Lauren Fox News

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.

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.

Back in 2010, Veteran of seven Broadway shows and cabaret artist Rosemary Loar  performed her critically acclaimed cabaret show Sting, Stang, Stung!, which featured jazzy and emotional interpretations of the pop icon's vast songbook of hits. Now five years later, Loar is back with a new cabaret show based on the Sting songbook. Loar's STING*chronicity offers an unexpected combination of monologues with a stunning variety of arrangements featuring the music of this brilliant contemporary songwriter.

This September and October, 54 Below presents an exciting lineup of the brightest talent from Broadway and beyond. Located just below the legendary Studio 54 at 254 West 54th Street.

Back in 2010, Veteran of seven Broadway shows and cabaret artist Rosemary Loar  performed her critically acclaimed cabaret show Sting, Stang, Stung!, which featured jazzy and emotional interpretations of the pop icon's vast songbook of hits. Now five years later, Loar is back with a new cabaret show based on the Sting songbook. Loar's STING*chronicity offers an unexpected combination of monologues with a stunning variety of arrangements featuring the music of this brilliant contemporary songwriter.

Elton John. Carole King. Joni Mitchell. Carly Simon. Paul Simon. Stevie Wonder. They were six superstar singer/songwriters in a constellation of such stars during the early 1970s; musicians who could definitely be considered the composers of the 'New Great American Songbook.' On July 23 at 7 pm, the Rosen Performing Arts Center of the Wayne, New Jersey YMCA (as part of their 2015 Summer Concert Series) will present the star-studded revue Salute to Singer/Songwriters of the Seventies, which celebrates the great talents of the 'Golden Age of the Pop Singer/Songwriter.'

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.

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.

Elton John. Carole King. Joni Mitchell. Carly Simon. Paul Simon. Stevie Wonder. They were six superstar singer/songwriters in a constellation of such stars during the early 1970s; musicians who could definitely be considered the composers of the 'New Great American Songbook.' On July 23 at 7 pm, the Rosen Performing Arts Center of the Wayne, New Jersey YMCA (as part of their 2015 Summer Concert Series) will present the star-studded revue Salute to Singer/Songwriters of the Seventies, which celebrates the great talents of the 'Golden Age of the Pop Singer/Songwriter.'

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 tonight, 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.

54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club, presents '54 Sings ELTON JOHN,' an evening celebrating the work of mega-recording star, Elton John.

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.

Next 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.

With her new show at the Metropolitan Room that opened last night—Groupies: The Muses Behind the Legends of Rock & Roll--the usually smart and meticulous Lauren Fox (as evidenced by her shows that celebrated the music of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen and later the Pop/Rock that emerged from Laurel Canyon in the 1960s) has here chosen questionable territory--the celebration of women who serially slept their way through the music business or, as Fox more poetically says, “Made it their life's mission to meet the beautiful boys who made the music that moved them.” Hook-ups are exemplified by often unappealing numbers (too much monotone) and bridged with quotes by groupies whose role as “muses” or sources of creative inspiration seems a stretch.

54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club, presents '54 Sings ELTON JOHN,' an evening celebrating the work of mega-recording star, Elton John.

This summer, The Metropolitan Room presents vocalist Rebekah Lowin in 'I Know You By Heart,' a powerful and intimate new show that highlights the life and legacy of the late singer Eva Cassidy, as well as her original arrangements. 

Tribute shows to iconic entertainers celebrating a centennial birthday in 2015 seem to be all the rage this year. But nobody has been celebrated more in cabaret variety shows than Frank Sinatra—and rightly so. Wall Street Journal entertainment columnist Will Friedwald, also a producer and author who wrote the 1997 book Sinatra! The Song Is You—A Singer's Art, this past Saturday presented the biggest (and longest) tribute to “Ol' Blue Eyes” so far this year with Sinatra-Thon at The Cutting Room (co-curated with performer Cary Hoffman), a potpourri of events running from 10 am to an after-midnight jam, and which included varied live entertainment, rare film clips, and panel discussions.

Coming up this week, 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.

Broadway's 40 theatres aren't the only places to catch performances from your favorite stars! Well after Broadway orchestra's 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: James Monroe Iglehart: How the Heck Did I Get Here?; Robin de Jesus: #TheStruggleIsReal; Lane Bradbury: Let Me Entertain You, Again; Daniel Reichard Sings Rodgers and Hammerstein with Special Guest Laura Osnes; and A Very Broadway Mother's Day.