Alex Donner's Sunday
Love Song to New York

When Alex Donner debuted his new act last Sunday, gently crooning, "I am sitting on the top of the world," he had every right to feel that way. By the end of the show, with a full house of family and friends - all fans - beaming at him, he'd earned his place at the Café Carlyle. In a tuxedo with subtle silver stripes, he commanded the landmark room where quintessential New York cabaret stars like Eartha Kitt, Barbara Cook and Bobby Short have presided.

For those reeling from September 11 and economic downturn, the notion of a Sunday evening out may seem indulgent or wistful. But there could be no better antidote to this unwelcome hour than Alex Donner singing standards by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and Richard Rodgers - all love songs to New York. So thought Mr. Donner's friend Lord Charles Spencer-Churchill (cousin of Winston), who originally suggested the idea of bringing back Sunday performances at the elegant Carlyle.

After a few bars of his second song, "New York on Sunday," Mr. Donner paused ot introduce himself. "This isn't exactly the first time I've been in this room. I came here all the time as a child. The bartender gave me extra cherries in my Roy Rogers."

Mr. Donner, whose father worked in the Foreign Service, was born in Athens, Greece. He told the audience of his arrival in New York on the Queen Elizabeth, with Dad lifting him up to behold the city, and of "gramps", who counted Noel Coward and Fred Astaire as friends.

In "Black Tie Blues", an Alex Donner original, he brings contemporary high society to life. "Daddy told me I gotta go get a real job," he sang, "So I went down to Wall Street and tried to get in on an IPO - but those darned people tried to steal all my dough!" In a rousing soul-singer voice, he growled about a house in the Hamptons: "I went to take a peek: it's 100 grand, not for the season, for the week!"

Mr. Donner loves being the "leader of a big-time band", a job that has taken him from Monte Carlo to the palace of the Maharaja of Jaipur. In India, he played elephant polo, and he claims to be the leading elephant polo player in America.

But for all his big band experience, Mr. Donner enjoys the cabaret life, and the possibilities that an intimate room and crowd present. He finished "Puttin' on the Ritz" by asking the audience, "Don't you think we're doing it? Puttin' on the Ritz?"

The audience agreed, among them Ellen and James Marcus and Count and Countess Wenckheim. On Sunday last, they sipped champaigne and danced away the night on the small dance floor in front of the piano. Most couples stayed on their feet until the band played their last note.