Jeff Harnar News

On the second night of this year's 26th Annual Cabaret Convention, Jeff Harnar and Andrea Marcovicci hosted A Sentimental Journey: World War II Songs, inspired by Marcovicci's memorable Oak Room at The Algonquin show, I'll Be Seeing You--Love Songs of World War II. (The CD is highly recommended.) As always with this pair's Convention contribution, the show was a treat in part because of its singular glamour. Much of our audience was exceptionally familiar with and nostalgic about these songs. A few had to be politely quieted for singing along, more than a few took each other's hands. It seems I've heard that song before . . . the co-hosts begin, warming the room.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its November 2015 schedule, featuring Django Reinhardt Festival Allstars, Benny Green Trio, The Birdland Big Band, Lesli Margherita, Christine Ebersole & Billy Stritch, Poncho Sanchez, Jim Caruso's Cast Party and more. Scroll down for details!

Jeff Harnar & Andrea Marcovicci hosted the second day of the Mabel Mercer Foundation's New York Cabaret Convention.  The Donald Smith Award was presented to Jeff by managing director Rick Meadows and Debbi Bush Whiting presented Celia Berk with The Margaret Whiting Award. Performing in the evenings concert were: Karen Akers, Danny Bacher, Julie Budd, Carole J. Bufford, Eric Comstock, Natalie Douglas, barbara Fasano, Jeff Harnar, Nicolas King, Karen Kohler, Andrea Mardovicci, Marissa Mulder, Todd Murray, Josephine Sanges, Jennifer Sheehan and Iris Williams.?

The Mabel Mercer  Foundation returned to The Town Hall last night for the first of 4 different concerts and BroadwayWorld will be there for all. Here are some photos from the opening night. 2015 is the twenty-sixth annual New York Cabaret Convention.

This week FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visitwww.54Below.com/Feinsteins or call (646) 476-3551.

Acclaimed Broadway, film and television star Tovah Feldshuh brought her acclaimed show Aging Is Optional at 54 Below last night and BroadwayWorld was there for the fun. On the New York stage, besides earning four Tony nominations for Best Actress, Ms. Feldshuh won four Drama Desk Awards, four Outer Critics Circle Awards, the Obie, the Theatre World Award, and the Lucille LortelAward for Best Actress in Golda's Balcony. On the West Coast she received San Diego's Theatre Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Performance in a Touring Show for Golda's Balcony as well as two Drama Logue awards for her Juliet and her first one woman show: Tovah: A Rush Hour Revue! Most recently, Tovah stopped the show as the trapeze-swinging Berthe in the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Pippin. Last season, she played Lady Politic in the acclaimed revival of Ben Jonson's Volpone at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. As Jason Zinoman of The New York Times raved, 'No one earns more laughs than the marvelous Tovah Feldshuh.' 

This week FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visitwww.54Below.com/Feinsteins or call (646) 476-3551.

Broadway's 40 theatres aren't the only places to catch performances from your favorite stars! Well after Broadway orchestras begin their overtures, ensemble members take their dance breaks, and performers belt out their eleven o'clock numbers, the party continues at various cabaret venues throughout New York City. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you some cabaret highlights for this week as picked by our theatre editors, including: Jessica Keenan Wynn at 54 Below; Bring Him Home: Celebrating Kyle Jean-Baptiste; Lee Roy Reams Salutes His Leading Ladies; Lisa Howard at 54 Below; and Tovah Feldshuh: Aging Is Optional.

NJTV, New Jersey's public television network, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) announced a talent-rich line-up for season three of the award-winning American Songbook at NJPAC series.

Back in January, BroadwayWorld's lead cabaret reviewer Stephen Hanks announced he was giving up critiquing shows to start his own company, Cabaret Life Productions, through which he would publicize, promote, and help book cabaret performers, and also produce cabaret shows. Hanks' first major production out of the box is a monthly series at the Metropolitan Room called New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits, that features talented artists recreating award-winning or highly-praised shows we wish we'd seen--a really good idea. Hanks' series launched Wednesday night with Mark Nadler's award-winning 2003 show Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians). The Metropolitan Room was filled to the gills and abuzz with anticipation, as most of the audience was only familiar with the show's second-hand praise and/or the CD version of Nadler's performance.

