Jillian Laurain

Check out photos from the red carpet of the 37th annual MAC Awards!

The 37th MAC Award Winners were announced Tuesday, April 4, 2023 at a LIVE ceremony at NYC's Symphony Space. As previously announced, KEN PAGE and RICKY RITZEL received Lifetime Achievement Awards and JILLIAN LAURAIN received the Hanson Award.

Presenters and performers have been revealed for the 37th Annual MAC Awards! See who is taking part, and learn how to purchase tickets!

The Manhattan Association of Cabarets (MAC) is pleased to announce the 2023 MAC Award nominees.

The Manhattan Association of Cabarets (MAC) is pleased to announce the 2018 MAC Award nominees. The nominees, in a majority of the categories, were determined by votes cast by the active MAC membership. The MAC Board of Directors selected the nominees for Show of the Year. Special committees selected the nominees in the Ensemble Instrumentalist, Piano Bar Instrumentalist, Piano Bar Singing Entertainer (Female; Male), Recording (LaMott Friedman), Major Recording, Song and Comedy/Novelty Song categories. The names of the songwriters in the Song and Comedy/Novelty Song categories are being withheld during the voting period, but will be announced publicly as soon as the voting period concludes.

In a two-reviews-in-one column critiquing shows from last March, my esteemed editor, Stephen Hanks quoted the poet Robert Browning: “A man's reach should exceed his grasp. Or what's a heaven for?” Hanks pointed out that Browning's famous line is about setting goals, striving, and ambition, all of which are commendable desires. But, alas, in this particular review he felt the two singers in question “fell short.” One of those singers was Shana Farr and the show she has been performing throughout the past year, In The Still of the Night: Music of Noel Coward and Cole Porter. So here we are a year later, immersed in the revelry of the 2015 award season celebrating excellence in cabaret, and Farr's uniquely theatrical homage to Coward and Porter has recently won her the 2015 Bistro Award for “Outstanding Concept Show.” In spite of my editor's previous reservations about this show, he was open to hearing another perspective—whether positive or negative—so off to the Laurie Beechman Theatre I ventured on the last day of February to find out for myself whether Shana's show was truly award-worthy. Sorry, oh editor of mine, but you might have missed the boat on this one.

Jillian Laurain will be bringing the 'Met' to the 'Met Room' with 'A Touch of Class,' tonight, November 8, 2014 at 7pm. The performance will feature arias you would hear sung at the Metropolitan Opera, for the first time brought to the stages of the Metropolitan Room.

Jillian Laurain will be bringing the 'Met' to the 'Met Room' with 'A Touch of Class,' on Saturday, November 8, 2014 at 7pm. The performance will feature arias you would hear sung at the Metropolitan Opera, for the first time brought to the stages of the Metropolitan Room.

I was just a little more than a year into my new side career as a cabaret show reviewer when I first saw a Karen Oberlin show. It was Valentine's Day night 2012 and Oberlin—with guitarist Sean Harkness and guest violinist Aaron Weinstein—would be performing her romance-laced set, Stringing Along With Love, at the Metropolitan Room. At the time, all I knew about Oberlin was that she was considered among New York's best female cabaret singers, and I hadn't researched her performing history pre-show. About a third of the way into her set I leaned over to my wife (it was Valentine's Day after all) and whispered, “You know, she has a real Doris Day quality in her voice and in the way she delivers some lyrics.” This immediately ratcheted up my appreciation for Oberlin since there are four passions I inherited from my Dad—baseball, reading the morning papers, sports writing and Doris Day (well, also Sophia Loren, but that's for another column). Since Dad had grown up during the prime of the Big Band Era of the 1940s, I heard the sultry sounds of a young Doris Day singing songs like “Sentimental Journey” on the family stereo more than a few times. Once I saw Day's strikingly adorable blondness on a record cover and her rocking body in one of her films, I knew what Dad was talking about. As popular, famous, and near iconic as Doris Day became, in my book, as a singer and screen beauty she's always been vastly underrated. Little did I know that Karen Oberlin had been doing a Doris Day tribute show so since 2001 at places like Firebird, Iridium, and the late Danny's Skylight Room, and produced a CD, Secret Love: The Music of Doris Day, in 2002. Karen Oberlin had instantly become my secret love.

Cabaret Cares/Help Is On The Way Today, a 501c non-profit organization founded by MAC Award winning producer, Joseph Macchia, will hold its annual fundraising gala (cocktails, auction, dinner, show) on May 18th at the Laurie Beechman Theater, featuring a live show with many of New York's favorite performers who donate their time and talent to this wonderful event.

'A man's reach should exceed his grasp. Or what's a heaven for?' once wrote the poet Robert Browning. The line is about setting goals, striving, and ambition, all of which can be commendable desires. But sometimes in the world of cabaret, the desire to achieve the next level or to raise one's personal bar can be an overreach and overly ambitious. Such was the case with two shows staged this past week by two accomplished singers-Shana Farr and Jillian Laurain--who over the past couple of years have garnered mucho kudos for their vocal prowess and solid shows. Nobody could fault these lovely ladies for pushing their performance envelopes, but in both cases they fell short of their goals.

