'John Holt: A Musical Life' Where: Hyeholde Restaurant When: Sat. and Feb. 16-17, 9 p.m. (6:30 p.m. dinner). Tickets: $25, 412-264-3116.

Haven't you always wished you could be at a party where everyone gathers around the piano and a seasoned performer, who is also an old friend, entertains everyone by singing songs and telling stories?

That's the feel of "John Holt -- A Musical Life," a cabaret in the Round Room at the Hyeholde restaurant in Moon. Flowing a performance Saturday, two more are scheduled next month.

Holt has been in Pittsburgh theater since adolescence, with credits at the biggies like the CLO, Pittsburgh Playhouse and Don Brockett Productions, as well as accompanist/participant in many previous revues at Hyeholde and the Shiloh Inn. He's performed at clubs and hotels in New York and elsewhere, but he's so Pittsburgh that his day job is as a recruiter for Giant Eagle.

His new cabaret is a kind of autobiography in song, with Holt at the piano, playing, singing and reminiscing, with the able and sensitive support of Garbie Dukes on bass and Dave Hall on drums.

Holt begins with a Sondheim medley, then gives a nod to Cole Porter before introducing two songs he wrote himself while young. It's a charming self-revelation, as if a writer went to the attic to fetch a poem penned in high school.

Act I finishes with a medley of familiar show tunes followed, again, by a couple of surprises. I hadn't heard Billy Joel's "Root Beer Rag" -- a real crowd-pleaser -- in decades and had never heard the bitingly funny "I Don't Remember Christmas" from "Starting Here Starting Now."

That final departure from standard fare sets up the more unusual and varied selections in Act II, in which Holt does impressions and even gets up from the piano -- to deliver a monologue from "Rent" as preface to "I'll Cover You" and to accompany himself on acoustic guitar as he sings an original song in memory of his dancer grandmother.

But the real tour de force that had the audience laughing and clapping was the "Cocktail Party Dream" sequence, in which Holt creates a fantasy cocktail party at which Carol Channing sings a duet of "Hello, Dolly" with Louis Armstrong -- with Holt doing both voices -- and Mariah Carey warbles her glissando all over everything until she is silenced. Other distinctive and distinguished singers give us a few bars of solos or duets (Holt's Johnny Mathis is very funny), and even Barbra Streisand graces the room with "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" with Neil Diamond -- Holt again providing all the voices.

("She never goes to parties," Holt explains, "but this is MY dream.")

The rousing closer to the evening is a singalong of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from "Spamalot," guaranteed to send everyone out into the night whistling. A reviewer-seeking missile from the balcony doused me in confetti during the final number but sprinkled very little over other tables; if you're seated toward the back of the room, you may want to make sure you've finished your drink and put on a hat sometime after the guitar song.

Holt's voice is pleasant and warm, not a big, clarion belter's voice, but suited to the intimate setting. The opening-night audience clamored for an encore, and there is no denying Holt's versatility as a performer and arch sense of humor. His is a party with good music, good laughs and a helping of nostalgia guaranteed to warm Pittsburgh hearts.