BWW Features: WNET Launches '66th & Broadway' Showcasing Cabaret Style Entertainment on Public Television

"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything." --Plato

In its continuing mission to bring culture to people who wouldn't necessarily have access, to illuminate, educate, and entertain, public television stations WNET (New York) and WLIW (Long Island) has decided the time is ripe to reacquaint people with the art of cabaret.

What is cabaret, or the cabaret to which we refer? Wikipedia defines it as: A form of entertainment distinguished by the performance venue, such as in a restaurant, pub or nightclub with a stage . . . Six dictionaries offer similar definitions. In his iconic volume Intimate Nights-The Golden Age of New York Cabaret, author James Gavin elaborates: "Inside those clubs were singers who could take a song that Ethel Merman had bellowed on Broadway and deliver it as though they were confiding in your ear."

Once upon a time, television variety shows crowded the air. People could tune into shows hosted by Ed Sullivan (in photo right) with Harry Belafonte), Dinah Shore (center in photo with Bing Crosby), Perry Como (far right in photo), Andy Williams, Dean Martin, and Sonny & Cher, among others. Skit format shows presented by Broadway performers-turned-TV-stars such as Carol Burnett included non-comedic vocal performance. During these musically bountiful years, we had nightclubs and boites (smaller, often less posh venues) where people could go to dine or drink and enjoy the intimacy of live singers and musicians. Every good hotel had a cabaret room.

Times have changed. The last television variety shows were gone by 1980. Nightclubs and boites barely exist. When New York lost the venerable Oak Room at the Algonquin, cabaret aficionados rightfully mourned; one can't recreate history. Now cabaret lovers are holding their collective breath for the second coming of Michael Feinstein's new club (reportedly to be housed either above or below the jazz club Birdland). In June 2012, 54Below opened (on the site of the old Studio 54 nightclub) to successfully offer its own take on the genre. Undaunted, cabaret continues to pop up in restaurants, bars, backrooms, and to continue in those clubs that have held on through the vicissitudes of taste and economy. New audiences are finding their way.

American Songbook, long the backbone of cabaret, is alive and well on the concert stage. Big name artists like Paul McCartney and Rod Stewart, who are known for other kinds of music, have recorded the genre and exposed a younger audience, resulting in unexpectedly enthusiastic response (sales.) Tony Bennett took a different tack by releasing duets with more contemporary performers who value the songbook, reinvigorating his own durable career.

Meanwhile, Public Television had been floating the idea of presenting cabaret.

According to Diane Masciale, General Manager WLIW21/Executive Producer Local Production, WNET's President and CEO Neal Shapiro has long wanted to create an event space for the performing arts out of the station's studios at Lincoln Center. While looking for funding, the organization recognized a kismet moment. Cabaret would be a good fit for both the space and the stations' aspirations. When Ellen and James S. Marcus, longtime supporters of both public television and music, whose recent beneficence established the Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at Julliard, offered to fund pilot shows, the station was delighted.

"Surrounded as we are in this city by an unparalleled array of performances," Shapiro observes, "we are tremendously excited by the opportunity to be able to bring another facet of the arts to our viewers."

Celebrated cabaret performer KT Sullivan, who is also the Artistic Director of The Mabel Mercer Foundation, the country's preeminent proponent of cabaret, was approached as an expert in the field. "We were thrilled and so fortunate that she agreed to participate," Masciale says. "Donald always dreamed that cabaret would get television coverage, and it seems within our grasp at last," Sullivan says. (The late Donald Smith was the founder of The Mabel Mercer Foundation and for countless years cabaret's greatest advocate.)

Masciale and her staff researched the cabaret scene and consulted with people in that world. They met with Sullivan and young up and coming talent, Jennifer Sheehan (photo, left) and determining these two artists would reflect different styles and generations. Individual one-hour shows featuring Sheehan and Sullivan were taped in front of a live audience of about 30 invited guests at the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center.

"You've got a song you're singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you've got to make them think that you're one of them sitting out there with them, too. They've got to be able to relate to what you're doing." --Johnny Cash

Sheehan, who last October received the Donald F. Smith Award from the Mabel Mercer Foundation, performed an excerpt from her highly lauded debut show You Made Me Love You (Musical Director/pianist--James Fallowell, Bass--Jered Egan.) The piece is both very personal and a wonderful introduction to the art as it sheds light on how Sheehan got into the business and why she performs cabaret. "You hear it said that cabaret is an endangered art form," Sheehan told me."I think if younger people were exposed, they'd get hooked . . . I have a love of the masters, but great American songwriting didn't end in the 1950s. I want to introduce both young and seasoned audiences to music they may not know, to shed light on writers and continue the tradition." (Watch a clip from Sheehan's performance below.)

http://watch.thirteen.org/video/2365411242/

Sullivan, a seasoned cabaret performer, offered a portion of Rhyme, Women, and Song, the last show she performed in The Oak Room at the Algonquin in 2011. Since Musical Director Jon Weber was scheduled to play in London on the date of the filming, Sullivan asked Jed Distler, who had played at her Algonquin debut back in 1992. The vocalist's show is peppered with history and anecdote reflecting sophisticated knowledge and appreciation of the genre. Having worked as an actress as well as appearing on numerous concert stages, Sullivan often says: "Cabaret found me." (Watch a clip from Sullivan's performance below.)

http://watch.thirteen.org/video/2365411238/

Jennifer Sheehan's show aired on WLIW21 February 5, 7, and 12, and will be shown on THIRTEEN on February 20 at 10:30 pm. KT Sullivan can be seen on WLIW21 February 19 at 12:00 am & 2:00 pm and on THIRTEEN, February 27 at 10:30 pm. After initial broadcasts, both shows will be available nationally at: http://www.thirteen.org/programs/66th-and-broadway/.

With long term funding, an entire roster of episodes could be produced, resulting in the program being assigned a designated time slot. In addition to consulting with experts, producers will consider material sent by performers. Whatever best represents an artist may be sent to: 66andBroadway@wliw.org/. If the production team is interested, they will be in touch. When an artist is televised, a link to his or her web site will be posted.

"The response to the show is very positive," Masciale says. "We feel hopeful it's going to continue . . . Because it's our own facility and because of the way we do productions, it's very cost effective. We have a really good template, the fundraising hump is not as big." Having presented the American Songbook at NJ PAC series, which will continue, cabaret seemed like a natural addition to the program roster.

"We also operate a free content sharing service with 35 other public television stations in major markets," Masciale continues. "This is one of those things we can share when we have more programs." Whether or not another station chooses 66th & Broadway is, of course, up to them. "I will tell you," she adds, "that Jennifer Sheehan is from St. Louis and because we have a very strong relationship with the St. Louis station, I'll be contacting them to offer the program featuring their hometown girl. We'll be doing things like that to extend the brand. The performer is as relevant as the art form."

As the geography of cabaret has changed, future shows might be as likely to include material authored by contemporary composers and lyricists as songs by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and Johnny Mercer. "I would love for it to be as broad and diverse as possible," Masciale admits. "It would also be my dream to bring the art form to an audience with many different tastes. I want this to happen. I feel very passionate about it."

In a city where pop, rock, jazz and classical music listings can readily be found, Cabaret, only erratically covered newspapers and magazines, can seem like the poor cousin twice removed. Perhaps 66th & Broadway will help increase exposure and inform PERCEPTION as well as entertain. One can only hope.

"The only thing better than singing is more singing." --Ella Fitzgerald

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