My latest photo journal features images from the exciting grand finale of the 2024 4-time MAC-award-winning Mama’s Next Big Act at Don’t Tell Mama on Tuesday, August 27th!
Mama’s Next Big Act is an 8-week live performance competition mixing music of different genres for 8 weeks, produced by Singnasium Artistic Director, multi-MAC/Bistro/Nightlife-award-winning Lennie Watts. This is the 7th year in the running!
A panel of judges and the audience vote for the acts each week. Frank Dain is the permanent judge each week along with Lennie Watts and other prominent award-winning performers. I’ve had the pleasure of documenting six of the seven years of the competition and it is an amazing process! Every week the contestants were challenged with tasks ranging from themes to song assignments. Growth and comradery among contestants grew with each week! Yaz (Yasuhiko Fukuoka) was the music director for the event and did a fantastic job accompanying the contestants!
The competition brought out contestants from all different avenues of music from theater to cabaret and this year the decision for the winner among the final three contestants Hanah Jane, Jordan Griffey, and Evelyn Sullivan was especially rough (I don’t envy the judges’ position)!
Each act was awarded by roaring applause and the WINNER OF MAMA’S NEXT BIG ACT was born! Evelyn Sullivan!!! As the winner of Mama’s Next Big Act, Evelyn received a $1500 stipend towards her production of a cabaret show, a feature article in Cabaret Scenes magazine, poster, and promo card design, a free class at Singnasium, a show poster hung on the DTM Wall of Fame, and this year, a Ninja Air Fryer!
What a wonderful experience for contestants, audiences and judges! Stay tuned for videos coming soon! I can’t wait for Mama’s Next Big Act 2025!
