36th New York Cabaret Convention Preview

A Three-Night Celebration of Song, Style, and the Spirit of Cabaret

By Alix Cohen

“Grab your coat and grab your hat/Leave your worries on the doorstep…” The 36th Annual New York Cabaret Convention celebrates an art whose demise is predicted every year, yet goes on singing. We may have lost nightclubs, but restaurants and bars increasingly present vocalists. Festivals and workshops seem to increase. Its genres evolving, cabaret survives. Support live music. Come see those you’ve only heard in your pajamas, seen on livestream. Meet the performers you admire and follow, perhaps discover someone new.

Opening Night Tuesday October 21, 2025
“The Best is Yet to Come” – A Celebration of Cy Coleman
Hosts Jeff Harnar and Andrea Marcovicci

Cy Coleman (born Seymour Kaufman) 1929 –2004 was a composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist with a career spanning five decades. A child prodigy, he performed at prestigious classical halls between the ages of 6 and 9, then lead a jazz combo before deciding he preferred popular music.

Early collaboration with Carolyn Leigh gave us songs such as “Witchcraft” and “The Best is Yet to Come.” The pair collaborated on Broadway’s Wildcat and Little Me. He both composed and produced Barnum.

Coleman wrote Sweet Charity and Seesaw with Dorothy Fields, On the Twentieth Century and The Will Rogers Follies with Betty Comden & Adolph Green, City of Angels with David Zippel, and The Life with Ira Gasman. He’s particularly known for a unique blend of catchy melodies and sophisticated harmonies. “I’m lucky to be in a profession where you can keep getting better”

“One of my first Original Cast albums as a child was “Sweet Charity.” I memorized every heartbeat of it. “THIS was Broadway,” is how that album sang to me, in all its sexy, jazzy, vibrant colors. Decades later, having known Cy Coleman, having had the opportunity to sing for him, and ultimately having recorded an entire album of his songs (A Collective Cy) it feels insufficient to merely say I love his music. It’s a direct tether to my core bliss.” Jeff Harnar

“Early in my career as an Algonquin songstress, I found myself seated at a tribute to Cy Coleman at the ravishing Rainbow Room. There I was, rather surprised, at HIS table, good lord! He was witty, articulate, and charming with a twinkle in his eye, and that was across a table of ten in a roomful of strangers. I’m so glad that Jeff and I are part of these evenings which keep this treasured music alive.” Andrea Marcovicci

Performers include Karen Akers, Ari Axelrod, Leanne Borghesi, Carole J. Bufford, Ann Hampton Callaway, Eden Casteel, Eric Comstock, Frank Dain, Bryce Edwards, Barbara Fasano, Tovah Feldshuh, Jonathan Karrant, Ann Kittredge, Karen Mack, Donna McKechnie, Carolyn Montgomery, Lee Roy Reams, Craig Rubano, Marta Sanders, Richard Skipper, Those Girls, and Nicole Zuraitis.

Making their Convention debut are: Eden Casteel whose Madeline Kahn show made KT Sullivan laugh; Frank Dain after the release of the plumy I’ve Had a Love; Carolyn Montgomery following her wonderful Rosemary Clooney salute; the inimitable satirist Richard Skipper

Presentation of The Mabel Mercer Award

Wednesday October 22, 2025
“I’ve Heard That Song Before” – The Music of Jule Styne
Hosts Klea Blackhurst and Billy Stritch

Julius Kerwin Stein 1905 –1994  was a British-American songwriter and composer who contributed to over 1500 published songs. Widely known for Broadway musicals, he contributed to 25 including Gypsy, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Funny Girl, additionally earning 10 Academy Award nominations, winning one.

Styne was a 10 year-old prodigy, a favorite pianist at Chicago mob clubs, played in a band, and acted as vocal coach at Twentieth Century Fox. In a 1995 New York Times profile, Alex Witchel described his personal style as “Vibrancy mixed with pragmatism and life experience without the bitter after taste. You can see what separates him from most his age- a persistent aura of anticipation…”  

“It was my honor and privilege to have met Jule Styne on numerous occasions. He was a unique character, a ball of energy and enthusiasm, characteristics that definitely came out in his music. No one had the ability to write a soaring melody like he did. “People”? “Make Someone Happy”? So thrilling. He was a singer’s best friend and I can’t wait to celebrate him.” Billy Stritch

Performers include  Jim Caruso, Robert Cuccioli, Natalie Douglas, Christine Ebersole, Aisha de Haas, Clint Holmes, Nicolas King, Karen Mason, MOIPEI, Sidney Myer, Gabrielle Stravelli, and Max Von Essen.

Making his Convention Debut is Broadway staple Max Von Essen, currently playing Billy Flynn in the Broadway revival of Chicago

Presentation of the Donald F. Smith Award to Karen Mason
underwritten by Adela & Larry Elow

October 23, 2025
“On the Sunny Side of the Street”- A Cavalcade of Upbeat Variety
Host/Artistic Director of The Mabel Mercer Foundation, KT Sullivan
Why the title, I ask. “I think we need some positive thinking these days.” Amen.

Performers include: Christine Andreas, Ella Emberton, Bryan Eng, Melissa Errico, Eric Yves Garcia, Ali Harper, Sam Jewison, Diva LaMarr & Darnell White, Marieann Meringolo, Mardie Millit & Michael Garin, Tanya Moberly, Susie Mosher & John Boswell, Mark Nadler, Justin Dylan Nastro, Nic & Desi, Phillip Officer, John Michael Pitera, Kelli Rabke, Steve Ross, Heather Sullivan, Amra-Faye Wright, and Lady Zen.

Making their Convention Debut are: Ella Emberton, this year’s winner of The Jim & Elizabeth Sullivan Foundation for the Arts Scholarship-all of 17 and just graduating; Sam Jewison, called a young Steve Ross- flying in from England; Mardie Millit & Michael Garin- you’ll find him at The Roxy; Justin Dylan Nastro heard at a benefit for Singnasium; Nic & Desi- the pair sing and dance, John Michael Pietra, winner of the annual Adela & Larry Elow Great American Songbook High School Competition; Kelli Rabke, formerly Eponine in Les Miserables; Lady Zen “legendary in Mexico”- flying in from San Miguel de Allende

Presentation of the Julie Wilson Award
Underwritten by Linda and Peter Hanson

One again, the Convention features teenagers to octogenarians. For the first time in 18 years, 97 year-old Marilyn Maye will be absent, celebrating Johnny Carson’s Centennial in Nebraska.

Free tickets are offered to local arts high schools. Balconies will hopefully be filled with future performers and audience.
For MAC Members & Students (with ID) there are $10 rush tickets (up to $100 value) for any available seat on the day of the performance.

Presale tickets are available now through the Mabel Mercer Foundation, until the Jazz at Lincoln Center box office opens on September 2. The Mabel Mercer Foundation https://www.mabelmercer.org/

BIG NEWS! May 2026 will feature a Cabaret Convention in Palm Springs, California (The last one there was 2002)
May 2027, The Mabel Mercer Foundation hopes to produce a Cabaret Convention in Boston