Feature: MAC AWARDS Will Be Announced Live Via Facebook Monday. March 30th at 7 pm
By: Stephen Mosher Mar. 29, 2020
For 36 years the Manhattan Association of Cabarets has existed, working to promote and support the members of the community that produces cabaret shows, nightclub acts, open mic night, piano bar entertainment and all the various forms of diversion to be found in small venues around New York City. Originally founded so that owners, managers and booking agents could have a regular round table, two years into its existence, the organization began accepting artists into the membership. For over three decades MAC has existed to advocate for the community and to raise public awareness of the art form and the artists whose craft and care provide the entertainment that is the mainstay of cabaret. In 1987 the MAC awards were created. Among the award recipients that year were Blossom Dearie, Peter Allen, Steve Hayes, Margaret Whiting, and Ann Hampton Callaway. 33 times the MAC Awards have been handed out, and tomorrow night, for the 34th time, members of the cabaret community will be bestowed with the awards that the MAC members have wished on them with their votes. In 2019 the MAC Awards took place at Sony Hall in a glittery, glamorous night of revelry. Who could forget Sidney Myer's humility at being announced the winner? Who wasn't thrilled by Anita Gillette's star power, performing right after her name was announced? And who could listen to Karen Mason's absolute eloquence during her speech at receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award without being moved? It was truly a night to remember.
This year's MAC Awards will also be a night to remember, maybe because the recipients will be glitzy and glammy, though if they are the only way for people to know it will be via Facetime, Facebook Live, Zoom, or any other way made possible by modern technology. The real reason this year's MAC Awards will be memorable is because of the example set by the organization, by the community, by the humanity that is showing resilience in the face of a difficult time. When the city of New York went into (new term in use here) Physical Distancing and our opportunities to be social with one another became a digital world, the MAC Awards ceremony scheduled for March 30th had to be canceled. It was a sad decision to make, but a necessary one, but MAC President Lennie Watts and his Board of Directors immediately turned their focus on a way to continue the tradition in a way that would fit the new normal. For a few days, it was planned that the Award Winners would be announced by a small group of people in a live streaming ceremony from the iconic nightclub Don't Tell Mama. When all non-essential businesses were closed down, that put the kibosh on that idea. Undeterred, Watts and co. determined that the winners would get their day, a day all of the deserving nominees awaited with bated breath. With all the Living Room Concerts being created, it only seemed natural that the winners be announced via Facebook Live, as so many of the artists of cabaret are prone to use now.
And so, Monday night, March 30th at 7 pm members of the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and, indeed, the friends, fans, and family of the nominees for the 2020 MAC Awards, need only go to the MAC Facebook Page HERE to learn the results of the voting that has determined this year's winners. For those with an aversion to clicking on links, the URL for that page is https://www.facebook.com/CabaretMAC/ MAC President Lennie Watts describes the event: "It will be a split-screen on Facebook. I will be at my apartment and Amy Wolk and Lorinda Lisitza will be at theirs. I am currently trying to get my cell number to all of the nominees so if they win they can call my cell and make a short speech." It may not be as much fun, as glamorous, as exciting as a live ceremony but it still shows an optimism and a fortitude to not get weighed down by the current state of the world, it shows a determination to continue to live life, only with a few concessions and compromises. One hopes that some day in the future, when things have calmed down, those MAC Award recipients will be able to gather together in one of the Manhattan nightclubs, on a cabaret stage, and perform a song in celebration - anyone who knows Lennie Watts knows that the chances of that happening are overwhelmingly positive.
In the meantime, dear MAC Board, thank you for continuing your mission and advocating for your community; and nominees, please know that you are valued members of an art form that, in spite of an unsubstantiated rumor that has been circulating for a couple of decades, is not dying. You're all here and, still, raising your voices. Let them ring out loud tomorrow night at 7 pm, no matter whose names are called out because you are all winners.
