MAC Celebrates 25th Anniversary At 'Don't Tell Mama' 3/28

The Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs (MAC), this year celebrating its 25th Anniversary, presents some of its top up-and-coming talent in New Face Showcase, an evening of comedy and song - the second showcase of its kind produced by MAC, on Friday, March 28th at 6:30pm at Don't Tell Mama.

Scheduled to appear are vocalists DAVID AUXIER, Poor Baby Bree, Kim Smith, Raissa Katona-BENNETT, LORI & LISA BRIGANTINO (aka "The Vickie & Nickie Dream Tour") & Ben Cherry. The evening will be hosted by Danny Leary - host of the wildly popular variety show On The Rocks. There will also be a special appearance by BETS HENN. The evening's musical director will be Bistro Award winner Ray Fellman with Ritt Henn on bass. The showcase is produced by MAC Board members Hector Coris & KEVIN KENNISON.

The NEW FACE SHOWCASE is one of many new initiatives sponsored by MAC to raise the profile the organization & of cabaret & live performance in New York City. In addition to showcases, MAC also produces educational & informative seminars & its annual awards show which honors the very best in NYC nightlife performance.

Jan Wallman called him a "triple-treat" & Julie Wilson said "you MOVED me ... and I don't move easily," when DAVID AUXIER made his NY cabaret debut in 2007, with It's a Family Affair, a show inspired by his Nebraska family. In the past year, David has had the privilege to work with some of the greats in the cabaret community, old & new -- from the fresh & funny Hector Coris to the legendary Miss Julie Wilson. David will be seen at City Center in June reprising his role as the Sergeant in Pirates of Penzance.

A 2008 Bistro Award winner (Outstanding Unique) & Nightlife Awards finalist (Outstanding Cabaret Characterization), Poor Baby Bree (Bree Benton) can be seen monthly at Don't Tell Mama in Weary River, a vaudeville tragedy featuring songs & recitations from the Victorian Era through the 1930s. She has recently been a featured performer at a Friars Club tribute to Tony Roberts & at the Laurie Beechman Theatre's 2007 Holiday Party & has also performed in Los Angeles & Chicago. Her new show, I Am Going to Run Away, debuts this fall.

Native New Yorkers & real life sisters, LORI & LISA BRIGANTINO have been performing together musically since they were children, but created the Minnesotan sister characters of "Vickie" & "Nickie" just a couple of years ago. They have performed The Vickie & Nickie Show at several NYC clubs including: The Duplex, Upstairs at Rose's Turn, The Slipper Room & Freddy's Back Room in Brooklyn. Lori 's ("Vickie") other performing credits include: The Last Nickel at The NYC International Fringe Festival, Trials and Fibs at The Soho Playhouse Off-Broadway & several Off-Off Broadway productions & independent films. Lisa ("Nickie") is a classically trained composer & professional musician. Her solo CD release "A Brooklyn Night" continues to receive great reviews & airplay & she is currently recording her second solo album. Lisa also tours internationally with the all girl rock band, Lez Zeppelin, playing bass, keyboards & mandolin. The band has recently released their self-titled debut CD, recorded & produced by legendary engineer/producer, Eddie Kramer.

Ben Cherry most recently debuted his cabaret show: I HATE NEW YORK...a love story, at the Metropolitan Room. He also originated the role of Dennis Varney in the new musical Life Could Be A Dream at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, where he also originated roles in Route 66, Beach Blanket Bash & The Andrews Brothers, all for & by Roger Bean. New York appearances include An Ideal Husband, Much Ado About Nothing & Tartuffe. Regional roles include The Nerd & Forever Plaid (Barrymore Award Nomination); Utah Shakespearean Festival: A Funny Thing... & The Merry Wives of Windsor. He will be back in Utah playing Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof this summer. Ben is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts.

BETS HENN has appeared on stage (Paper Bag Players, title roles in Funny Girl and Sweet Charity, and the world premiere of Fred Carmichael's All the Better to Kill You With, for which she's listed in the Samuel French edition), on TV (numerous soaps and with a mime troupe in "Zoom, Zoom" on CBS), and in film (Very Close Quarters with Shelley Winters and Malatesta's Carnival of Blood, in which she had her head chopped off by Herve Villechaize).

