Feature: The Days Of Cabaret Gratitude - Day Thirty - The Gold Standard

The Days Of Cabaret Gratitude

Day Thirty:  The Gold Standard - The Callaways

Mothers and daughters, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives, who doesn’t love a good show business dynasty?  And when a dynasty is good, shouldn’t it be really, really good?  Well, really, really good, we got, because that’s the Callaway way.

Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway are the front women of a show business dynasty well known and well loved by the industry and by the patrons of the industry.  Their mother, Shirley Callaway, is a singer and a vocal coach (naturally, a pianist as well), older sister, Ann, is a singer, a songwriter, a pianist and a Tony Award nominee for Swing, younger sister Liz is a singer, an actress, and a Tony Award nominee for Baby (both women have scads and scads of other award nominations and wins).  Liz’s husband, Dan Foster, directs all her shows (among other things) and her son, Nicholas, has sung with Liz on stage and on recording.  And as the Callaway dynasty blossoms and blooms in the ever-warming glow of the spotlight, there are the Callaway sisters, leading the family into show business  history  with grace, graciousness, and, oh, so much style.

When they work apart, Liz and Ann are consistent crowd favorites.  Their solo shows sell out every single seat, wherever they play, and, to be very clear, the Callaways spend their entire year traveling to different cities, different countries, and theaters of different varieties to perform any one of a number of solo shows that they keep available to the public.  Each sister could play a different show every night of the week and start over on Sunday with something new.  And each one of those different club acts is going to be the best thing you’ve ever seen… until the next night.  And it doesn’t matter what you want to hear, Ann and Liz can play it.  Ann is a longtime respected jazz artist who, what the heck, can throw down with a show of Seventies pop music.  Liz was the female voice of Broadway in the Eighties (every young singing actress wanted to be Liz Callaway) but when she did her evening of movie music earlier this year, a lot of it was pop music from that same decade.  Ann has recordings that focus on the Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald catalogues and Liz has albums dedicated to Frank Loesser, Stephen Sondheim, and Sixties pop.  Each of these albums has had a corresponding show and, if asked to, the Callaways could pull those shows out of their black Wizard of Oz bag and perform them in a moment’s notice.  They are the most prolific creators of cabaret and concert in the business and they are the performers everyone wants to either emulate or see in action.

Oh, and when you see them in action…

The Callaways are consummate storytellers.  Natural orators, each woman could walk out on the stage without a script and speak extemporaneously and make you laugh out loud, make you pay attention, and even make you learn something.  Then they will sing, and with each musical monologue they will take you through the entire spectrum of emotions, using right and proper acting skills, storytelling prowess, and voices that make you turn to your neighbor and say, “You do realize we’ve gone to Paradise, don’t you?”  And, for the record, they never walk out on the stage without a script.  A Callaway show is crafted for the audience’s ultimate enjoyment

And on the subject of ultimate enjoyment - that is when the Callaways work together.

Even though Liz and Ann have all those solo shows and albums, they always come back together.  There is always a new Callaway sister act (like next month’s YULETIDE REVELRY at 54 Below).  From their first duo show in 1995, the iconic SIBLING REVELRY, to last year’s AS LONG AS WE’RE TOGETHER, the Callaways have had a string of successful sister acts that have played to at capacity houses,  always putting forth the very best that the industry has to offer.  Aside from the impeccable musicality of the evenings, the touching and hilarious anecdotes and informative histories, the natural chemistry that Ann and Liz have crackles, and the sight of their very palpable sisterly love for one another warms the heart (and might even make you wish you had a sibling so you could have this feeling every day of the week).  It is absolutely, one hundred percent, not possible to sit in a theater watching the Callaways in action and not feel love, not feel joy, not feel grateful that you spent the money (which is sometimes hard) and left the house (which is often harder) and got yourself into the club and into the seat and into a better place where the storytelling is unparalleled, the music is out of this world, and the women are human beings and artists beyond compare.

And if you’re lucky, Ann might sing “The Nanny” and Liz might sing “Journey To The Past” and your evening (and your life) will be complete.

Read a Broadway World Cabaret review of Ann Hampton Callaway HERE.

Read a Broadway World Cabaret review of Liz Callaway HERE.

Read a Broadway World Cabaret review of The Callaways HERE.

Liz will appear in YULETIDE REVELRY with her sister, Ann Hampton Callaway, at 54 Below December 24th (not the 25th, as the club is off that day) and the 26th through the 30th.  Ticket link HERE.  The December 27th performance will be live streamed.

Liz has a new Substack newsletter “Between Flights" which includes songs, behind-the-scenes fun, and the occasional recipe, that would be great- people can subscribe HERE.

Liz will perform To Steve With Love: Liz Callaway Celebrates Sondheim on December 4th at the Parker Jazz Club in Austin, Texas  Ticket link HERE.

Liz will perform Liz Callaway: Broadway and Beyond on December 9th in Lauderhill, Florida at the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center  Ticket link HERE.

Liz will perform Yuletide Revelry with Ann Hampton Callaway on December 16th at The MIM in Phoenix, Arizona  Ticket link HERE.

Liz will perform To Steve With Love: Liz Callaway Celebrates Sondheim on January 20th at The Terrace Theatre at The Kennedy Center, Washington DC  Ticket link HERE.

Liz Callaway is a 2023 GRAMMY® AWARD NOMINEE in the category of BEST TRADITIONAL POP VOCAL ALBUM for her live recording of TO STEVE WITH LOVE: Liz Callaway CELEBRATES SONDHEIM

Broadway World Cabaret celebrates Liz Callaway's nomination and congratulates her.

Ann's Touring Schedule is HERE.

Ann will appear in YULETIDE REVELRY with her sister, Liz Callaway, at 54 Below December 24th (not the 25th, as the club is off that day) and the 26th through the 30th.  Ticket link HERE.

Ann will be back at 54 Below on January 12th for FINDING BEAUTY: INSPIRED CLASSICS AND ORIGINALS.  Ticket link HERE.

Ann's new CD “Finding Beauty, Originals Volume 1" is  available HERE.

Ann’s pronouns are she/her/hers.

Liz's pronouns are she/her/hers.

Liz can be found online at the following links:

Website:  HERE 

Instagram:  HERE 

Facebook:  HERE  

Twitter:  HERE  

Cameo:  HERE  

YouTube:  HERE

Ann can be found online at the following links:

Website:  HERE 

Instagram:  HERE 

Facebook:  HERE  

Twitter:  HERE  

YouTube:  HERE

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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