Stephen Hanks - Page 4

Stephen Hanks, Producer of Cabaret Life Productions, and Union Temple of Brooklyn (17 Eastern Parkway) are proud to announce that Musical Director/Pianist Jon Weber will perform his critically acclaimed show, From Joplin to Jarrett: 100 Years of Piano Jazz, at Union Temple on June 19 at 8 pm. The one-man concert will be in the 3rd Floor Social Hall at 8 pm after the 6:30 pm Shabbat Service and dinner. Admission to the concert is FREE.

Since BroadwayWorld.com launched its New York Cabaret Awards in 2012, the process of voting on preliminary nominees and final nominees for recognition in approximately 20 categories has been open to anyone registering to vote on the highly-trafficked entertainment website. For it's 4th Annual Cabaret Awards nomination period—this year beginning after Thanksgiving 2015--BroadwayWorld will now put the nomination process into the hands of its cabaret show reviewing staff (Alix Cohen, David Clarke, John Hoglund, Andrew Martin, Billie Roe, and Remy Block) and select industry experts, led by BWW Cabaret Editor and Awards Show Producer Stephen Hanks (who has also hosted the show since its inception). Once the final nominees are announced, the general public will again be offered the chance to vote online for the best performers and shows of the past year.

Mary Foster Conklin and Amy Engelhardt, two of New York City's most unique cabaret artists, return to the Duplex to make their own fun on Wednesday, June 3 at 7 pm. Sprung from different parts of New Jersey's underbelly, these unique storytellers with serious potty mouths recently discovered each other's talents--and are now proud members of a mutual admiration society.

Legendary theatre district cabaret nightspot Don't Tell Mama--which has been a launch pad for countless future stars in cabaret and theater since it inaugurated its cabaret in November 1982--has announced it will present the first annual Mama's Next BIG Act! a 12-week competition for entertainers that mixes styles and genres. Beginning Tuesday June 9 at 9:30 pm, and running for 12 consecutive weeks every Tuesday through August 25, Mama's Next BIG Act! will attract acts in multiple categories and then pit the top votegetters in head-to-head competition during the contest's final weeks. Voted by the audience and a cavalcade of celebrity judges, the contest will invite solo, duo, and group acts in the following categories: music, magic, drag, burlesque, and variety. (All acts may use the contest's resident music director, or provide their own accompaniment.)

The York Theatre Company and its Artistic Director James Morgan and producers Amy Engelhardt and Heather Shields, will be presenting the 8th edition of the quirky and popular musical theater game show Tune in Time, on Tuesday May 5 at 7:30 pm with a new cast of contestants and celebrity judges. Joining the songwriting fray for this round are Alan Gordon (Kleban Award for The Usual), Kathryn Hathaway (Afterland), Bill Nelson (Harmony, Kansas), Rachel Peters (curator of Cornelia Street Cafe's Otherwise Unsung series), Brad Simmons (musical director of Broadway's Lysistrata Jones), and Benjamin Velez (Pain in the Aztec). Among the celebrity judges for the next show will be Broadway Producer Ken Davenport (Altar Boyz), casting director Michael Cassara (NYMF, A Time for Singing at the York) and performer Rachel Rhodes-Devey (Merrily We Roll Along at APAC).

Linda Amiel Burns is about to launch the May/June 2015 edition of her Singing Experience Workshop and still has openings for intrepid singers, whether pros who need polishing or newcomers who need nurturing. As Burns says, “Whatever level you are at, The Singing Experience is for you.” With Musical Director/Accompanist Richard Danley at the piano, the six-session May/June 2015 workshop—called HIT PARADE—will include four rehearsals at Studio 353 (353 West 48th Street) on Thursday evenings, May 21, May 28, June 4, and June 11, from 6:30-9:30 pm. The performance show, in which the participants perform solos and group numbers in front of friends, family, and cabaret lovers, is scheduled for Wednesday, June 17 at Stage 72 (The Triad) at 7:30 pm. The group holds a “DVD Viewing Party” of the show on June 17, 7-10 pm.

Singer and actress Julie Wilson, arguably one of the greatest cabaret chanteuses to grace a stage, died early this morning at the age of 90, according to her long time accompanist and friend Christopher Denny, who posted the news on his Facebook page. As of 8:45 this morning, the news of Wilson's death had not yet broken through major news outlets. Denny reported that Wilson 'died peacefully, surrounded by people who loved her, after having sustained two strokes over the last several days.' Up until the past couple of months of her life, the energetic Wilson was still being seen at various cabaret shows around town and supporting the new breed of stars, recently having the time of her life at a Mark Nadler show at the York Theatre.

Artistic Director James Morgan, The York Theatre Company, and producers Amy Engelhardt and Heather Shields, will be presenting another edition of the quirky and popular musical theater game show Tune in Time, on Monday, April at 7:30 pm with a new cast of contestants and celebrity judges. Joining the composing fray for this round will be composers Lisa deSpain, Mark Sonnenblick, and Rick Bassett, while the lyricists they will team up with could come from a group consisting of Sarah Ziegler, Gordon Leary and cabaret performer, Broadway actress, and musical theater composer/book writer Rosemary Loar. Among the celebrity judges for the next show will be Matt Britten, Executive Producer for Blank! The Musical and marketing director for the New York Musical Theatre Festival; Remy Zaken, from the original Broadway company of Spring Awakening; and Thomas Honeck, the general manager for the Duplex and recent MAC Award winner for his cabaret show, Dancing With Dealth.

