Cabaret May 2025 – Ida Zecco / Jim Rice – Our Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
1249 Main Street
West Warwick,RI
May 27, 2025
7:30 PM
Price: $22
Buy TicketsPull up those Lucchese boots and don that Stetson hat, because Jim and Ida are bringing a new show to the stage filled with the best classic, country western music of our time. It’s a night of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette and many more. This is a performance filled with toe-tapping tunes and bunkhouse ballads, a salute to Country Music’s greatest artists.
Ida Zecco joined The Arctic Playhouse in 2018 when she appeared as the grandmother in Neil Simon’s “Lost in Yonkers” and has been an active member ever since, as an actor, singer, director, producer, and as a member of TAP Board of Directors. At TAP, Ida has directed both “Steel Magnolias” and TAP’s first “Miracle on 34th Street: Radio Musical.”
Ida holds a Master of Music Therapy from the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Austria and another Masters of Fine Arts from the London Academy of Music and Drama, London, England. She is a retired member of Actors Equity Associate (AEA) and remains an active member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio (AFTRA) and is an international recording artist having produced two CD’s that have sold around the world. Ida is well known in New England for her 6-year run in “Shear Madness,” in Boston, as Barbara DeMarco, Mrs. Shubert, and Sargent Mikey.
Ida is the co-host and producer of the monthly cabaret series that takes place every last Tuesday of the month in The Cabaret Club at TAP. The series showcases professional, international recording artists for the first hour with an added invitation to the audience for an open mic for the second half of the evening. Her Music Arranger, Music Director and dear friend of over 30 years is The Cabaret Club’s House Music Director. Ms. Zecco is sincerely grateful to TAP and to our loyal audiences for the opportunity to perform and to produce The Cabaret Club Series each year.
Ida has had a long career in opera, theater, cabaret and jazz. She has performed in several of the major opera venues in Europe; Spoleto, IT; Vienna, AU; Berlin, GR; and Paris, FR, as well as performed in several of the major Cabaret/Jazz venues in New York and Boston. She was a guest artist for several years at the Mable Mercer Cabaret Convention in NYC and at the Cabaretfest in Provincetown, MA. And continues to vocally perform with her Music Arranger and Director for the past 30+ years, Jim Rice, at Sardellas in Newport, RI and Greenvale Vineyard, Portsmouth, The Blue Room, Warwick and many more.
Ida is the proud mother of Lauren Zecco, owner of The Bubbly Bow-Wow: a successful dog grooming salon in Warwick and two wonderful grandsons, Anthony and Dominick.
www.idazecco.com
Jim Rice (music director/arranger/ pianist), of New York City and Boston, is an accomplished and diverse music director, arranger, and pianist of many styles. Jim has performed in hundreds of theaters and concert halls throughout Europe and in every state except Hawaii. Abroad, Jim has been the musical conductor for the European-Broadway tour of Ken Hill’s Phantom of the Opera, as well as pianist for the Broadway production of Grease in Zurich. He has also toured nationally with Man of La Mancha and Camelot.
Mr. Rice is the creator and music director for a tribute show, Primavera!, which celebrates the Las Vegas years of Louis Prima & Keely Smith. Primavera is backed by a seven-piece band and was honored with the 2005 IRNE award. Primavera has performed at numerous premiere venues including The Big Arts Theatre in Sanibel Island, FL and The Fox Theatre at Foxwoods Casino in CT.
In 2009 he directed “Dear Miss Garland” at Stoneham Theatre in Massachusetts for which he also provided arrangements and orchestrations. It will be reprised there this summer. With director Russell Garrett, he was co-creator of “Holiday At The Hills ” at the Worcester Foothills Theatre. Other regional theatres Jim worked at include The American Stage Festival (NH), Olney (MD), North Shore Music Theatre (MA) Kansas City Starlight (MO); The Tennessee Williams Fine Art Center (FL); San Carlos Opera House (FL), Ogunquit Playhouse (ME) as well as The Westside Arts and Westbank Theatres (NYC).
For Ida Zecco Jim performed her critically acclaimed Estro-gin & Tonic in Boston and NYC and orchestrated her show “Songs For The Season” for her guest performances with The Thayer Symphony Orchestra (MA) and Charlotte Symphony (FL). For John Oneil he wrote the orchestrations for Back To Ennnniskillen and So Kaye: The Songs of Danny Kaye which have been performed at a multitude of venues throughout the country including MusicFest, one of the country’s largest music festivals in Bethlehem, PA.
Jim Rice was also the Music Director and contributing arranger for Three Swingin’ Tenors. He performs with them regularly and is the creator of their 2009 Holiday show. Cabaret rooms he has played include The Duplex and Danny’s Skylight in NYC, and The Cosmopolitan Club in New Hope PA. Locally in Boston he has appeared at the Regattabar, Ryles, Skullers Jazz Club, Club Café.
Jim has also musically directed and arranged numerous shows for Valerie Sneade including “The Streisand Songbook” recently performed with the Charlotte Symphony for which he was also a featured soloist. As arranger for her debut CD Let Me Be Strong. Jim received great critical acclaim for his work. His arrangements have been described as “marvelous” by The Boston Herald and “sophisticated and richly crafted” by Cabaret Scenes in New York City.
Jim regularly contributes orchestrations to the Key West Florida POPS for Female Impersonator Extraordinaire Mr. Randy Roberts. Jim has written numerous orchestrations for singers including Broadway’s Brent Barrett, Terri White, Debbie Gravitte, and Leroy Reams. These arrangements have been performed by many orchestras including the Festival of the Atlantic in NJ; Thayer Symphony in Leominster, MA; Las Vegas Philharmonic The Hartford Symphony, Plymouth Symphony, and the Albany Symphony, NY.
