Scott Siegel: Celebrating New York's Nightlife
By: Jena Tesse Fox Jan. 28, 2005
The annual Nightlife Awards are a celebration of all the city has to offer at night, from stand up comedy to jazz to cabaret. No time is wasted on speeches at the ceremony; instead, the Nightlife Awards let the winners do what they do best: perform. Chosen by 23 critics and hosted by Hairspray's Bruce Vilanch, the Awards honor the best in the business by just letting them do their thing.. "There's nothing like it in New York," creator and producer Scott Siegel says eagerly. Only at the Nightlife Awards will audience members have "the opportunity to sit... and just to see one entertainer after another (introduced by celebrities, as well) perform. These are the best [entertainers] in New York as voted by the press (and if they're the best in New York, they are perhaps the best in the world), performing together on one stage on one night."
"The purpose of the Nightlife Awards is to help promote cabaret, comedy, and jazz," Siegel says simply, and amends that the ultimate goal of the awards is simply "to give Nightlife its due as an entertainment entity in New York." There are lots of awards and honors for theatre, he says, but comparatively few for the other forms of entertainment in New York. "Up until now, there was no broad-based critics' award to honor the great performances each year in the field. We're doing something that needs to be done to give these entertainers the distinction that they deserve."
The lack of acceptance speeches at the ceremony may well make the Nightlife Awards unique among awards shows. Instead, Siegel says, "the winners... are introduced by famous people, and then they perform to show why they were chosen." His reasoning for this, he says, was not just to stand out from any other award ceremony, but to keep audiences interested and involved. "Instead of an exclusive club, it becomes an inclusive club in which the world outside is invited to find out why [the winners] are great." More like a mixed-media concert than a traditional awards ceremony, then, the evening will have something to appeal to a wide variety of tastes, offering "the cream of the crop" of New York performers doing what they do best.
Scott Siegel says that audiences can "expect to be wildly entertained" by Monday's concert, and adds that most people will likely "come in knowing some of the [performers], but not all... I think they're going to be astounded and amazed by the extraordinary level of talent across the board. They're going to be discovering people that they would otherwise not discover." Fans of jazz, then, may learn of new comedians or cabaret artists, and vice versa. "If they come from one audience," Siegel says, "they'll become part of another by virtue of the experience of being open to this wide variety of Nightlife performers." He adds, "It's extraordinarily exciting both for the performers [and] the audience to see people like Ute Lemper and Patrice O'Neal and Keely Smith and an up-and-coming singer like Carolyn Montgomery all on the same stage at the same time."
Scheduled to appear at this year's Nightlife Awards Concert are some of the brightest stars of the comedy, cabaret, and jazz scenes in New York. Among the names (so far) are:
*Lennie Watts*Liz and Ann Hampton Callaway
*Karen Akers
*Patrice O'Neal
*Kate Clinton
*Joy Behar
*Andy Bey
*Rue McLanahan
*Bill Charlap
*The Joe Lovano Quartet
*Phillip Officer
*Paula West
*Mark Murphy
And many more!
There will also be special presentations to honor the late great Cy Coleman and Jackie Paris.
The Nightlife Awards take place on Monday, January 31, 2005 at 7:00 PM at The Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street, between 6th & 7th Avenues). Tickets are $25, $50, and $75. (Tickets to the after party are an additional $50). Show tickets may be purchased via Ticketmaster at 212-307-4100 or online at www.TheaterMania.com. For mail order tickets and tickets to the after-party, contact siegelentertainment@msn.com or call 212-365-4345.
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