The Metropolitan Room has announced an exciting lineup of artists and entertainment for the month of March.

The 29th Annual Bistro Awards gala, set to take place tonight, March 4, has announced two new presenters. Stephen Schwartz, the Oscar, Tony, Grammy, and Golden Globe-winning composer/lyricist, who wrote the scores to such musicals as Pippin, Wicked, Godspell, and The Magic Show, will present Ben Vereen, the Tony Award-winning actor-singer-dancer, with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The 29th Annual Bistro Awards gala, set to take place on Tuesday, March 4, has announced two new presenters. Stephen Schwartz, the Oscar, Tony, Grammy, and Golden Globe-winning composer/lyricist, who wrote the scores to such musicals as Pippin, Wicked, Godspell, and The Magic Show, will present Ben Vereen, the Tony Award-winning actor-singer-dancer, with the Lifetime Achievement Award. And Dee Dee Bridgewater, who recently starred as Billie Holiday in the acclaimed Off-Broadway play 'Lady Day' and who can be listened to twice weekly in her own programs on the all-jazz nonprofit radio station WBGO, will present Amy Niles, acting president and CEO of the Newark-based station, with its award.

The Tony Award-winning actor-singer-dancer Ben Vereen, who has appeared in numerous shows on Broadway and in his own one-man shows around the country, will be honored, along with 17 others, at the 29th Annual Bistro Awards gala, which recognizes outstanding achievement in New York cabaret, jazz, and comedy. The celebration will take place on Tuesday, March 4 at Gotham Comedy Club, 208 W. 23rd St. (between 7th & 8th avenues).

Last night, December 19, Town Hall overflowed with the musical joys of the season when three extraordinary talents, Leslie Uggams, Marilyn Maye and Christine Andreas took the stage for Holiday Belles. These award-winning singers brought their unique and diverse talents to the celebration, performing songs from the musical theater and the American Songbook, as well as holiday favorites. The concert, conceived and directed by Michael Bush, featured each singer performing her own individual set, and then brought them together for a very merry finale of holiday melodies. Check out photos from the concert below!

If you're wondering whether or not 2013 was a fantastic year for the cabaret art form in New York, all you have to do is scan the amazing list of nominees for this year's BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Awards and you'll know it was one of the best ever. So now it's time for all you cabaret performers and fans to vote for the best singers, musicians, songs, and shows of the year. Voting will continue until Sunday night January 5 and the winners will be announced later that week. We hope that all the winners will be able to perform in the Award show on Sunday night February 23 at Joe's Pub.

The Major League Baseball All-Star break (the game is on Tuesday night) has always been considered the midpoint of the season and as a lifelong fan I've always enjoyed reading those analyses from writers that assess the best performances of the first half. Since July is also the middle of the calendar year, I thought it might be fun to present a cabaret equivalent of a baseball midseason report. So . . . (drum roll) . . . presenting the Best (and My Favorite) 20 New York Cabaret Shows and Performances of (the first half) of 2013.

When Dana Lorge's run as a Variety Show hosted ended at the Iguana Restaurant last July-and after winning two 2012 MAC Awards for 'Best Variety Show' and 'Best Variety Show Host'-who knew she'd be reduced to being a cabaret audience member searching for a new showcase? But a Metropolitan Room Mentch has come to the rescue in the form of Bernie Furshpan (the Met Room's General Partner and Manager), who has provided Dana with a monthly forum for her unique brand of cabaret shtick beginning Friday, April 5 at 7-8:15 pm. While the new show won't be the two-hour plus extravaganza of yore featuring more than a dozen performers, Dana's new 'Variety Show' promises to feature a solid group of experienced and well-known cabaret and musical theater pros. For the April 5 opener, the Lorge Lineup features Richard Skipper, her former Award-winning Co-host from the Iguana days; film and stage actor Jim Brochu (of Zero Mostel One-Man Show fame), singers LaTanya Hall (from the CBS show 'Blue Bloods) and Peggy Herman Klat, Rick Crom (Creator of Newsical the Musical), and Mr. Furshpan, who will show off his stand-up comedy chops. But the real star of the show will always be the hilarious, unpredictable, darling Dana, who will both crack you up with her infectious humor and surprise you with her engaging singing performances.

The cabaret gods must be smiling on this reviewer because this past Saturday evening my wife and I celebrated her birthday with an intimate dinner in between a couple of totally engaging shows from two lovely ladies of cabaret; the beautiful Jillian Laurain paying homage to classic Broadway show tunes at the Metropolitan Room, and the beguiling Stacy Sullivan in her MAC and BroadwayWorld.com Award-nominated tribute to Peggy Lee, 'It's a Good Day,' at the Cafe Carlyle. For me and the Birthday Girl, it was definitely a good night.