The 2020 MAC Award Nominees are:
FEMALE VOCALIST
Corinna Sowers Adler 
Second Stories; Songs from the Heart; Winter Song
The Triad, Laurie Beechman Theatre, Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center
Cynthia Crane
This Is a Changing World, My Dear
Don't Tell Mama
Sally Darling
And Kurt Weill Begat Kander & Ebb
Don't Tell Mama, Urban Stages
Dawn Derow
The House That Built Me
Laurie Beechman Theatre
Ann Kittredge
Fancy Meeting You Here: An Evening of Ahrens & Flaherty; Movie Nite
Feinstein's/54 Below, Urban Stages, Feinstein's at Vitello's, The Beach Cafe
WENDY SCHERL
Town & Country; You'll See
Laurie Beechman Theatre, Davenport's, BJ Ryan's Magnolia Room
Maureen Taylor
Cosmic Connections: The Lyrics of Michael Colby
Don't Tell Mama
Lisa Viggiano
From Lady Day to The Boss
Pangea, Don't Tell Mama
MALE VOCALIST
Ari Axelrod
A Celebration of Jewish Broadway
Birdland Theater, The Kranzberg (St. Louis), Skokie Theatre (Chicago) 
Bob Diamond
The Game of Life
Don't Tell Mama
Kim David Smith
Kim Sings Kylie; Morphium Kabarett; A Wery Weimar Christmas; Live at Club Cumming
Joe's Pub, Club Cumming, Café Sabarsky, Evolution Theatre Company (Columbus, OH)
MAJOR ARTIST - FEMALE
Sue Matsuki
How's That for Openers?, A Hep Happy Holiday, Ella and Me
Don't Tell Mama, Urban Stages, Maureen's Jazz Room, BJ Ryan's Magnolia Room
Gretchen Reinhagen
Take It With Me
Laurie Beechman Theatre, Pangea
Julie Reyburn
Anywhere We Are
Don't Tell Mama
MAJOR ARTIST - MALE
Eric Comstock
Saturdays at Birdland
Birdland
Jeff Harnar
Carried Away: Jeff Harnar Sings Comden & Green; On the East Side of Heaven; Too Marvelous for Words: 1930s Songs; Because of You: Fifties Gold; Jeff Harnar Sings 
Cole Porter
Birdland Theater, The Beach Cafe, Laurie Beechman Theatre; BJ Ryan's Magnolia Room
NEW YORK DEBUT - FEMALE
ROBERTA FELDHUSEN
Who's That Woman?
Don't Tell Mama
JOANNE HALEV
Like a Perfumed Woman
Birdland Theater, Urban Stages
MARGE HELENCHILD
I'm Not That Girl
Don't Tell Mama, The Duplex
Liora Michelle
The Greedy Soprano
Don't Tell Mama 
Gerrilyn Sohn
Something Cool
Don't Tell Mama
REGINA ZONA
Becoming the Queen 2.0
The Triad, BJ Ryan's Magnolia Room, SOTA
NEW YORK DEBUT - MALE
Sean Patrick Murtagh
Mario! A Salute to The Great Lanza
The Green Room 42
SCOTT RANERI
Marvelous Mr Marzo
Don't Tell Mama
Mark William
Come Croon with Me
The Green Room 42, The Actor's Temple
CELEBRITY ARTIST
Charles Busch
Native New Yorker
Feinstein's/54 Below
Natalie Douglas
Tributes series: Roberta Flack, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Nancy Wilson, Barbra Streisand, Joni Mitchell
Birdland, Feinstein's at the Nikko, The Pheasantry (London)
Joanna Gleason
Feinstein's/54 Below
Andrea McArdle AND Donna McKechnie
Feinstein's/54 Below
Mark Nadler
The Old Razzle Dazzle
Laurie Beechman Theatre, Café Sebarsky
IMPERSONATION/CHARACTERIZATION/DRAG ARTIST
Doris Dear
More Gurl Talk; Doris Dear Christmas Special
Don't Tell Mama, Music Theater of CT, Cherry Grove Community House Theater, The Triad
Sutton Lee Seymour
Dragflix
Laurie Beechman Theatre
CISSY WALKEN
The Invasion; Trans Awareness Week Kickoff; Crown It
Stonewall Inn, Rockbar
MAJOR IMPERSONATION/CHARACTERIZATION/DRAG ARTIST
Joey Arias
Strange Fruit
Laurie Beechman Theatre
BenDeLaCreme
Ready to Be Committed
Laurie Beechman Theatre
Jinkx Monsoon
The Ginger Snapped
Joe's Pub
MUSICAL COMEDY PERFORMER - FEMALE
ANDREA AXELROD
After the Bawl
Don't Tell Mama
Lena Moy-Borgen
Glam Girl in a Grunge World
Don't Tell Mama
LYNDA RODOLITZ
Animal Magnetism
Don't Tell Mama
MUSICAL COMEDY PERFORMER - MALE
John Burns
