MAMA'S NEXT BIG ACT! Trims Down Competitors
By: Tyler Peterson Jul. 09, 2015
The stakes and the excitement just keep getting bigger as the list of competitors grows shorter... On Tuesday night "Mama's Next BIG Act!" trimmed down to 16 competitors in front of a packed house filled with raucous fans.
Presented by the legendary Theatre District hotspot Don't Tell Mama, 343 West 46th Street, the genre-bending talent contest, now in its first year, continues next Tuesday July 14 at 7:30pm. Advancing in the contest are Mama's BIG 16, a diverse assortment of solo and duo vocal acts spanning age groups, styles and backgrounds. Still kicking are two duo groups and 14 solo singers who either provide their own accompaniment, or are backed by the contest's shockingly ambidextrous music director Steven Ray Watkins. All are in hot pursuit of Don't Tell Mama's game-changing prize package, including a fully-produced, four-show run of a new show (complete with publicity support and graphic design by Hector Coris); an appearance on Seth Rudetsky's nationally-aired Sirius/XM Radio show; a feature story in Cabaret Scenes, AND a Black & Decker toaster oven! The winner's show poster will be permanently enshrined on Mama's Legacy Wall, which is festooned with original posters of some of the club's legendary acts. The winner will also have an original song written for them by the much admired tunesmith and director Barry Kleinbort, and they wil be coached in acceptance speech techniques by Mama's revered booking manager Sidney Myer, a fixture on the cabaret circuit since before the phonograph was invented.The contest's co-producers are Don't Tell Mama's general manager Limor Shekhter, and cabaret giant Lennie Watts, who serves as the contest's lovably acerbic host and talent wrangler. Serving the 12-week audience and jury-voted competition as permanent judges are the singer-entertainer Tanya Moberly, and the singer and Cabaret Scenes Magazine editor-in-chief Frank Dain. Splashing the judge's pool are these New York entertainment bigs: William Blake, Mary Foster Conklin, Scott Coulter, Cynthia Crane, Natalie Douglas, Tommy Femia, Michael Holland, Cady Huffman, Rick Jensen, David Kenney, Barry Kleinbort, Lina Koutrakos, Karen Mack, Karen Mason, Marissa Mulder, Georga Osborne, Phyllis Pastore, Kelli Rabke, Julie Reyburn, Ruby Rims, Ricky Ritzel, Jay Rogers, Richard Skipper, Stacy Sullivan, and Nancy Witter.
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