Countess, she performed “Twenty-Two Years,” “Villa on a Hill,” “What She Needs (What You Need),” and “How Can I Tell Her?” The production ran 1,018 performances through April 19, 1992, and RCA Victor eventually released its original Broadway cast album in 1992. During this span she also recorded her third album, Unchained Melodies, for DRG Records.
In September 1993 she married Kevin Power, and the couple later established residence in the south of France. Akers meanwhile rose among the foremost cabaret artists, regularly headlining such rooms as the Oak Room at New York’s Algonquin Hotel. June 1994 brought her fourth album, Just Imagine…, again on DRG. Cabaret Records followed with Under Paris Skies, a January 1996 collection sung entirely in French, while DRG issued Live from Rainbow & Stars the next September, drawn from performances at the Rockefeller Center nightclub. Feels Like Home appeared on DRG in May 2001. The Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs presented her its Board of Directors Award for lifetime achievement in 2002. DRG released her eighth album, If We Only Have Love, in June 2004; at that moment she was already scheduled for an October 18 engagement at the Café Carlyle and a six-week return to the Oak Room beginning April 12, 2005. Two further DRG titles followed: Like It Was on June 6, 2006, and Simply Styne on April 1, 2008.
Albums
