Lauren Fox News

Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director), in association with producer/director/lyricist and Director of Musical Programming Peter Napolitano, today announced the line-up for their sixth series of musical evenings entitled WINTER RHYTHMS 2014, beginning Tuesday, December 2nd and continuing through Sunday, December 14th at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue).

KT Sullivan has always managed in many ways to turn the world of Cabaret upside down. With her enormous gifts of wit, intelligence, voice, musicianship, creativity, and business sense she was the perfect choice to be the artistic director of the Mabel Mercer Foundation. The second evening of the Cabaret Convention and Happy Birthday to Julie Wilson was a entertainment tour de force. The sold out Rose Hall saw performances by:

This November Islington's King's Head Theatre is to stage the world premiere of Norris Church Mailer's stage play Go See, a gripping exploration of personal, cultural and sexual identity in a big city. Directed by Sondra Lee and designed by Klara Zieglerova with lighting design by Mike Robertson, the show runs November 12 to 29, 2014. Press night is slated for November 14 at 7.15 p.m.

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.

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.

After more than two decades of exciting contribution to the New York musical scene, The Mabel Mercer Foundation hits a new high this autumn by producing its 25th annual New York Cabaret Convention for four evenings, October 20th-23rd. All performances begin at 6 o'clock at the Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Frederick P. Rose Hall at Broadway and 60th Street.

This August and September 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.

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, including: Under the Covers, The Lady with the Torch, Dare to Dream, A Taylor Swift Love Story, and Freestyle Love Supreme.

Since I attended more than 50 shows over the past eight months (a few more than once)--the large majority of which were reviewed on these web pages—I felt I had more than enough cabaret show inventory to present my second-annual “Mid-Year Cabaret Review” citing the “20 Best Cabaret Shows and Performances” for the first half of 2014. Since the eligibility period for 2014 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Award consideration begins with shows staged since last November (late October if it was the first of a run), I've included a few of those late 2013 shows in this group. And with the announcement of the BWW Award nominees just four months away, I've offered some projections on the Award categories for which these shows very well might receive consideration.

New York's Metropolitan Room is extending its deadline for applications for this year's 2014 "MetroStar Talent Challenge" to July 4.

When Margaret Whiting died on January 10, 2011, the news was like a dagger into the heart of the New York cabaret community. Whiting was a beloved singer for almost seven decades, who seemingly delivered every American popular song ever written, conquered almost every musical art form--from Big Band to Country to Musicals to Cabaret, from radio to the recording studio. On top of all that, Whiting worked with and mentored many New York cabaret musical directors and performers, including the late Mary Cleere Haran and K.T. Sullivan, who along with Whiting's daughter Deborah, hosted a 90th birthday Whiting tribute show on Monday night at Carnegie Hall's elegant Weill Recital Hall. Presented by The Mabel Mercer Foundation, for which Sullivan is Artistic Director, It Might As Well Be Spring! A Celebration in Song of the Life of Margaret Whiting was an almost three-hour concert featuring two All-Star teams worth of cabaret stars spanning a few generations.

Margaret Whiting was one of America's favorite and most venerated singers for more than sixty years. She delivered stellar performances on record, radio, television, and the musical comedy, concert, and cabaret stages. She received twelve Gold Records. She offered a repertoire that ranged from Jerome Kern to Leon Russell, and from Rodgers & Hart to Michel Legrand and Alan & Marilyn Bergman.

Kate Flannery joins Jane Lynch on Wednesday at 54 Below for the 'Glee' star's show at 54 Below.

Rising cabaret star Marissa Mulder's most recent performance of 'Living Standards' at the Metropolitan Room was certainly up to the high standard she has set for herself over the past couple of years. In fact, she's so consistently solid that she overcame the show's misguided and clunky premise that some very good contemporary songs should be thought of as 'standards.'

The Downtown Cabaret Theatre presents The Songs of Joni Mitchell & Leonard Cohen by Lauren Fox for Two Performances ONLY today, June 14 at 5:30pm and 8:30pm. The Downtown Cabaret Theatre is located 263 Golden Hill Street, in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The Downtown Cabaret Theatre presents The Songs of Joni Mitchell & Leonard Cohen by Lauren Fox for Two Performances ONLY on Saturday, June 14 at 5:30pm and 8:30pm. The Downtown Cabaret Theatre is located 263 Golden Hill Street, in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

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.

May and June sees some new artists and some returns at The Crazy Coqs, including: Harold Sanditen (May 2-3); Simon Green with David Shrubsole (May 6-10); Lauren Fox with Jon Weber (May 13 - 17); Gary Williams (May 20 -24); KT Sullivan and Mark Nadler (May 26-28); Opera Tottie (May 29 - 31); Bryan Batt (June 3 - 7); Judy Carmichael with Colin Oxley (June 10 -14); Elaine Delmar (June 17 - 21) and more. Details below!

World premieres, brand new shows and classic songbook - the LONDON FESTIVAL OF CABARET spreads its wings across London in May. Celebrating all things songbook, the LFOC will play at eight venues in the Capital from TUESDAY 6 MAY to THURSDAY 22 MAY 2014.