Rising Stars

It’s extremely difficult to make a name for oneself as a performer in cabaret, where many highly talented individuals hold forth in relative obscurity. So when an artist working in this field does manage to attract special attention from the press and the public, you can probably assume that he or she is the crème de la crème. That’s certainly true of the two rising stars profiled here.

Those who believe that “the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree” can look to Maude Maggart for proof of the aphorism. Her father, Brandon Maggart, appeared in such Broadway musicals as Kelly, Applause, Lorelei, and Musical Chairs; he met her mother, Diane McAfee, when they were both cast in Applause. (McAfee had already been seen on Broadway in Flora, The Red Menace and It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman.) And, speaking of apples: Maude’s sister is the wonderful contemporary pop vocalist/pianist Fiona Apple. But Maude has found her own niche, singing in clubs and focusing on songs of bygone eras.

Soon to begin a run in the fabled Oak Room of the Algonquin hotel, she recently completed the second of two engagements at Danny’s Skylight Room on Restaurant Row. “It was a lot of work in the beginning,” says Maude. “In cabaret, you’ve always got to build an audience. I got some good reviews, so that really helped; for the last month and a half or so, we were packed.” The show featured such songs of the 1930s as “Paper Moon,” “Sophisticated Lady,” and “Happy Days Are Here Again” along with a few obscure numbers from the same period. “I love to sing everything,” M.M. enthuses, “but I think this kind of repertoire suits my voice the best. My sister used to listen to Judy Garland, and I listened to a mix of things: Madonna, Simon and Garfunkel, Nina Simone. Because of my mom and dad, I also grew up listening to Broadway stuff. I fell into singing older songs thanks to my mentor, Andrea Marcovicci; she told me that she thought I had a really old-fashioned-sounding voice. She helped me form my first act and she loaned me a lot of her records to listen to when I was putting my next act together by myself.”

Her family has encouraged her pursuit of a singing career. “I was living with my dad in California when I first started to sing on open mike nights at the Gardenia in 2000,” says the twentysomething Maude. “My dad always said that I should sing because, when I was a kid, I sang around the house a lot. He did, too; we would call out opera phrases to each other. We all lived together until I was seven, and then my mom moved to New York with me and my sister, so I guess we were no longer what you would call a family unit. But my mom and dad were always very supportive.” (By the way: Maude’s father’s grandmother was named Maude Apple — hence her own name and her sister’s. “The name Maude is derived from the French,” M.M. notes, “but who knows where Apple came from. Maybe she picked apples and people started calling her that. Also, they were from Appalachia.”)

Her rapturously received shows at Danny’s helped Maude to win one of the biggest prizes in cabaret: an extended gig at the Oak Room, where she’ll be appearing on Monday nights for four months, starting on March 7. (She actually played there for four Mondays last year, but it was a very low-profile stint.) “I’m basically going to begin with the 1930s program that I have now,” she says, “but I can vary the material from week to week. The shows that I’ve done were created in Los Angeles, because that’s where I’ve been living except when I’m working here. In L.A., I work with a man named John Boswell. I don’t play piano myself, so I express my ideas about the arrangements to John as articulately as I possibly can and then he translates them onto the piano. I’ve taken what John and I did and brought it to Lanny Myers in New York. Over time, some things have changed as Lanny’s own style and abilities have come in.”

Of the musical gems that she’s discovered in researching and performing her shows, does she have any particular favorites? “I love ‘Remember My Forgotten Man,’ which is from Gold Diggers of 1933, and then Ruth Etting recorded it later on. Some of those old songs are really dirty! The CD that I play before my show has great songs from the ’20s and ’30s, things like Cliff Edwards singing ‘With My Little Ukulele in My Hand’ and ‘I’m Going to Give It to Mary With Love.'” As for her own recordings, Maude has two self-produced albums to her credit and isn’t sure what her next step will be. She wonders, “What’s the right thing to do? Should I pursue a record company or should I just become as business-savvy as I can and be my own boss? I don’t know, so I guess I’ll just take it as it comes.” For more on Maude, visit www.maudemaggart.com.

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Jack Donahue also has a date at the Oak Room. You can hear him there on Monday, February 14 — which happens to be Valentine’s Day, just in case that little fact escaped you. The title of his show is My Foolish Heart. Jack is another protégé of cabaret goddess Andrea Marcovicci; he has been performing in the clubs for several years, but the Algonquin gig is a big step up for him. So, how did he get the booking?

“It came about through my new association with Miller Wright & Associates,” he tells me. “They handled the publicity for my PS Classics album Strange Weather, and then I opted to have them continue on as my publicists. Barbara McGurn, who books the Oak Room, heard the album and asked me to do this Valentine’s Day thing. I’ve appeared in the Oak Room many times with Andrea, but this will be my solo debut there, which is really nice.”

Though Jack is doing very well for himself, he doesn’t have much to say on the subject of how one can build a career in cabaret. “I have no idea how to answer that question,” he says. “I think there are four people who work consistently and actually make money, but I never did. I think Andrea does well, and Mr. Feinstein. I would hope that Blossom Dearie does well, and Julie Wilson. You know, it’s like there are only five slots available in cabaret. Somebody has to break an ankle soon, or something, ’cause I want in! Cabaret draws a really sophisticated audience. They know every song you’re about to sing, so you’d better have a good take on it; and they know the history of the song, so you’d better know more than they do.”

Another challenge: “Normally, in cabaret, everyone makes money but you. Interestingly enough, since I’ve started to nudge my way into jazz clubs like the Regatta Bar in Boston, Vibrato in Los Angeles, and the Green Mill in Chicago, I’ve been making money. I’m not sure what the difference is; maybe there are more fans of jazz than there are of cabaret. But I’ve been trying to keep my cabaret sensibility, my love of lyrics and melody. My cabaret fans still come to my shows but now I also have jazz fans that come. When I played Opia in New York, which is a new room without a really strong identity yet, I just did what I do and people seemed to get it. The notices from that show made me think that I’m doing the right thing.”

Given his gorgeous voice, his comic timing, and his good looks, I ask Jack why he hasn’t focused on a career in musical theater. “Well,” he says, “I am going to be doing an Off-Broadway musical with Dee Hoty in the spring. I did the national tour of Floyd Collins and I did the Bacharach show before it was called The Look of Love, but I found that agents and casting directors were not really digging me. I auditioned for a major agent and he said, ‘God, you have a beautiful voice.’ Then he passed and I said, ‘What happened?’ He said, ‘You’re a little too doughy for us, but thank you, we wish you well.’ I thought, ‘I’m not gonna have some out-of-shape guy tell me I’m fat and that’s why I’m not gonna work in musical theater!’ The real problem, I think, was that he just couldn’t put me in a box.

“So I decided, ‘I’m not going to deal with this, I’ll just wait till somebody comes to me.’ And then this brilliant director, Jack Cummings of The Transport Group, calls and says, ‘Would you be in my new show, The Audience?’ It’s an original musical with songs by Michael John LaChiusa, Ed Dixon, and many others. I said, ‘Yeah!’ So it’s not that I don’t want a career in theater; I just felt like theater didn’t want me to have a career there just yet. But someday!” To keep tabs on Jack, bookmark the website www.jackdonahue.com.