They Love a Cabaret Convention
We venture to guess that anyone reading this column goes to theater and cabaret in search of essentially the same thing we do: an experience so profound, emotionally and/or intellectually, that we’ll never forget it. We all had such experiences in our youth and we keep hoping to have them again; we’re a little bit like junkies, searching for the ultimate entertainment fix. Maybe you got one when you saw Les Misérables for the first time, or maybe it happened when you first heard Betty Buckley sing “Meadowlark.” We mention this because we’ve been covering the annual Cabaret Convention at The Town Hall every year for almost all of its 14 years. Thanks to its producer, Donald Smith, there is almost always at least one such transcendent performance every year during the weeklong festival.
We can point to unforgettable performances by the likes of Judi Connelli (twice!), Mark Nadler, Mark Coffin, and Julie Reyburn in past years. This time, there were a number of exceptional moments but only one that will live on in the memories of those who witnessed it. On Saturday afternoon, during the Young People’s Concert artfully produced and hosted by Andrea Marcovicci to introduce a new generation to the Great American Songbook, composer/singer Craig Carnelia and his eight-year-old daughter Daisy did something so simple, so pure, so honest, and so creative that they stopped the show.
Here was this adorable little girl sitting on a stool next to her father, who was perched on the piano bench. He played and she melted every heart as she sweetly sang, “When I was just a little girl, I asked my father what will I be? Will I be pretty, will I be rich, here’s what he said to me…” Then Craig answered, for all parents and to all children but particularly to his own little girl: “Que sera, sera. What ever will be, will be. The future’s not ours to see. Que sera, sera.” Father and daughter sang the entire song. At one point, Daisy missed an entrance and, in a heartbeat, Craig sweetly said, “Everybody makes mistakes. It’s okay.” Reassured, Daisy calmly found her way back into the song and eventually belted the finale, sounding sensational. Of course, the audience went wild. We all knew we had seen a remarkable combination of love, talent, and art in a moment of live entertainment for which the expression “You had to be there” might have been coined.
The show that Andrea Marcovicci put together on Saturday was the most exciting as well as the most important of the last four programs of the Convention. If the Great American Songbook is going to survive, it’s going to need new champions — on both sides of the footlights. High school kids from all over New York City filled a significant percentage of The Town Hall’s 1,500 seats on this occasion. Up on stage, a jazzy 24-year-old named Spencer Day who gave a stylish performance and 18-year-old Jennifer Sheehan impressed with her sweet soprano. Then there was 16-year-old Nina Berman with a voice to die for; she sang “Good Morning Heartache,” an American classic that was written almost 60 years ago. Berman sang it to Ervin Drake, who wrote the song — and who also happens to be her grandfather. How’s that for passing the torch?
Also joining the luminous Marcovicci on stage were some tried and true cabaret artists; among them was Phillip Officer, who brought his own brand of class to the classes in the audience by singing “New Words.” Another high point was the charming performance of Irving Berlin’s “Anything You Can Do” by Mark Coffin and Barbara Brussell.
It’s important to note that whether or not an artist participates in the Cabaret Convention is not a value judgment. A great many talented performers have never been invited to perform, are only invited occasionally, or are invited but can’t make it because they have other gigs. The Convention reaches out to performers for all sorts of reasons; one goal is to provide opportunities for newcomers and for singers from other cities and countries. We mention this because not every Convention program reaches the performance heights that one might anticipate.
The least successful show of this year’s Convention was the night devoted to Judy Garland. It was cast entirely with female performers, less than half of whom rose above the general level of mediocrity: the standouts were Joyce Breach, Natalie Douglas, Stevie Holland, Lainie Nelson, Julie Reyburn, and Lumiri Tubo. It was a nice idea to give tribute to Judy, but this rarely felt like a night that had much to do with Miss Garland. Only Lainie Nelson, recalling Judy in her first Andy Hardy movie, really made her appearance count for both herself and the honoree.
The Convention’s Friday Night Special show spiked high and low, but had enough quality to measure up as a solid evening of entertainment. Jazz pianist/singer Barbara Carroll, aptly introduced by Donald Smith as “The First Lady of the Keyboard,” was her usual brilliant self — particularly in her rendition of “You and the Night and the Music.” Jane A. Johnston provided a musical comedy lift with “Everybody Needs a Little Lift” and Barbara Lea made the audience happy when she put a jazz spin on “I Want to Be Happy.” Joan Crowe was nothing if not ambitious in singing Janis Ian’s holocaust number “Tatoo,” George S. Irving was perfection singing “The Butler’s Song” from the Broadway show So Long, 174th Street, and Maureen Kelley Stewart gave a superb mini-presentation of her Bing Crosby show. Three newcomers distinguished themselves, as well: Chicago’s Kat’ Taylor rendered “I’m Glad He’s Not Mine” with delicious attitude; our own Jeanne Resua scored with “She Must Be Beautiful,” singing with an impressive combination of vocal richness and emotional intensity; and the winner of the Sydney, Australia Cabaret Convention, Shaun Rennie, continued the Convention tradition of awesome Aussies with his heartfelt rendition of “Vincent.”
The Convention’s Sunday finale featured a cast of six performers, each given a total of 20 minutes on The Town Hall stage. Billy Stritch combined “Good Thing Going” with “What’ll I Do?” and created a moving musical drama. B.J. Crosby put over a blues-inflected “Skylark,” Wesla Whitfield offered a poignant take on “September Song,” and Craig Rubano gave a dynamic performance of “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” from Les Misérables. (We miss that show already.) But, ultimately, musical comedy was king on the last afternoon of the Convention: Georga Osborne came up with an inspired bit of lunacy, doing her Southern-style version of The Sound of Music, and Sidney Myer put the nail in the comic coffin with his hilarious rendition of “Good Advice.” Our own advice: Don’t miss next year’s Cabaret Convention at The Town Hall.
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[Ed. Note: The Siegels wrote about the first three nights of the Convention in their last two columns, which you can access by clicking here and here.]
