Feature: Cabaret and Concert Artists Flock To Polls For Early Voting

In the seven and a half months since the city of New York went into shelter in place mode, one might say we've had a few slow news days in the entertainment industry. With no shows to review or promote, we have turned to interviews, profiles, puff-pieces, human interest stories and, finally, reviews of online content (thank goodness).

These are not slow news days. Every day the members of the cabaret and club community fill their social media pages and newsfeeds with their I VOTED selfies, and it's been, in plainest parlance, faREAKING INspaRAtional. After spending a mere ninety minutes in line at Madison Square Garden yesterday, this writer got to cast his vote with heart pounding and eyes tearing up, and when I left that efficiently run polling station, where I spied theatrical agent Frankie Moran volunteering, and Broadway family member Joe Langworth voting, I felt like I was a part of something bigger than myself, something epic, something important and valuable. So I sent out a social media request for the members of the club and concert industry (ok, Broadway too) to email me their selfies.

Those photos of this incredible community of artists who are casting their votes can be seen below, in the order in which they came flooding into my email box.

This arts community is a family. Let's stick together. Let's support one another. Let's hold each other to the light.

Have you voted? Cause there's still time to make your voice heard.

Gerrilyn Sohn - "Worth the two hour wait!"

Harold Sanditen - "Very early voting from London!"

Ann Kittredge (Photos above and below) - "Boogie. Oogie!"

Lena Moy-Borgen - "Yay! Voting!"

Ray DeForest (Doris Dear) and Jim McGinnis - "Waiting in line for 2 hours is a small price to pay for having a say in our freedoms"

Robbie Rozelle - "VOTED!"

Hannah Jane - "Just a girl who voted for the first time wearing a blazer and a Desperate Housewives t-shirt! I think I'll make the blazer

a tradition! #icried #civicduty #votevotevote #useyourvoice #earlyvoter"

Hannah Jane and Mama Steffanie Myers Peterson - "Both my mom and I cried! I was finished before my mom so I waited outside and when she came out the door I was jumping up and down with my fists pumping in the air crying! I was so taken back about how amazing it felt to vote and to exercise my right as a citizen of the United States. My mom cried because she was so proud watching her baby girl vote and realizing that I'm not a kid anymore - that I'm growing up. All in all, the 2 hour wait was totally worth it!"

Scott Evan Davis

Janice Hall

Adam B. Shapiro - "Was going to do it on Tuesday, but I simply couldn't wait! Only took about 45 minutes. VOTE! #voteblue2020 #BidenHarris2020"

Maureen Taylor

David Rhodes

Josephine Sanges -- "We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do." - Mahatma Gandhi

Raissa Katona Bennett -- #votedtogether #lovefellowman #grateful #emotional

Natalie Douglas -- 5 hours & 45 minutes standing in line, but it's done! #Voted #BidenHarris2020

Ari Axelrod -- How serendipitous that on the second anniversary of the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the deadliest attack against Jews in American history, I voted early and cast my ballot to get this m**********r out of office. #neveragainmeansnotnow VOTE!

Meri Ziev -Hello! I am looking forward to this edition! I voted in FL!

Mardie Millit & Michael Garin -

VIP TREATMENT

Standing in the very long (but orderly and consistently moving) line to vote in Harlem today felt a little bit like the last EPA for CATS on Broadway (except unlike that disastrous day, I brought my own piano player). Then along comes a lady wearing a badge, who asks Michael, "Are you a senior?" And suddenly, we are whisked to the front of the line, like Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco at the Copacabana in Goodfellas. I just hope this story has a happier ending.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm over an hour late for my first cocktail of the day.

#DoIAmuseYou #PerksOfMarryingAnOldGuy

Donna Murphy -- Getting ready to head out to vote early! Thanks to the wonderful @stevesellsstudio for the fab T-Shirt & Mask! #vote #voteearly #bidenharris2020 #votethemout #voteblue #votingformydaughtersfuture #voteasifyourlifedependsonit #voteforchange #flipthesenate #blue

Christine Lavin - "The poll workers were "dancing" voters from one floor decal to the next -- it was like a party at the Henry Street polls on the Lower East Side. It went pretty quickly, especially considering how many people were there. A very good sign. I doubt a single vote from this precinct went to Trump."

Lisa Viggiano # 1- "Here I am, getting ready to drop off my ballot."

Lisa Viggiano # 2- "Dropped off my ballot in the drop box in Fair Lawn, NJ. I said an actual prayer after the act. My ballot was counted in 3 days on the NJ track-your-ballot website."

Lisa Viggiano # 3- "This is the proudest and most meaningful moment of all: my 18-year-old worked hard to get himself registered to vote in Wisconsin to make his #vote count. It may have been the first moment in his life that I didn't want to "stop time".

Erik Corona

Telly Leung - "Early voting in Manhattan: took about 30-40 minutes today at Madison Square Garden. Totally safe. Socially-distanced. Sanitizer everywhere. You get to keep the pen you use. Secure. Friendly. Organized."

Avery Sommers

Mary Lahti - "I brought some "Company" with me while waiting."

Seth Bisen-Hersh

Judi Mark - "I am quarantined in Florida and sent in my VOTE from here. I didn't really trust mailboxes so I took it directly to the post office a couple of weeks ago."

Lynda Rodolitz - "I voted on Saturday - 3 hour wait but very satisfying."

Karen Mason

Stephen Mosher -- "Make your voice be heard."

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