BWW Awards: Cast Your Ballots For 2015 New York Cabaret Awards in 14 Categories; Voting Ends 12/31
On Thanksgiving Day, BroadwayWorld announced the nominees in 14 categories for the 2015 BWW New York Cabaret Awards. BroadwayWorld's cabaret editors and reviewers congratulate all the deserving nominees and everyone who performs in the great art of cabaret in New York. But today, as you munch on the leftovers from last night's dinner, it's time to actually vote for that one performer who you think is the absolute best in each category. Voting ends on December 31 and after a review of the ballots, winners will be announced officially early the week of January 4, 2016. (Note: There will not be a BWW Awards Show this year.)
BWW Review: The Mabel Mercer Foundation's 26th Annual Cabaret Convention Comes Home to Town Hall, Opening Night, October 13
In October 1989, four years after he founded The Mable Mercer Foundation, cabaret publicist and promoter Donald Smith launched the first Cabaret Convention at New York's Town Hall. The now four-day event eventually moved to Lincoln Center's Rose Hall, but due to renovations this year at the more uptown revue, this year's 26th Annual Convention was back at its old West 43rd Street stomping grounds. Since Donald Smith died in March 2012, the Mercer Foundation's Artistic Director and de-facto Convention Producer has been cabaret star KT Sullivan, and for Monday night's opening show she greeted the audience, in measured tempo, with the infectious enthusiasm of Cole Porter (“Another Opening, Another Show”) and Irving Berlin (“There's No Business Like Show Business”). Sullivan provided an effective, entertaining onramp to an evening that featured experienced American and European artists from cabaret and theater and relative cabaret newbies who've recently made a mark on the scene.
BWW Reviews: REBEKAH LOWIN Displays Her Talented New Voice In Uneven Eva Cassidy Tribute at Metropolitan Room
Rebekah Lowin is a pretty, personable young woman with a voice that, at its best, can be ethereal. A recent Columbia University grad, Lowin first made an impression on cabaret audiences in October 2013 with an appearance at the Cabaret Convention and a show at 54 Below. Her new offering at the Metropolitan Room, I Know You By Heart, is built around the songs of Eva Cassidy, who inspired Lowin's devotion when she was in the sixth grade and held steadfast for five years of repeated listening. Virtually unknown outside Washington, DC during her lifetime, Cassidy's posthumous compilation Songbird topped the charts in 1998. (Ms. Cassidy died of cancer in 1996.) Lowin looks rather like her subject and appears to have similar range, if a less mature voice.
Cabaret Convention Returning to Town Hall
It's an undeniable, outstanding, and extraordinary musical milestone, to be sure: 2015 marks the thirtieth anniversary of The Mabel Mercer Foundation! Not only has the organization survived the ongoing and vastly fluctuating public tastes in music, lyrics, and performers, it has proliferated and burgeoned in its three decades of commitment to the classic, "Great Popular Songbook" -- both past and present.
