Nightlife Award Winner Jessica Molaskey

Last year, Jessica Molaskey won the Nightlife Award for Outstanding Cabaret Female Vocalist in a Major Engagement for her show After Midnight at the Oak Room, for which her husband John Pizzarelli played guitar and sang along. This year, making a tradition of award-winning excellence, husband and wife won the Outstanding Cabaret Duo or Group in a Major Engagement award for their joint show at the Carlyle, which they will accept at Monday's ceremony.

It kind of feels like an embarrassment of riches," Molaskey said about her repeat win. "It's just lovely. I haven't been doing it that long, and it's been incredibly rewarding, and I've felt very embraced by the community."  With four albums to her name and numerous credits on and off Broadway, Molaskey is no stranger to great music. She is, however, a relative newcomer to cabaret, and has risen to the top in almost record time. Pizzarelli, a lauded jazz guitarist in his own right, has  been beside her every step of the way. "John is a consummate performer," she says. "He's like a vaudevillian. He's incapable of making a misstep onstage, so it's much more fun doing it with John than doing it by myself, because you have somebody there." The two of them recently started a syndicated radio program, Radio Deluxe, that features interviews and music from celebrities. "We talk and are funny and we interview people and play records," Molaskey says of her program, which is not available in New York City as there is no station here dedicated to the standards.

Despite all of their successes-- and awards-- Molaskey still seems to be somewhat in awe of her achievements. "If anybody had said to me ten years ago, 'You and your husband will be playing the Carlyle and will have this running experience every year,' I would have laughed at them," she says, and humbly suggests that her husband doesn't need her to perform with him. "But we just have so much darn fun! And I guess people respond to that. We also have different sensibilities that make it interesting. I've given him a sense of theatricality, and he's given me a sense of being improvisational, just doing it and not thinking about it too much. So it's really a gift. I adore my husband, and I like spending time with him, and we get to do these wild things together. It's like surfing on the same surfboard... in front of people! We just go. We don't know what's going to happen. We never plan out what we're going to say... And people laugh, and we don't know why half the time!"

"I think that we've gotten cynical about being married in this day and age," Molaskey continues thoughtfully. "If you're lucky enough to find somebody who's wonderful and really try to stay together, it's a beautiful thing, and I don't think it gets too much airtime anymore, the idea of it. Which is not to say that I in any way/shape have a perfect marriage," she adds quickly, "but there's something beautiful about being married, and working on it, and enjoying a marriage. And I think, in a weird way, people respond to that."

Cabaret critics have certainly responded to it. Jessica Molaskey's second Nightlife Award is a testament to everything she and John Pizzarelli have worked to create together, and she is especially appreciative of the warm reception she has received from the cabaret community. "It's just incredible, " she says, "especially since it's given to us by the people who write about that specific work, which [lets] me know that these guys are going out every night and seeing what's out there, which I never have a chance to do. It means a tremendous amount to us."

 

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