For diehard cabaret fans and lovers of live music, there's nothing like experiencing a classic show once again or seeing an award winning 'blast from the past' for the first time. That's how cabaret show producer and publicist Stephen Hanks felt and so through his new company, Cabaret Life Productions, he's launching a new monthly series at New York's Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street) titled New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits. Hanks wanted the cream of the New York cabaret crop to open the series and tapped veteran cabaret star Mark Nadler, who the New York Times critic Stephen Holden has called 'Mr. Show Business' and 'an immensely talented latter-day Al Jolson.' On August 26 (7-8:30 pm), Nadler will perform his critically acclaimed show Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians), which won a 2003 Bistro Award for 'Raising Standards of Cabaret Performance,' and received MAC and Nightlife Award Nominations for 'Outstanding Performance in a Major Engagement.'

Lynn University and Jan McArt, producer and director of theatre arts program development, are announcing that both season subscriptions and individual show tickets are now available for the popular Mabel Mercer Foundation's Cabaret at Lincoln Center comes to Live at Lynn Series. Starting in January 2016, five of Manhattan's leading cabaret headliners will appear in concert in Lynn's Amarnick-Goldstein Concert Hall.

For the first time in 15 years, cabaret star Julie Reyburn brings back her award-winning show, Fate Is Kind, to a New York nightclub stage when she performs the classic at the Metropolitan Room on Monday, September 14 at 7 pm as part of the new monthly series, New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits, produced by Stephen Hanks' Cabaret Life Productions with cabaret supporter Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD as Associate Producer. [Reyburn's show will follow the Series launch on August 26 at 7 pm with Mark Nadler's critically acclaimed Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians), which won a 2003 Bistro Award.] Reyburn and her celebrated Musical Director Mark Janas (Producer of the Award-Winning Open-Mic show Salon) introduced Fate Is Kind in February 2000 at The Singer's Forum as a benefit cabaret for their scholarship program. It then moved to Judy's Chelsea in March 2000 for its official cabaret debut, and the show ran off and on there for most of the year. Fate Is Kind world earn Reyburn MAC and Bistro Awards in 2001 for "Outstanding Female Cabaret Debut."

In his new show at the Metropolitan Room, Give My Regards to Broadway (which opened on July 18), Jacob Storms wholeheartedly disproves the perception that a singer making their debut in the cabaret arena need a director or more than just a pianist to prove their greatness. Over at Don't Tell Mama, former Oak Room show producer Arthur Pomposello has re-emerged with a new regular blues supper club show.

This week at 54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com or call (646) 476-3551.

Stuart Moulton's Austin (Texas) Cabaret Theatre (may it thrive and prosper) turned 15 in tandem with his own 50th birthday. In celebration on Wednesday night, the Theatre's Artistic Director (also a performer himself) invited alumni and hopefuls to strut their stuff on the stage of 54 Below. The result was a wildly mixed bag of a show--featuring a few great vocalists and infectiously enthusiastic wannabes--which ran so exhaustively long that Moultan was able to change his clothes twice.

I could tell you that KT Sullivan and Jeff Harnar have done it again, but the truth is that they've done it even better. Their first foray into the Stephen Sondheim songbook last summer, Our Time, consisted of she sings, he sings--each watching the other perform then offering duets. This iteration titled Another Hundred People: Sullivan and Harnar Sing Sondheim—Act II (both at the Laurie Beechman Theatre), beautifully directed by Sondra Lee, considers both characters theatrically, not just vocally, but visually.

This week at 54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com or call (646) 476-3551.

For diehard cabaret fans and lovers of live music, there's nothing like experiencing a classic show once again or seeing an award winning 'blast from the past' for the first time. That's how cabaret show producer and publicist Stephen Hanks felt and so through his new company, Cabaret Life Productions, he's launching a new monthly series at New York's Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street) titled New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits. Hanks wanted the cream of the New York cabaret crop to open the series and tapped veteran cabaret star Mark Nadler, who the New York Times critic Stephen Holden has called 'Mr. Show Business' and 'an immensely talented latter-day Al Jolson.' On August 26 (7-8:30 pm), Nadler will perform his critically acclaimed show Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians), which won a 2003 Bistro Award for 'Raising Standards of Cabaret Performance,' and received MAC and Nightlife Award Nominations for 'Outstanding Performance in a Major Engagement.'

This July, 54 Below celebrates The Frank Sinatra Birthday Centennial with three special musical events featuring some of the brightest stars from Broadway and cabaret including Tony Award nominees Tom Wopat and Bob Stillman, Bistro and MAC Award winner Jeff Harnar, Broadway's Sal Viviano, acclaimed jazz vocalist Erin McDougald and her quintet, and Holland Vavra with Anneliese van der Pol (Beauty and the Beast, Disney Channel's 'That's So Raven'), Tyce Green, Katie Rosen and Jared Zirilli in a recreation of Sinatra's legendary 1966 performance at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.