Let’s Go On With the Show

Jazz singer Cheryl Bentyne referred to the Nightlife Awards as “The Ed Sullivan Show in the abstract.” I kind of like that description. The event is essentially a variety show that highlights the best performances of the year — as chosen by the press — in cabaret, comedy and jazz.

This year’s event, held on Monday night at The Town Hall, was full of offstage drama. Barbara Siegel, my wife and co-columnist, became seriously ill a week and a half before the show; she was running a fever of 102 over a long stretch of time and was exhausted by coughing and severe headaches. With Barbara this sick, the show was going to have to be produced essentially while she was asleep.

One of the most important goals in presenting an event like the Nightlife Awards is to achieve a natural flow and a fast but smooth pace. The show has to open with great energy and then find a balance between all of its elements. Even under the best of circumstances, creating a running order for a show like this is difficult, in part because none of us who put the show together had seen all of the acts. But that obstacle was nothing compared to what we were up against in ordering the first act of the show, since practically every single performer and presenter — including Karen Mason, Michael Cerveris, Tom Andersen, A.J. Irvin, Melissa Errico, Lesley Gore, Paula West, and Mary Cleere Haran — had to go on exactly when they did for one reason or another.

And then there was Elaine Stritch. She originally told us that she had to leave by 8:30, so it became obvious to us that she should end Act I. But this meant that Act I would be considerably shorter than Act II — and everyone will tell you that the first act of any show should be longer than the second. We were further constrained by the fact that our Nightlife Legend honoree, Eartha Kitt, had to leave by 9. So we planned to have Stritch end Act I by 8:30, followed by a fifteen minute intermission and Kitt going on at 8:45.

At about midnight on Sunday, Stritch spoke to our director, Dan Foster, and now said that she had to leave at 8. Whoa! We couldn’t have a 45 minute opening act, followed by a two-hour-plus second act! Dan Foster cajoled her to delay her departure to 8:15. Then, an hour and half before the show, she told me that she wanted to keep the car I had hired to take her to and from the Carlyle Hotel so that it could also take her from Town Hall to Nathan Lane’s birthday party. In for a penny, in for a pound. When I said yes, she responded by saying that that she could stay till 8:30. As Stritch was leaving that night, having wowed the crowd, she asked me if she should sing the same song for Nathan that she had just performed for the folks at the Nightlife Awards: “It Amazes Me.” I told her that I thought she should and then, as if I was one of Nathan’s good buddies, I said, “Wish Nathan a happy birthday for me!” (I later heard that she did sing “It Amazes Me” at his party.)

As for the second act, it was longer than the first, but it moved swiftly. My most important contribution was my suggestion to Brian Stokes Mitchell, who closed the show, that he sing unplugged. I knew that he would kill if he did — and it made additional sense for him to sing without a microphone because he had been at rehearsals for the City Center Encores! production of Kismet during the day and could not break away for a sound check. Normally, I have to stay backstage for the entire show; but because I wasn’t going back on after my thank you speech, I decided to climb up to the back of the balcony to hear him sing “This Nearly Was Mine” off-mike. He did, indeed, kill.

Fortunately, Barbara recovered sufficiently to make it to the Nightlife Awards. She even helped with the ticketing and other sundry details despite being worn out from her illness. And, speaking of medical issues: My hat is off to Eric Leviton of A Little Traveling Music. He was in a hospital in Los Angeles on Saturday, suffering from kidney stones, yet he still managed to fly here on the red-eye Sunday night with his partner, Michael Kostroff — and these throwback vaudevillians turned out to be a highlight of the show. Talk about troupers!

The biggest heroes of the night, though, were the guest presenters and performers who lent their names and their talent to the event in support of the award winners. In addition to the aforementioned celebrities, let me thank Karen Ziemba, David Zippel, William Finn, Darius de Haas, Charles Busch, Todd Barkan, Judy Gold, Ute Lemper, Lee Roy Reams, and Marin Mazzie, all of whom gave of themselves unstintingly. Finally, I am grateful to the audience that came and embraced the winners — not just the famous folk like Stritch, Stokes, and Kitt, but the entire cavalcade of entertainers from the small clubs as well. That is, after all, why we have the Nightlife Awards.

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[To contact the Siegels directly, e-mail them at siegels@theatermania.com.]