John Burns Is a Sexy Beast
The Duplex, Don't Tell Mama
Michael Kirk Lane
Just Because
Don't Tell Mama 
DUO/GROUP
THE DRINKWATER BROTHERS (John Drinkwater, Matthew Drinkwater)
Don't Tell Mama, The Green Room 42, Birdland Theater, West End Lounge
MAMA'S BOYS (Tommy J. Dose, Brian Kalinowski, Paul Pilcz, Jon Satrom)
Mama's Boys
Don't Tell Mama
Lena Moy-Borgen AND Cheo Bourne
Moy-Borgen and Bourne's Office Party
Don't Tell Mama
THOSE GIRLS (Eve Eaton, Rachel Hanser, Karen Mack, Wendy A. Russell)
Those Girls Sing The Boys; An Evening with Those Girls; Those Girls Sing The Boys Volume 1.2 Unplugged
Laurie Beechman Theatre, BJ Ryan's Magnolia Room, Pangea
MAJOR DUO/GROUP
Kim Grogg AND Lennie Watts
Hometown Heroes
Laurie Beechman Theatre, The Beach Cafe
Sean Harkness, Marcus Simeone, Lina Koutrakos
Clearly Now Season 2
Don't Tell Mama, Urban Stages
KT Sullivan AND Jeff Harnar
Sullivan and Harnar sing Harnick and Strouse
Laurie Beechman Theatre
PIANO BAR INSTRUMENTALIST
Nate Buccieri
Don't Tell Mama, Brandy's
GERRY DIEFFENBACH
Don't Tell Mama, The Duplex
William TN Hall
Don't Tell Mama, Brandy's, The Duplex
PIANO BAR/RESTAURANT SINGING ENTERTAINER FEMALE
Liz Lark Brown
Brandy's
MARIA GENTILE
The Duplex
Jennifer Pace
Brandy's
PIANO BAR/RESTAURANT SINGING ENTERTAINER MALE
Bobby Belfry
Brandy's
BRIAN KALINOWSKI
Don't Tell Mama
JON SATROM
Don't Tell Mama, Brandy's
RESTAURANT/HOTEL LOUNGE/HAPPY HOUR ENTERTAINER
Sheree Sano
Don't Tell Mama, Spoonfed NYC
Bill Zeffiro
La Rivista, Parnell's
ENSEMBLE INSTRUMENTALIST
Sean Harkness, guitar
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat 25th Anniversary Show (Feinstein's/54 Below), Lucille Carr-Kaffashan/How the Light Gets In (Don't Tell Mama), Kathleen Turner/Finding My Voice (Arena Stage), Vocalmania (Birdland Theater, Zinc Bar), Ronny Whyte Quartet (Jazz at Kitano)
Tom Hubbard, bass
Marilyn Maye/I Wish I Were 90 Again (Feinstein's/54 Below), Tony Yazbeck/The Floor Above Me (Appel Room, Feinstein's/54 Below), Isabelle Georges/Oh, La, La! (Feinstein's/54 Below), Rosemary Loar/Everything's Coming Up Rosie (Don't Tell Mama), Sue Matsuki/How's That for Openers? (Don't Tell Mama, Urban Stages)
Don Kelly, drums
Those Girls Sing The Boys (Laurie Beechman Theatre), Lynda Rodolitz/Animal Magnetism (Don't Tell Mama), Leanne Borghesi and Marta Sanders/Show Broads (Birdland), Stephen Mosher/The Storyteller (Don't Tell Mama), Le Scandal (Laurie Beechman Theatre)
Matt Scharfglass, bass
Those Girls Sing The Boys (Laurie Beechman Theatre), Lisa Viggiano/From Lady Day to The Boss (Don't Tell Mama), Lynda Rodolitz/Animal Magnetism (Don't Tell Mama), Kim Grogg and Lennie Watts/Hometown Heroes (Laurie Beechman Theatre)
RECURRING SERIES
THE AMERICAN POPULAR SONGBOOK SERIES
Produced by Linda Amiel Burns
The Green Room 42
PIANO BAR LIVE
Produced by Scott Barbarino
The Duplex, Brandy's
Ricky Ritzel'S BROADWAY
Created and produced by Ricky Ritzel, staging and choreography by Jay Rogers and Aaron Morishita
Don't Tell Mama
SALON
Mark Janas, creator, host, artistic director; Tanya Moberly, executive producer
Don't Tell Mama
SPOTLIGHT ON YOU OPEN MIC
Produced and hosted by Natasha Castillo
53 Above
SPECIAL PRODUCTION
MAMA'S NEXT BIG ACT
Produced by Don't Tell Mama and Lennie Watts
Don't Tell Mama
Meg Flather SONGS: A CABARET SISTERHOOD
Written and produced by Meg Flather, directed by Lennie Watts, musical direction by Tracy Stark
Don't Tell Mama
Sherie Rene Scott AND Norbert Leo Butz: TWOHANDER
Starring Sherie Rene Scott and Norbert Leo Butz, written by Sherie Rene Scott, directed by Dick Scanlan, musical directed by Todd Almond.
