Mid-Year Catch-Up on Cabaret

Yes, somehow, we have arrived at that point where, incredulously, we look at the calendar and realize that ,what was once a new year, is now actually half over. If your New Year’s Resolution was to see more cabaret, did you keep it or do you keep missing the boat? Well, it’s never too late to get on board; you can make the second half of 2010 a time to “Catch-Up on Cabaret.”

There’s one singer who should be pretty easy to catch up with! You might say there’s a pretty busy week ahead in July for Elli Fordyce, whose first two albums were both nominated for MAC Awards. On Monday, July 12, she’s a contestant in the opening night of the weekly MetroStar Talent Challenge singing contest at Metropolitan Room. On July 14, she is the performer in the weekly series called Any Wednesday at Barnes & Noble on Broadway and West 66 Street, that Friday she is among those in MAC’s Summer Preview and the next night, she will share a bill with Suzanne Peebles at the Jazz Vocalist Festival at Iridium on Broadway and West 51 Street!! She’s hitting some of the ongoing events that let you see lots of performers in New York. If you need to catch up on those, you can get into a car pool with Ms Fordyce and/or read below:

MetroStar is a competition held on Mondays through August 30, where a large field of singers is narrowed down by audience vote and the points awarded by the judges. There will be guest judges and two permanent ones: veteran reviewer Roy Sander and yours truly. The Barnes & Noble events, including cabaret, Broadway and jazz people with new C.D.s to promote, is free, with additional programs on other nights; there’s an article about this and its creator, Bart Greenberg, in the brand new issue of Cabaret Scenes Magazine. The programs are free, as is the MAC event, if you are a member: free samples featuring several singers giving glimpses of their upcoming shows. The location is Don’t Tell Mama.

The Iridium is sure to make the summer sizzle with music and estrogen with the Jazz Vocalist Festival. If you missed the sublime Susan Winter’s marvelous movie melody memory magic, Million Dollar Matinee or June’s three weeks of chances to salute Frank Loesser’s work with Karen Oberlin in her dreamy darling of a valentine, you can see them both on the same bill when Iridium’s exciting cabaret cavalcade of jazz vocalists opens on July 13. Among the fabulous females is one of the most coolly competent -- or just plain cool --- jazz singers I have heard so far this year: Vicki Burns, from the West Coast. She has a clean sound and a great technique that’s pretty dazzling. So is the whole roster of names on the schedule see:

Mondays at The Laurie Beechman Theatre,sounds like the place to be for Stephen Sondheim fans, with a series of shows called Sondheim Unplugged, meaning it’s singers with a piano. An impressive list of singers are lined up, including those who sang Sondheim on Broadway, starting with Sarah Rice, the original Johanna in Sweeney Todd (July 12). Others included, are Company’s Pamela Myers who first told us about how “Another Hundred People” arrive in Manhattan every time you look up. She’s also in the latest installment of the variety show Jamie deRoy and friends, friendly sponsor of this column, on July 14 at Metropolitan Room. Other guests include Martin Vidnovic and Johnny Rodgers (who will be at Joe’s Pub on July 9).

Thank goodness they decided to call this column “Catch-Up on Cabaret.” There are times I get too caught up with other things to catch up on cabaret shows I was able to catch. But, as the tortoise said to the hare, “It’s never too late for me to catch up.” More on those next time.

July: It’s when the blast of fireworks jolts me to the realization about being at mid-year, when I (and maybe you) usually realize several things:

1. I guess it’s probably too late to send those “Happy New Year” cards I’d been meaning to send.

2. I’ve received 1000 “gentle reminders” in e-mails and many days they come with “Only 10 more days until my show’’ in the subject line, followed by the next day’s “Only 9 more days…” Only 8 more days until I scream. When did New York replace Cape Canaveral as America‘s main spot for countdowns?

3. It’s kind of hot.

4. I might have trouble finding a store that still has a good choice of New Year’s cards for those “Happy New Year” cards I’d been meaning to get around to buying for the day I might have time to send them. I guess I need a gentle reminder to get them while I can.

Anyway, Happy Second Half of the Not-So-New Year!

CATCH-UP ON CABARET is made possible via the generosity of Jamie deRoy and friends