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In addition to performing concerts throughout the country, Ms. Uggams has starred on Broadway with James Earl Jones in "On Golden Pond" and co-starred in the Broadway hit "Thoroughly Modern Millie." In 2001, her Broadway portrayal of Ruby in August Wilson's "King Hedley II" was nominated for a Tony Award. "Headley" followed two other Audelco Award-winning, critically acclaimed, off-Broadway performances: "The Old Settler" and Keb Mo's blues musical "Thunder Knocking on the Door." Ms. Uggams won an Audelco award for her starring turn in "First Breeze of Summer" at the acclaimed off-Broadway Signature Theater. She recently starred as Lena Horne in a pre-Broadway run of "Stormy Weather" at the Pasadena Playhouse. Ms. Uggams has released numerous recordings, and just wrapped an engagement at the American Songbook Series for Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Peter Leavy (Board of Directors Award) is the publisher of Cabaret Scenes magazine. After being graduated from the Bronx High School of Science with an award for Dramatic Excellence, Peter studied speech and theater at the University of Iowa. Later, before being drafted into the army, he edited four photo and science fiction magazines and wrote for other major magazines, including, for five years, the monthly advice to teenage girls column for Seventeen (From a Boy's Point of View). When he was discharged, Peter turned to business and retired several years ago as president of a textile printing company. His involvement in cabaret and his first writing for and then publishing Cabaret Scenes is therefore not something new in his life but a return to earlier enthusiasms. In addition to this chance to re-engage with the entertainment and publishing worlds, he is grateful for the many close friends he has made in the cabaret community.
Playbill.com (Board of Directors Award) launched in November 1994 and was the idea of Playbill Publisher and President Philip S. Birsh. The first website dedicated exclusively to the reporting of theatre news and information, Playbill.com boasts more than 600,000 readers and sells tens of thousands of tickets monthly with the Playbill Club numbering 350,000 avid theatregoers. The multimedia section features thousands of photos each month, while popular columns include "Brief Encounter," "Onstage & Backstage," "Diva Talk," "The Leading Men," "On the Record," "On Opening Night" and "Cue & A." For over a decade Playbill Magazine has featured David Drake's "The Cabaret Beat," a monthly look at the New York cabaret scene. In 2006, Playbill began releasing records on Playbill Records, an imprint of SonyBMG. Releases included Brian Stokes Mitchell's eponymous solo CD and two compilations of show tunes: Scene Stealers, The Men and Scene Stealers, The Women. In 2007, Playbill introduced Playbill Radio, a new 24-hours-a-day Broadway music station featuring news, podcasts, and a musical library of over 20,000 titles.
Sharon McNight (Host, MAC Awards) was nominated for a Tony Award for her Broadway debut in 1989 in the show "Starmites," for which she received the coveted Theatre World Award for "Outstanding Broadway Debut." Her project "Betty, Betty, Bette" celebrates screen legends Grable, Hutton and Davis. She has six solo recordings, most recently "Offensive Too, Volume Two" which is the second CD of "Songs To Offend Almost Everyone," a throwback to the party records of the 50's. She also created "The Sophie Tucker Songbook," which debuted at New York's Rainbow & Stars as part of an ASCAP Sunday night showcase March ‘96, and which she developed it into a one-woman musical, Red Hot Mama, which ran Off-Broadway at the York Theatre. She is the narrator of the documentary, "There That Night," the story of the Provincetown, Massachusetts fire, and was featured in the recent A & E documentary, "It's Burlesque," for her research on Mae West and Sophie Tucker. She is a master teacher on the faculty of the Yale Cabaret Symposium.Sharon McNight has brought her shows to many of the great cabaret rooms, including The Plush Room, the Great American Music Hall, and The Metropolitan Room. She has played from the Moose Hall to Carnegie Hall, from Los Angeles to Berlin. She has won six San Francisco Cabaret Gold awards, 3 Cable Car Awards, a MAC award, a Bistro award, and received a Nightlife award from New York's critics for her Best Musical Comedy show, "Ladies Compose Yourselves!." The Los Angeles Times called her "one of the great wonders of the musical stage."
Lennie Watts (Director, MAC Awards) is a 5 time MAC, 5 time Backstage Bistro, and 3 time Nightlife Award winner. He was a 2008 MAC Award nominee for Outstanding Major Cabaret Artist for his critically acclaimed "Manilow '73-'83" show. He is the only person to receive awards as an outstanding vocalist, director, producer, and booking manager. He has been active in the New York cabaret scene for over 20 years. In addition to directing in small cabaret venues, he has directed events at Symphony Space, Town Hall, and BB Kings. He has toured nationally and internationally with productions of "The Music Man" (Marcellus) and "The Wizard Of Oz" (Lion). He has performed at Town Hall in several concerts, including "Broadway Unplugged" and "Broadway By The Year, 1949", and can be heard on the cast recordings of both shows. As a theater director, he has directed productions of "Godspell", "Dames at Sea", "Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", and "Phantom". Watts is the creator of "cablab" and "Summer In The City (with Lina Koutrakos), both critically acclaimed professional cabaret performance workshops. David Finkle of "The Village Voice" calls him "A one man cabaret army!" He appeared on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show", and released his debut CD "I want... You want..." in 2000. He was voted "Best Male Vocalist 2008" by the members of Cabaret Hotline Online. He is currently the President of MAC.
Tracy Stark (Musical Director, MAC Awards) is a 3-time MAC Award winner, a Bistro Award winner for Musical Direction, and winner of the 2008 Dottie Burman Songwriter of the Year Award. Tracy has worked with Lesley Gore, Phoebe Snow, Karen Black, Randy Jones (Village People), Jimmy Osmond, Tovah Feldshuh, Eric Millegan, Tonya Pinkins, Ann Crumb, Marni Nixon, and hundreds of other rock, jazz, and broadway vocalists. She has played/conducted on numerous television shows, including The Today Show. Her songs are included on at least 20 different compilations, and her most recent CD, ‘Feast for the Heart,' includes a duet with the inimitable Phoebe Snow.
Julie Miller (Producer, MAC Awards) is the associate producer of the original rock musical feature film "Clear Blue Tuesday" and also a producer of the indie sci-fi feature film "Fade To White." She produced the musical "The Last Starfighter" at Theater at St. Clements, as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Julie is on the Board of Directors of the acclaimed Prospect Theater Company in New York, and is currently co-producing a short film adaptation of the Skip Kennon, Terrence McNally musical "Plaisir d'Amour," and is developing a new musical based on the novel "Viva Max" by Jim Lehrer, with collaborators Skip Kennon, Amanda Yesnowitz, and Fred Landau. Julie has worked on a wide variety of productions including the 51st and 52nd Annual Drama Desk Awards, Broadway Unplugged, The Nightlife Awards, and series at The Town Hall, including "Broadway By The Year," The Broadway Cabaret Festival," and The Summer Broadway Festival." She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Haym Salomon Division Of The Arts, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for the elderly and persons with disabilities through the development of innovative arts initiatives and theatrical productions. Julie is a member of the Board of Directors of MAC.