Feinstein's/54 Below
EMCEE
Corinna Sowers Adler
Music at the Mansion
Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center
Natasha Castillo
Spotlight on You Open Mic
53 Above
Amy Wolk
I Only Have Lies for You
Laurie Beechman Theatre
DIRECTOR
Jeff Harnar
Dawn Derow/The House That Built Me (Laurie Beechman Theatre), Renee Katz/When It Happens to You (Don't Tell Mama), Anna Bergman/The Best of Bergman (The Beach Cafe), Tovah Feldshuh/Tovah Is Leona (Feinstein's/54 Below), Margo Brown/Margo Sings Mercer (Don't Tell Mama)
Lina Koutrakos
Sue Matsuki/How's That for Openers? (Don't Tell Mama, Urban Stages), Ari Axelrod/A Celebration of Jewish Broadway (Birdland Theater), Joanne Halev/Like a Perfumed Woman (Birdland Theater), Doris Dear/The Doris Dear Christmas Special (The Triad), Deborah Stone/Here I Am (Pangea)
Tanya Moberly
Lisa Viggiano/From Lady Day to The Boss (Pangea, Don't Tell Mama), Rian Keating/In This Traveling Heart (Don't Tell Mama), Susanne Mack/Where I Belong (Pangea, Don't Tell Mama), Stephanie Trudeau/Chavela:Think of Me (Don't Tell Mama), Bruno Giraldi/This Is Bruno
Gretchen Reinhagen
Bob Diamond/The Game of Life (Don't Tell Mama), Gerrilyn Sohn/Something Cool (Don't Tell Mama), Irenka Jakubiak and Evan Mittman/Cheek to Cheek (Laurie Beechman Theatre), Becca Kidwell/Fangirl (Don't Tell Mama), Bennett Silverstein/Born to Be Bennett (Don't Tell Mama)
Lennie Watts
Those Girls/Those Girls Sing The Boys (Laurie Beechman Theatre), Lynda Rodolitz/Animal Magnetism (Don't Tell Mama), Meg Flather/Outbound Plane (Don't Tell Mama, Urban Stages), Meg Flather Songs; A Cabaret Sisterhood (Don't Tell Mama)
MUSICAL DIRECTOR
Paul Greenwood
Anita Gillette/Chapter 3 (Birdland), Austin Pendleton and Barbara Blier/How About Love? (Pangea), Randa McNamara (Don't Tell Mama), Maren and Angela Show (Don't Tell Mama), Susanne Mack/Where I Belong (Don't Tell Mama, Pangea)
Alex Rybeck
Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway/Broadway the Calla-Way (Feinstein's/54 Below), Joanne Halev/Like a Perfumed Woman (Birdland Theater), Ann Kittredge/Fancy Meeting You Here: An Evening of Ahrens & Flaherty (Feinstein's/54 Below, Urban Stages, Feinstein's at Vitello's), Karen Akers/Sing the Shadows Away (Urban Stages, The Beach Cafe), Ari Axelrod, Celia Berk, Kevin Dozier, Karen Oberlin/Four for the Holidays (The Beach Cafe)
Tracy Stark
Sidney Myer/Sidney Myer Live (Pangea), Meg Flather/Outbound Plane (Don't Tell Mama, Urban Stages), Kim David Smith/Kim Sings Kylie; Christmas Show (Joe's Pub, Club Cumming, Neue Galerie), Lisa Viggiano/From Lady Day to The Boss Pangea, Don't Tell Mama), Roberta Feldhusen/Who's That Woman?
