Tucked away behind the Picadilly Theatre the Brasserie Zedel has converted one of its classical Art Deco rooms into a new cabaret and jazz venue. The Crazy Coqs - a riot of chic black, white and red marble, vintage mirrors and great acoustics - is a stylish addition to the wealth of venues opening around the city. For its first official season, Olivier award-winner Clive Rowe takes to the stage with an evening at Rose’s Front Stalls Bar.

Clive Rowe at Crazy Coqs at the Brasserie Zedel, London Photo: Gar Powell-Evans

Legendary bar manager Rose used to rule the roost at the Adelphi Theatre and would often call upon the young Rowe, then working as an usher, to serenade her customers. In this cabaret Rowe takes a trip down memory lane to pay tribute to Rose with a selection of the popular numbers he used to sing in the bar. There are the standards such as Moon River, A Nightingale Sang In Berkley Square and Me And My Girl, which was then showing at the Adelphi in the mid-1980s along with a few he has always wanted to try such as Music and the Mirror from A Chorus Line and even Adele’s Rumour Has It and Turning Tables.

Rowe’s is a distinctly amiable stage persona and despite cabaret being an unusual platform for this undoubtedly versatile actor, he takes the format in his stride to provide a thoroughly entertaining programme. With his musical director Wendy Gadian to accompany him, Rowe sweeps effortlessly from Rodgers and Hart to Stephen Schwartz via the occasional Gershwin with aplomb, only pausing to offer some amusing anecdote from his varied career.