Stephen Hanks News

After four years reviewing cabaret shows, more than two for BroadwayWorld, our lead New York cabaret critic Stephen Hanks will be giving up reviewing shows to be the BWW Cabaret section's Editor and lead feature writer. Here's how he became a cabaret reviewer, why he's giving it up, and who he's brought on board to make up BWW's new cabaret reviewing team.

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, who could be considered the composers of the 'New Great American Songbook. On Saturday, December 13 at 7 pm, as part of its annual 12-day 'Winter Rhythms' Festival, Urban Stages will present a star-studded variety show celebrating these great talents of the Golden Age of the Pop Singer/Songwriter.

t may not be like getting a gift on each of the 12 Days of Christmas, but for cabaret and musical theater lovers, the 6th Annual Urban Stages Winter Rhythms series--presented over a dozen nights at the not-for-profit Off-Broadway theatre on 259 West 30th Street--could be the closest thing to opening a daily present by the tree. From December 2-14 (no shows on Dec. 9), more than 100 singers, musicians, and songwriters will perform in an eclectic mix of 20 shows including one-night-only group shows, excerpts from new musicals, solo shows, open mics, late night spotlights, and family matinees, with all the proceeds from ticket sales dedicated to the Urban Stages On Tour Outreach Program that brings more than 200 free multicultural theater and music programs to elementary and middle school age children and their families in libraries and schools throughout NYC five boroughs.

The day is finally here! After one month of voting on preliminary nominees in 17 categories, the results of more than 5,000 ballots were considered along with the selections of BroadwayWorld's cabaret section editors to determine the final nominees for the 2014 BroadwayWorld.com New York Cabaret Awards. Joining cabaret icon Marilyn Maye with four nominations is budding star Carole J. Bufford, who made the final ballot for two different shows during 2014 and as 'Best Female Vocalist' and 'Performer of the Year.' Among Maye's nominations were 'Performer of the Year,' two shows in the 'Best Celebrity Show' category, and a 'Best Director' nomination for her work with jazz singer Gabrielle Stravelli (who received two nominations). In addition to her usual nod for 'Best Jazz Vocalist,' jazz star Jane Monheit received two other nominations as 'Performer of the Year,' and as 'Best Host' for her new variety show at Birdland, Jane Monheit's Jazz Party (Monheit also co-starred with Clint Holmes in another nominated show, Frank Wildhorn and Friends in the 'Best Revue' category.) Eric Michael Gillett also earned three nominations for 'Best Show, Male,' 'Best Male Vocalist,' and 'Best Director.'

Who says Americans don't vote in mid-term elections? They certainly vote when it comes to the Preliminary Ballot for 2014 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Awards. During the three weeks of voting which began on Tuesday, November 4 (ironically, Election Day), there were more than 5,300 votes cast in 17 categories. The polls close at noon on November 30, 2014.

It's time to cast your votes to determine the final nominees for the 2014 BroadwayWorld.com New York Cabaret Awards.For the third successive year, BWW wants YOU to determine the best and the brightest in the world of New York cabaret (based on performances between November 1, 2013-October 31, 2014). But this time we're going to arrive at the nominees for the final ballot (to be posted first week of December with voting until January 3) with your help.

Any visit by celebrated chanteuse Barb Jungr to a New York cabaret stage or theatre is a cause for jubilation. Slightly less than a year since she rocked 59E59 with her week long run of Dancing In the Dark, Jungr was back on that stage with a new show based on her recently released, highly-acclaimed CD, Hard Rain: The Songs of Bob Dylan & Leonard Cohen. But where Dancing In the Dark was Jungr's introspective take on some classic pop songs (including some Dylan and Cohen), her Hard Rain set is truly dark and Jungr doesn't apologize for that. In fact, often during this collection of songs written by two of pop music's foremost dark poets of the soul (with stirring arrangements by Jungr and her CD Producer Simon Wallace), Jungr readily admits the set is depressing because her intent was to focus on Dylan and Cohen songs that were at once powerful, personal, political, philosophical, and often prophetic.

Rita Wilson and Molly Ringwald deserve a lot of credit for being gutsy enough to go out of their comfort zones as performers and venture into the intimate, sometimes scary art from known as cabaret, where you're always live and can't rely on extra takes. It's also obvious that they've worked very hard at becoming the best vocalists they can possibly be. They have just as much right to live out their cabaret performing fantasies as, oh, about 75 percent of the 'singers' booking shows in cabaret room all over the New York. If Wilson and Ringwald weren't bold-faced names would their singing really be considered good enough to merit them gigs (and extended ones at that) at the Cafe Carlyle? And if they weren't celebrities, would they be receiving such breathlessly positive reviews from critics, some of who should know better?

Having written extensively about skyrocketing-to-stardom singer Carole J. Bufford over the past three years (a January/February cover story for Cabaret Scenes Magazine, and rave reviews of her past three major show runs (here, here, and here), I felt as if I had exhausted my entire repertoire of descriptive metaphors and superlatives in assessing her stirring cabaret performances. Even though she's still but a babe in cabaret years, and has a long, successful career ahead of her, I wasn't planning to review any more of her shows because, well, there didn't seem to be anything more to say. But, dammit, every time I try to get out, Carole J. Bufford pulls me back in.

