NYC Dueling Pianos

I was having a good time at show until I observed a girl who had already submitted and paid $ 5 per song for several requests. She put in a request without paying $ 5. At that time the performer became rude and badgered her saying he was trying to make a living. I felt very bad for her as I could see she was also having a good time up until that point. She sat down and didnt get up again the whole evening. It was a very unprofessional gesture on the part of the performer.

Very disappointing experience here. The bar was not clean, drinks were over-​priced, and the music was so-​so.

FYI, you need to come here a bit early/​definitely on time, or else they won’t let you in! This happened to us last time, even though we had already purchased tickets. So, the «doorman» gave me someone’s contact info to reschedule.
Anyways, for $ 9, this was totally worth it! You get a couple hours of seeing two talented pianists play all sorts of songs, from the classics to the modern day pop songs. Request a song for $ 1+.
Btw, they had this competition on which group could sing the loudest-​what was ironic was my two girls and I won!!! That just made the night even better haha, so we all got free shots: P GO TEAM!

One star. Fun time and awful time at the same time.
The piano duelers might have been good had it not been for the sound system at HA being so painfully loud. The sound was vibrating the floor and screeching thru my bones. I complained 3 times to the owner who turned it down but the piano guy asked for it to be turned up again. I was happy that someone had ear plugs and shared them!
Next — the expensive bottom of the line bar items. A glass of wine was 8.50 but only about 3 ounces in a paper cup! Watch out for the bill. The tip is included automatically at 18%. For those who just double the tax and don’t look at the bill, you have tipped on the tip!
The music included alot of the classics, Beatles, Billy Joel, Meatloaf (Dashboard light). But as I said, screeching versions of it. ek!

Nice time, friendly piano players, good live music. They mainly played the classic Dueling Pianos songs, so come if you like Billy Joel, Elton John, 80s songs, etc. There were a few modern songs, but those were shortened. Mainly an older crowd here. You might just win a round of free drinks during the singing competition! ;)

So, where do I begin?! I purchased discounted tickets on LivingSocial because I’ve been to dueling piano bars before and I love them and was trying to find a place in NYC. However, this was a different kind. First of all if you charge an entrance fee there shouldn’t be a 2 drink minimum, it’s one or the other guys. 2^nd of all, beer isn’t $ 8.50 even on a cruise. And $ 5.50 for coffee, ridiculous!!! Then the waitress gets 18% gratuity automatically, no wonder her service sucked and she had no personality. Then we get to the pianist, I actually enjoyed them. The only thing I will complain about is the way they try to make more $ by offering you the option to buy out someone else’s request which I find demeaning and quite rude. If I pay you $ 20 to play my song and he pays you $ 21 to stop it, now I have to pay you at least $ 22 to play it, no way! Don’t belittle yourselves this way guys, $ 20 is enough to play my song choice. And if you’re there to play, you shouldn’t NEED us to give you $ to play song choices.

Love these guys. The music was great. The drinks were great (and not pricey).
The venue is a bit hard to find but once inside it’s nice and comfortable. Not too crowded.

The Dueling Piano show was great while they were both on stage, but one of them left for about 35 mins of a 2 hr show. Who does that!!! Also the bar «lost» my ID & credit card. I sent the manager an e-​mail to inquire and he replies, «Lemme check it out» and I never heard from him again even after follow-​up e-​mails. Apparently they «found» my card because my card got billed an hour after I left!

Absolutely love this and a great event to go to with a date or with a group of friends. We went with a large group of our friends and it was such a fun time! When we went, we got our tickets for $ 10 a person but I recently just saw a Groupon deal for $ 5 a person which is an amazing deal.
We got there about half an hour early to get good seats and have a drink at the bar at Webster Hall before hand. Drafts were only $ 4 each! Once they let you into the main room where Dueling Pianos is, there is another bar but drinks inside are much more expensive. So a tip is to get one or two drinks from the outside bar to bring into the main room.
Since we were early, we were able to get a good seat and a table large enough to accommodate our group. Dueling Pianos is a show with two pianists that sing and play to song requests from the audience. They hand you slips of paper and pencils to write your song requests on but they won’t let you bring up your suggestions til the show starts. We found out why when the show starts.
Here are the rules:
They explain that if you want your song to be played, you should include money with your slip of paper. The higher the amount, the more likely it will be played. If you don’t like a song that is being played, you can stop the song by bringing up your song suggestion with a higher amount of money than that person paid.
It seemed like they like playing upbeat songs over slower songs. Putting our request with a dollar usually didn’t get our song played so we started putting in our requests with $ 5. The show started at 8 pm and ended at 10 pm so not too long, not too short.