Gregory Toroian
Sue Matsuki/A Hep Happy Holiday, Ella and Me, How's That for Openers? (Don't Tell Mama, Urban Stages, Maureen's Jazz Room, BJ Ryan's Magnolia Room), Lauren Frazza (Pangea), Kati Neiheisel/That Holiday Feeling (Don't Tell Mama), Jackie Draper/Repeal the Blues (Laurie Beechman Theatre), Suzanna Ross/Bewitched (Don't Tell Mama, The Triad)
Steven Ray Watkins
Those Girls Sing The Boys (Laurie Beechman Theatre, Pangea), Lynda Rodolitz/Animal Magnetism (Don't Tell Mama), Lennie Watts and Kim Grogg /Hometown Heroes (Laurie Beechman Theatre), Mama's Next Big Act (Don't Tell Mama)
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Armando Bravi - The Duplex
Anthony Fett/Gayer Than Christmas, John Burns/John Burns Is a Sexy Beast, Hillary Clinton's Song Cycle: Witness, Harmonic Proposal/I Can't Even
ADAM DeCARLO - Don't Tell Mama
Mama's Boys, Sue Matsuki/How's That for Openers?, Amy Beth Williams/Meet Me at the Bar, Julie Reyburn/Anywhere We Are, Michael Kirk Lane/Just Because
Jason Ellis - 53 Above
NY Cosplay Cabaret, Groovin' on a Sunday, Bronwyn Rucker/Bronwyn's Old Fashioned Christmas, Spotlight on You Open Mic, Evelyn Sullivan/In the Dark
JONNY MERCADO - Don't Tell Mama
Meg Flather/Outbound Plane, Lynda Rodolitz/Animal Magnetism, Amy Beth Williams/Great Ladies, Great Songs, Marieann Meringolo/Between Yesterday and Tomorrow: The Songs of Alan & Marilyn Bergman, Meg Flather Songs: A Cabaret Sisterhood
Alison Nusbaum - Don't Tell Mama
Bob Diamond/The Game of Life, Arturo Padilla/Angel, Rian Keating/In this Traveling Heart, Lucille Carr-Kaffishan/How the Light Gets In, Mary Ellen Ryan/No Apologies
Jean-Pierre Perreaux - The Laurie Beechman Theatre
Mark Nadler/The Old Razzle Dazzle, Jennifer Barnhart/It's About Time, Eric Michael Gillett/Stop This Train, KT Sullivan and Jeff Harnar/Sullivan and Harnar sing Harnick and Strouse, Dawn Derow/The House That Built Me
SONG
ASKING FOR IT
Music and lyrics by Nora Terzo
EVERYTHING MUST GO
Music by Matthew Levine, lyrics by Hillary Rollins
LOOKS LIKE THEY'RE IN LOVE
Music by Alex Rybeck, lyrics by Bob Levy
THIS OLD YEAR
Music by David Alpher, lyrics by Jennie Litt
WHEN MICHAEL WAS THERE
Music and lyrics by Billy Recce
COMEDY/NOVELTY SONG
I'D HAVE REHEARSED
Music and lyrics by Amy Engelhardt
KIND OF GAY
Music by Jeff Hardy, lyrics by David Dreyfus
NOTHING VENTURED...
Music and lyrics by John Forster
A PRIME LITTLE NUMBER
Music by David Alpher, lyrics by Jennie Litt
STRAIGHT GIRL IN THE GAY BAR
Music and lyrics by Billy Recce
RECORDING (LaMott Friedman Award)
John DePalma
Something Shiny
Kevin Dozier
Christmas Eve
Bob Levy
Why Wait?
WENDY SCHERL
You'll See
MAJOR RECORDING
Gretchen Reinhagen
Take It With Me
KT Sullivan AND Mark Nadler
Thanks for the Memory-25 Years of Duets
Stacy Sullivan
Tornado Alley
Max von Essen
Call Me Old Fashioned-The Broadway Standard
Photos of Sidney Myer, Anita Gillette, Karen Mason, the MAC Board and Don Kelly by Helane Blumfield.
Performance photos by Stephen Mosher
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