Raissa Katona Bennett - Broadway: Phantom of the Opera (Christine Daae), Chess (Actors' Fund Benefit Concert with Josh Groban). National: Phantom... - (Christine stand-by), LA & Nat'l Tours; Cats, "Jellylorum/Griddlebone"- 1st Nat'l Tour; A Child's Christmas in Wales, (Mother) - Nat'l Theatre of the Deaf; Parade -(Lizzie Phagan) - 1st Nat'l Tour. This May, Raissa will appear every Sunday & Tuesday night at 7 pm, at The Metropolitan Room with an all new show directed by Eric Michael Gillett and musical directed by David Caldwell. Her CD, What I Was Dreaming Of is available at her website

As host of a hit variety show, it is only fitting that Danny Leary has a New York story ripped straight out of the pages of a musical. Singing "three grand, two bags, one me," Danny hit the road and headed to the Big Apple from New Mexico. Since making the big move, he has appeared on the CW-11 morning news, "The Joey Reynolds Radio Show" and Here! TV's "Hot Gay Comics" as a featured comedian. His comedy delights audiences regularly at every major New York comedy venue. Danny hosts and produces "On the Rocks with Danny Leary" on Thursdays at The Duplex. The Cabaret Exchange called the show a "marvelously rambunctious evening" and Time Out NY recommends it is a "Best Bet for Comedy."

Australian Kim Smith is a cabaret artist known internationally for his androgynous beauty, dark humor and mellifluous baritone. His cabaret works include Quietly Kim Smith, Kim Smith is Madly Adored, and Kim Smith's Jungle Parade --the latter two having run for a total of five seasons at Melbourne's Butterfly Club. In 2007, Jungle Parade headlined the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in a highly acclaimed run, and the year also markEd Smith's New York cabaret debut at The Duplex. Smith frequently appears at New York's Unisex Salon and collaborates with Ali McGregor of Opera Burlesque. Last summer he headlined for Earl Dax's Off the Cuff--Down Under, an Australian cabaret extravaganza where Kohler first heard him. Other theatrical credits include Merrily We Roll Along (as Charlie Kringas), The World Goes 'Round (at the Redroom Theatre), and as Philotson in the NY premiere of Jude, a new British musical after Hardy's Jude the Obscure. Smith studied at the Ballarat Arts Academy (BA, Music Theatre), and has worked extensively with the Walt Disney Company. He writes as travel columnist for Australia's gay press and now resides in New York City.

Bistro Award winner Ray Fellman recently made his Off-Broadway debut when he was handpicked by Stephen Schwartz to musical direct his off-Broadway musical, Captain Louie. Other Musical Director credits include The Tutor by Wood/Gerle (59 E. 59th), Reluctant Pilgrim (The Barrow Group), Blood Drive: A Musical Triptych by Sheinkin/Derfner (workshop at the O'Neill Theater Center) and Amahl and the Night Visitors (national tour directed by David Aiken). Ray has been seen behind the piano in The Storefront Theatre's New Mondays (with Bill Russell & Emily Skinner), No Reservations (starring Brandon Cutrell with special guests Karen Mason and Shoshana Bean), Broadway Downtown (with Kristy Cates) and We Miss Nancy: The Storefront Sings LaMott (with Liz McCartney). He has also served as accompanist for Utah Festival Opera Company, The Opera Company of Brooklyn , Mid America Productions at Carnegie Hall (with John Rutter) & A Yuletide Celebration with the Indianapolis Symphony starring Judy Kaye. As a singer, Ray has sung with some of the finest opera companies in the country, including Florida Grand, Glimmerglass and New Orleans operas. Ray holds degrees in piano and voice from the Indiana University School of Music. Ritt Henn (Bass). Ritt Henn has 9 basses, 7 suits (8 counting the tux), 3 CDs of original songs (with the 4th due this year), 2 bikes (one's still in storage in L.A.) and 1 MAC Award. He's also produced 202 episodes of ManBassBoxTV and garnered a Bistro Award.

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