I came here with Miss Sarit last night, and we had a BLAST! Webster Hall apparently has difference sections, and when we first walked in the hallway going downstairs had some kind of heavy metal /​screamo music going on which kind of turned us off, but turn left and entered a medium sized casual style piano lounge with not-​too-​outrageous drink prices (though we did not order any.)
I could still hear the obnoxious music from downstairs in between songs or when the tone was soft, which is obviously a negative — but whatevs I’m sure the owner has to put food on his table.
There are a good amount of tables, which we did not get since we got there just before the show started (women! uggggghhhhhh) but there was a comfortable couch. The crowd was mostly full of a bunch of Staten Island /​LI and NJ housewives going out for a girls night out kinda deal, along with some macho guys that were «way too cool» to be there. However you could tell they all loved it.
They play pretty much only 80’s music, although they did throw in some gems ranging from Elvis to Snoop Dogg (every time I spell his stage name, I pronounce it in my head «Snoop dee-​oh-​double-​gee» admit it you do too!). They operate mainly on requests with «official postage» being bribes, there is no minimum but the more you put down the quicker your song comes up on the list. I put down a few bucks and requested Roxanne by The Police which rocked the house. Also on the list was Bön Jovi, Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac, Queen and many more.
Come here for a date night, come here for a night out, with friends, whatever. Just come here! Great experience and we are actually looking forward to coming back!

A friend recommended that we see this show and I’m so glad we did.
It was a ton of fun and they even played one of the songs I requested. We stuck around the venue after the show for a bit but it wasn’t our scene so we left. Overall a great time!

This was just an o.k. experience. I first heard about Dueling Pianos through a club that advertised this as a free event. So I took my sister and her husband to the show while they were visiting New York, only to find out that there is a $ 10 – 12 per person drink minimum. Annoying, particularly since my sister and her husband don’t drink.
The show got off to a decent start with the pianists playing songs by AC/​DC, Nirvana and Jimmy Buffett. But it quickly became far more about relentlessly shaking down the crowd for more and more money; literally pausing and waiting for a table to give them another $ 20 – 50 before they’d play the next song. That was just plain tacky.
What solidified my 2-​star rating is that the duo had a very limited repertoire. The pianists spent the last third to quarter of the show repeating songs that they’d already played, while none of the 3 – 5 songs that I’d requested (and paid for) got played.
This was merely just an o.k. experience, but I was thoroughly annoyed by the end of the show. I would not attend the show again or recommend it to other people.

I decided to come here for my birthday because I love a good time at a good piano bar. I was first introduced to piano bars when I was a grad student at arizona state and they had the most awesome piano bar «The Big Bang», where the piano artists were capable of playing every genre of music (one minute it’s neil diamond and the next minute snoop dog is dropping it like it’s hot). There was also never a night where Bön Jovi and Journey weren’t played.
I had a great time at Dueling Pianos in midtown but have to say it didn’t compare in any way to The Big Bang. These artists were only capable of doing rock and roll songs and the one song I did request got absolutely butchered. Then again nothing was butchered as bad as poor Eminem and Jay Z’s music. These pianists could not rap to save their lives and probably should have put out a disclaimer about this before allowing people to pay for hip hop songs. I was also disappointed that I only heard one Bön Jovi song the whole night and Journey wasn’t played at all — what kinda piano bar doesn’t go for the classics???
But i made the most of the situation and probably would still come back because I still loved singing along to all the other songs and the drinks were very good. They didn’t lose me as a customer but I thought they could have done a better job.

My friends and I got a deal off LivingSocial so we went out for a girls’ night to celebrate a birthday. I’ve been to two other piano bars — one in DC, one in Charlotte — and this was the worst one (which could be because it’s in Times Square).
The organization was awful with how they handled the crowds in between the two shows. No one was giving clear direction at first then they all started screaming at us to move to one side… not to mention it was SO HOT in the lobby area so everyone was getting cranky.
Our waitress was really rude and gave me an attitude when I asked for a drink menu then took another 15 minutes to come back and take our order. The performers were okay — they were entertaining enough but I didn’t like how they often used an ipad to look up lyrics even for common songs… it makes it a lot less genuine and I’ve never seen that before.
Also different from my previous experiences is that they allowed the audience to pay to have a song STOPPED if they didn’t like that, and unfortunately, this crowd did not have good taste so they often stopped really good songs. This pissed me off because if I payed $ 20 to hear a song, I want to hear it. I feel like it’s just another way for the performers to make more money/​tips, but in a negative way.