The 25th New York Cabaret Convention first night titled 'I Love A Piano' was held at Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center last night and BroadwayWorld was there backstage and out front!

New York cabaret audiences have for years been blessed with extremely entertaining performing marrieds like John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molasky, Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano, and Michael Garin and Mardie Millett. But after experiencing the thoroughly enchanting October 8 performance from Amanda McBroom and her husband George Ball at 54 Below (there was a second performance on October 14), it's difficult to imagine a cabaret couple more compelling. In short, the Balls were having a ball and, ultimately, so did their audience.

Every year, there are a couple of young performers who seem to skyrocket up the cabaret charts and one of this season's emerging stars is Maxine Linehan. She came to the States from Ireland just a dozen years ago, performed her debut cabaret show in 2006, and then three years later staged a Petula Clark tribute. In the five years since, Linehan acted in Off-Broadway plays and appeared in the national tour of South Pacific, but has spent much of this period raising 4-year-old Rebecca and 21-month old Gabriel with songwriter/musician husband Andrew Koss. But with the help of nightlife impresario Scott Siegel, Linehan is definitely making up for lost time on the cabaret front. This spring, she staged performances of her autobiographical show An American Journey at Terminus Recording Studios for a recent CD release. Now, less than five months later, Linehan is in mid-run of a new show, Beautiful Songs, at the Metropolitan Room.

America's mid-term elections may not be until early November, but it's already time for the three-stage process that leads to the winners of the BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Awards for 2014. Come late February at Joe's Pub (date to be announced), BroadwayWorld will present its third annual Awards show (hosted again by the site's New York Cabaret Editor and lead reviewer Stephen Hanks), but now we begin considering the final nominees and you get to help us by suggesting your candidates for three out of the 16 voting categories (out of the 20 awards overall).

The current Stephen Sondheim tribute show, Our Time, starring KT Sullivan and Jeff Harnar at the Laurie Beechman (which I attended on July 9 and 16; there are two more Wednesday performances at 6pm on August 6, 13), is a charming, classy, and entertaining affair. But it also includes enough flaws in execution that prevent it from being truly great. For one thing, it doesn't really feel like a duo show. It's more like two solo performances within one show, where the performers fit in a couple of numbers together to justify the concept. A critique of the Sullivan/Harnar Sondheim set provides an interesting opportunity to analyze the anatomy of a duo show and the choices that can make it work—or not.

Steve Ross and Karen Oberlin's recent duo effort at 54 Below, Cheek to Cheek, was a show oozing charm, class, charisma, and chemistry, but most of all they conveyed their love for these legendary performers and the classic tunes associated with them.

The 18th Long Island Al Jolson Festival coming up on August 16 is a whole-day affair featuring film presentations, lectures, memorabilia displays and sales, and a performance--'The Heart of Al Jolson'--by singer and Staten Island native Tony Babino (photo below), who can sing Jolson songs like, well, you ain't heard nothin' yet. The other day, like clockwork, I received my yearly invitation to attend from Oceanside, LI resident Jan Hernstat, who for the past 10 years has been the President of the 62-year-old International Al Jolson Society (which was formed in early 1950, a few months before Jolson died), an organization with a worldwide membership hovering around 1,000. I am proud to say that for 30 years, I've been one of them. I'm even prouder to say that I've been an Al Jolson fanatic for much longer. Here's my story about how it happened.

Musical Director and pianist extraordinaire Jon Weber can play every imaginable musical style and for a wide variety of cabaret and concert singers, but this superlative keyboardist is really a jazz man at heart. Weber knows that the intricacies of certain music languages-whether classical or jazz-can be frustratingly elusive, so he's made it his mission to educate the masses, or in this case a few hundred people who after this Tuesday night at 7 pm will have attended one of his four entertaining classroom sessions at the Metropolitan Room, called 'From Joplin to Jarrett: 115 Years of Piano Jazz.' And when some of the students in the audience are among the most accomplished instrumentalists in New York, you realize that your teacher is a virtuoso.

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.

It's hard to believe that 2014 is already half over and that the 2013 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Awards Show at Joe's Pub happened just about four months ago. This also means that the nomination period for the 2014 Awards is only four months away (end of October, with the final voting period beginning after Thanksgiving). It is with all that in mind that it seemed time for this column, which announces the 2014 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Awards categories and changes in the nomination process so that all you cabaret fans can start making mental notes of the year's potential nominees. (To help you in that process, in a few days I'll be posting my 'Mid-Year Report Card on the 20 Best Performances and Shows' so far in 2014 (going back to November 2013).

A year ago this summer (July 31, to be exact), Terri White performed a one-off show at 54 Below that was so stirring in its show-woman ship she was voted the winner of the 2013 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Award for 'Best One-Show Special Event.' Based on the Broadway and nightclub veteran's performance in her recent June 22 show at the same club, White should be a candidate to pick up the award once again this year. Maybe it's time to just call her, 'Terri Terrific.'