At last December's 12-day, 20-show Urban Stages Winter Rhythms Festival, composer Steve Schalchlin presented one of the highlights the two-week program with his dramatic, passionate, political, witty, and melodically soaring song cycle New World Waking. (Read BroadwayWorld's entire review here.) Now Schalchlin, who was recently honored with a 2014 BroadwayWorld.com New York Cabaret Award for "Excellence in Songwriting," will have his stirring piece performed by the EarthStone Theatre Company at the Boston Conservatory tonight, March 10 at 8 pm.

By popular demand, The York Theatre Company and producers Amy Engelhardt and Heather Shields, will present the March edition of the new musical theater game show called Tune in Time, hosted by Emily McNamara. Music direction is by Nate Buccieri, and Sheila Head is the annoyingly insistent timekeeper, on Monday, March 9, 2015 at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peter's (Citicorp Building, entrance on East 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue). Additional dates announced include April 5, May 4, with more to come. All performances will begin at 7:30 p.m.

At last December's 12-day, 20-show Urban Stages Winter Rhythms Festival, composer Steve Schalchlin presented one of the highlights the two-week program with his dramatic, passionate, political, witty, and melodically soaring song cycle New World Waking. (Read BroadwayWorld's entire review here.) Now Schalchlin, who was recently honored with a 2014 BroadwayWorld.com New York Cabaret Award for “Excellence in Songwriting,” will have his stirring piece performed by the EarthStone Theatre Company at the Boston Conservatory on Tuesday night, March 10 at 8 pm.

In 2015, the CabaretFest in Provincetown (MA), one of America's biggest Cabaret events, is returning to its roots. After a one-year layoff, this weekend extravaganza of song that began in 1999 under the guidance of actor and cabaret performer John O'Neil, will be back this June (4-7) bigger and better than ever. Singer and Cape Cod resident Patricia Fitzpatrick and Ambassador Productions has recruited O'Neil to help re-launch the event in its original format-only longer. CabaretFest 2015 Provincetown weekend will be jammed-packed with activities and shows that Fitzpatrick says, 'Promise to be educational, entertaining, and fun, and all will celebrate 'The Art of Cabaret!'

After performing two sold-out shows in mid-January that garnered rave reviews from New York cabaret critics, Pamela Lewis (a.k.a. Champagne Pam), again brings her unique interpretation of Long Island icon Billy Joel's songbook to the New York's Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues) on Saturday, March 7 at 7 pm. In New York State of Mind: The Songs of Billy Joel, you'll hear the 2013 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Award Winner for 'Best Female Vocalist' deliver unique and stirring interpretations of classic Joel songs such as, 'The Stranger,' 'My Life,' 'A Matter of Trust,' 'Just the Way You Are,' 'New York State of Mine,' and many more beloved Joel hits.

The 2014 BWW New York Cabaret Awards will celebrate the best cabaret performers and shows of last year as voted on by 7,500 fans in December after a one-month preliminary ballot process. Produced, directed, and hosted for the third straight year by BWW Cabaret Editor Stephen Hanks, the BWW Awards show will feature performances by many of the winners, many of whom are among the cream of the crop in the art of cabaret. Joining a star-studded cast (see below) will be two-time 2014 BWW Cabaret Award nominee and Broadway Musical star Len Cariou, who will perform a special tribute to the late songwriter Ervin Drake.

As the days dwindled down to a precious few in 2014, a few cabaret goers and performers in what is affectionately but also self-mockingly called the “cabaret community” would sidle up and ask if I was planning my annual end-of-the year “Best Of” column, similar to the “Top 20 Bests and Favorites” piece over the first half of the year I posted back in early July. I would respond in the negative with very reasonable and believable excuses, but the truth is I didn't want to reveal my “Bests” of the year until the voting for the 2014 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Awards had ended. There's enough baggage and backstage whispering that comes with administering the BWW Awards, so I wasn't about to publish any opinions that might influence the vote while it was in process. I may be crazy but I'm not masochistic. But now all bets are off. You want lists? I'll give you lists.

Last September, after appearing at the popular Manhattan open mic cabaret show, Salon, Bistro and MAC Award-winning singer Amy Beth Williams was struck by a car near her home in Brooklyn. Now an all-star roster of Williams' fellow cabaret performers and friends will stage a benefit show, Once In Love With Amy, at Don't Tell Mama tonight, January 21 at 7 pm, to help replace the funds Williams has lost during her extensive recovery.

Last September, after appearing at the popular Manhattan open mic cabaret show, Salon, Bistro and MAC Award-winning singer Amy Beth Williams was struck by a car near her home in Brooklyn. Now an all-star roster of Williams' fellow cabaret performers and friends will stage a benefit show, Once In Love With Amy, at Don't Tell Mama on January 21 at 7 pm, to help raise the funds Williams has lost during her extensive recovery.

BroadwayWorld has called Ann Hampton Callaway the current “Queen of Cabaret” and apparently much of the cabaret audience agrees. The votes for the 2014 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Awards are official and Callaway is the “Performer of the Year,” having garnered 2,194 votes (the most of any nominee) out of the 66,179 votes cast by approximately 7,500 voters for 148 nominees in 17 categories. Here are your 2014 BWW New York Cabaret Award Winners.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Nelson Riddle / Linda Ronstadt collaboration of the Great American Songbook, 2001 BroadwayWorld Award Winner for 'Best LA Cabaret Performer' Robyn Spangler will bring her show featuring selections from the three platinum certified albums: “What's New”, “Lush Life,” and “For Sentimental Reasons” to the Metropolitan Room on January 12 and 17.

With the official results of the voting for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards to be revealed later this week, BWW and New York Cabaret Editor Stephen Hanks have announced this year's special “Editor's Awards” for special achievement in categories that were not subject to online voting. The winners will receive their Awards and most will perform at the 3rd Annual BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards show on February 23 (6:30 pm) at Joe's Pub. Tickets are already on sale and can be purchased here.