Wow. What a tourist trap — a lot of people enjoyed the show (i.e., the tourists). However, you have to understand that what makes the show «go» is the tips you give the artists — the so called requests. Do not expect a duel. The show title is misleading. You have to really like 80’s music because that is what you will hear for most of the night. It wasn’t what I was expecting and I enjoyed myself, but I left after about 1.5 hrs because it became rather morning. I had to order from the bar. The place is severely understaffed. There as no drink minimum, which is good.

My fiancé and I had a great time at the Sweet Caroline’s Dueling Piano Bar at the HA! comedy club. First off, I really appreciate the fact that there is no drink minimum. Normally, at clubs like this, they force you to pay for expensive subpar drinks, but here they do not. The show is four hours long but the crowd starts to dwindle as the night goes on. Two extremely talented piano players and a drummer play song requests. It is really amazing the range of songs they know! They really try to fill all the tables so you may find yourself at a table with strangers. We actually got along quite well with the couple we met, so that was pretty fun.
The reasons this place did not get 5 stars:
(1) They give you slips of paper to request songs, however, to get your song played you basically have to pay 20 bucks. The other issue is that other people can pay to get your song stopped (if they pay more than you). I find that a bit obnoxious and I was surprised so many people paid for the songs! Because of that, I just let the rich and drunk people select the songs. I enjoyed it nonetheless.
(2) I did splurge on a long island iced tea and it was not good. It tasted like drink mix and I really didn’t taste any alcohol in it. If you are going to get a drink, I would recommend a beer so you know what you are getting.
Overall, I loved it and I think it is a great place to take visitors from out of town – it is right in Times Square!

As several people had mentioned, I purchased this as a part of a Groupon Deal. Quite honestly I should of saved my money. The main reason is because I thought if I made a song recommendation it would get played. However unless you place at least $ 20 dont expect that to happen. Even if you do there is no guarantee.
The piano players are talented however and a few good songs were played. But I always had the feeling that they were not «dueling» as the name had suggested but more of a duo. They seem to have certain agenda of songs they will play, which I didnt think were audience recommendations. The drinks were pretty good however I must say. Outside of the Groupon discount I wouldn’t recommend it. You can go to any non tourist Karaōke spot and enjoy yourself more.

The music was average – nothing to write home about.
The wait staff were HORRIBLE!!! My daughter and I bought the premium drinks package and at $ 65 each were a complete rip off. After being served two drinks, our waitress completely abandoned us and we never saw her again. Being a bit upset, I expressed my displeasure with the service to managerial staff but they were of little help. One of the managerial staff was downright rude and obnoxious!
If you want to spend your hard-​earned money on fun activities, I would suggest you not consider this place. There are plenty more fun spots in Manhattan that I’m sure would more greatly appreciate your patronage.

Yes, this place is touristy. Yes, there are tons of bachelorettes celebrating. Yes, this can get cheesy as hell. And YES, I loved it! Had a great time here– who wouldn’t like singing along to popular rock and 80’s sing alongs? One of the pianists is better than the other and the drummer really is great. The sax player is super cheesy and overly tanned, but a great musician nonetheless. The pianist play your requested songs based on how much you’re willing to pay to hear it. I was not willing to pay $ 20.00 to hear anything so my song never got played :-(
Go for some beers $ 7 – 8 each (I would not order mixed drinks from here) and for some laughs. And if you can get a discount (Living Social or Groupon) even better!
P. S. Be wary of the older men out looking for women to prey on. They are pretty much harmless, but definitely have an agenda.

It’s a little touristy, but damned if I didn’t have a great time. I was skeptical when my bachelorette-​party planning friends picked this place over Don’t Tell Mama (one of my faves for judgment-​free, low-​cost drunk singing). There’s a cover, and I’m generally leery of anywhere within the Times Square radius.
However, the minute I walked through the door, I was seduced by the rockin’ tunes of the dueling pianists. They’re incredibly talented, and accompanied by an equally proficient drummer and saxophone player, who has apparently jammed with all of the Beatles but George. And now he gets to try and play over people (read: me) scream-​singing at the top of their lungs.
Each table gets a pencil and a stack of request cards; you write your name and a few songs on the card, then boldly walk onto the stage to deposit your request. A couple bucks increases the chance your song gets played/​decreases the amount of time you’ll have to wait… and if you hate the song being performed, $ 10 gets you a channel change. Our group got all of our requests played, and they even invited the bachelorette up for a venue-​wide drinking game. By the end of the night, the people seated onstage (!!) had left, and our waiter offered us their seats.
For a more impromptu, low-​key (pun intended) piano bar session, stick to Don’t Tell Mama or Brandy’s on the Upper East Side, but for a group and a few hours, NYC Dueling Pianos is a ton of fun.