Review: The 30th Anniversary Of The New York Cabaret Convention Celebrates Women Writers At The Rose Theater

The 2019 Cabaret Convention is upon us and the celebration of song and story was in full swing on day one! Following the trend of celebrating diversity and doing it in as classy a way as possible, the Convention celebrated its 30th year by proudly performing tributes to some of the greatest female songwriters to shape and impact the American Songbook. Starting with Dorothy Fields, Deborah Grace Winer (author of "On the Sunny Side of the Street" 1997) described the stories of these tremendous lyricists and composers who gave us Oscar award winning hits like "The Way You Look Tonight" (Dorothy Fields, 1936) and "The Way We Are" (one of innumerous awards taken home by Marilyn Bergman). Each of the featured women impacted incredible and defining trends in music over the last 100 years beyond Broadway including jazz, folk, and rock. And as it so happens this anniversary celebrating female talent coincided with that of the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage. Winer kept the night going and provided fitting history lessons, reminding us that all types of voices are heard on Broadway.

Even so, the most important hallmark of the night was the tremendous group of artists that lined up to sing the lyrics of greats like Betty Comden and Joni Mitchell. Each of the artists performed the music that they were gifted to perform well. The line-up was truly spectacular and featured many performers who had CDs coming out, shows coming up, or would be recognizable on a smattering of television shows over the course of the next few months. Regardless I had a few favorites. It's impossible to get too far without complementing La Tanya Hall who performed Carolyn Leigh's "The Best is Yet to Come." Her voice coupled with the lines, "out of the tree of life, I just picked me a plum," was truly mesmerizing. However, the best was yet to come indeed as my favorite performance came just a few songs later when Karrin Allyson took over on the piano to perform Blossom Dearie's "Bye Bye Country Boy." The heights and notes that she hit were so clean that this triumphant tribute was alone worthy of seeing. She also followed it up by performing her own original composition in the form of "Some of that Sunshine." The pianist that she took it over from was Mark Hummel, an accomplished music director who handled the keys for the evening. He was joined Jay Leonhart on bass and Ray Marchica on drums. They did what any great band can do and blended into the background to allow the singers to do their work.

The artist who immediately followed Allyson also truly impressed. Margo Seibert showcased an incredible sound in her performance of Carole King's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." I could hardly get enough of Seibert after that otherworldly performance, and when she returned later to sing the comical Sondheim song (with music by Mary Rodgers), "The Boy From..." she couldn't have been more impressive. Holding a note is one thing, Stacy Sullivan certainly took the cake on that with her wonderful Peggy Lee tribute of "I Love Being Here With You," as she pointed to practically each member of the audience. However, Seibert seemed to go through all of the boy character's (of the song) hometown, "Tacarembo la Tumba del Fuego Santa Malipas Zacatecas la Junta del Sol y Cruz" in each line through one breath. Exhausting and yet par for the course on a night of fun. Linda Purl's later performance of "The Way You Look Tonight" also indeed had me spellbound too.

We could go on citing a few more of the wonderful men and women to grace the stage, however, the main event of the evening was most certainly the awarding of the Donald F. Smith award to Christine Andreas. Clearly touched and at a loss for words, Andreas offered up some choice phrases and described in a nutshell why any of us is drawn to the world of cabaret. After Winer had stated that Andreas "embodied that passion that Mabel Mercer was known for" among other things, and Andreas had replied, "I'll read it (all those nice things you said about me) before I go to bed," Andreas addressed the crowd. She turned and stated simply that she loved making sound, and that cabaret was "the most wonderful art form when done well, because you bring a piece of that artist home." And after Andreas's sonorous performances of "The Summer Knows" and the triumphant finale of "I'm Flying" from Peter Pan, I'd say that her words ring true.

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