It took a while but on this Sunday, I finally found the chance to catch my breath and sit down to write about the wonderful evening of open mic on July 21st!
Another night of juggling the show without my partner in crime John Koprowski! I lived to tell the story of with the help of once again, my new heart warming guest spotlight Meg Flather, my wonderful musical director Tracy Stark and another room full of amazing talents! Every one of the performers brought their hearts to the SPOTLIGHT and WISHED John well! We all left him a message for him to see that we have not forgotten him!! Such a heart warming crowd! THANK YOU ALL!
Meg Flather, our 2016 MAC Award Best Female Vocalist was amazing that night! Her set completely mesmerized the audience (that includes me)! She started with a ballad arrangement of "She Works Hard for the Money", following with an extremely catchy original tune "Like Me" and wrapping up with another beautiful original "My Heaven", telling beautiful fascinating stories in between, with accompanying vocals from Tracy Stark. We were all eating out of the palm of her hands!
Meg is bringing back her fantastic CD release show "Hold On Tight" on Saturday, September 16th, 7 PM at Don't Tell Mama. If you haven't seen it, GO SEE IT. I was there and it moved me to tears! What a beautiful show, directed by Lennie Watts with musical direction by Tracy Stark.
Tracy Stark, our feature MAC Award winning musical director sang an original tune "Right Where I Belong" next. What a warm heart warming song! She is an amazing musical director!
Her next gig is coming up on Friday, Aug 4th - Shades of Beautiful: The Tracy Stark Songbook - at the O'Neill Theater Center, with Tonya Pinkins, Lennie Watts, Gretchen Reinhagen, Karen Mack and Jason Morris!
What a line-up! You don't want to miss it!
Of the performers, here's a list of the performers with their upcoming events! Mark your Calendars!
1) Rob Davis - He is working on something new but nothing on the calendar yet. He will let us know once it is in the works!
2) Barbara Malley - MAC award winner for best musical comedy is working on commercials and she will be featured in Ricky Ritzel's Broadway on August 25th! Go check her out!
3) Bobbie Horowitz - MAC award winning best Emcee for the series "It's Just a Number" honoring people over 50 who are accomplishing great things, and author of the book "Fit and Fabulous from Fifty Forward! The next event is on September 18th, 7 PM at the Metropolitan Room, Honoring our very own John Koprowski, Frank Dain and Meg Flather! (Our previous spotlight guest Lisa Viggiano and myself will both be in the show too!)
4) Wendy Scherl will be performing in "It's Just A Number" as well as two performances at the Metropolitan for the benefit of Cabaret Cares coming up!
5) Becca Kidwell is bringing back her show, "A Song and Its Girl" to Don't Tell Mama on Saturday, September 23rd at 7 PM directed by Gretchen Reinhagen and musical direction by Tracy Stark! I video and saw the opening night of the show and it was quite a wonderful show!
6) Kati Neiheisel - A cabaret newbie about to make her debut at Don't Tell Mama on October 13th (7 PM) & October 28th (4:30 PM) in a show named "Among The Stars" Directed by Deb Berman and Musical Direction by Gregory Toroian.
7) Lucille Carr-Kaffashan - 2017 Bistro Award Winner for Outstanding Theme Show, "Unwritten" sang one of her songs from her show. She is hoping to bring it back!
8) Sidney Plunket - A regular performer from the Singers Forum Open Mic.
9) Bennett Silverstein - is planning a comedy show with MAC award winning director Gretchen Reinhagen.
10) Robert Shechner- A talented friend of Sidney Plunket joined us for the first time!
11) Monica Salvi - A Italian Performer from London, She has a show coming up October 7th "A Mad Woman in My Attic" at the United Solo Theater Festival at Theater Row, West 42nd Street.
12) Emmy Pai - A student of Wendy Russell brought a beautiful performance of Besame Mucho.
13) The Elegant Ivory Duo (John and Liz) - They always have events coming up and I will keep you all posted as soon as I hear about the next one!
14) Jason Ellis- on lights and sound, always have events coming up! He is immensely creative and I will keep you all posted on his upcoming events!
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
HOPE YOU CAN JOIN US FOR THE NEXT ROUND ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 18TH, SAME TIME, SAME PLACE, FEATURING SINGER/SONG WRITER JOE TAYLOR, DUBBED "SUBWAY IDOL" BY THE NEW YORK TIMES AS THE SPOTLIGHT GUEST AND MULTI-TALENTED SINGER/SONG WRITER/VOCAL COACH/MUSICAL DIRECTOR KENNETH GARTMAN AS THE ACCOMPANIST!! BRING A FRIEND!! HELP US SPREAD THE WORD!
