Julie Reyburn returns to Don’t Tell Mama with her classic award-winning show Fate Is Kind, for one night only on April 22nd, at 7 pm. This award-winning cabaret performer launched her career in 2000 with this act —-first at a Singers Forum benefit and then for a run at Judy’s Chelsea, earning Reyburn the 2001 MAC and Bistro Awards for Outstanding Female Cabaret Debut and was also released as a CD. Fifteen years later, cabaret show producer and publicist Stephen Hanks heard the show at a church in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and was so moved he came up with the idea for a new cabaret series called New York Cabaret’s Greatest Hits. With the help of Associate Producer Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD, Hanks launched the series at the Metropolitan Room in the summer of 2015 and Reyburn reprised Fate Is Kind that September, with her original Musical Director Mark Janas (producer/pianist of Salon, the award-winning open mic show).
Hanks states that, “Fate Is Kind may sound like it’s telegraphing one of those eclectic cabaret sets built on existential self-examination, but it’s a savvy and creative combination of songs and stories that not only forces audience members to flip the pages of their mental scrapbook all the way to early childhood, but also tugs on their parental heartstrings. Reyburn and Janas—with his sensitive and intricate-yet-accessible arrangements, and rich, orchestral piano–have taken fanciful notions of childhood and beautiful pieces of music and crafted them into a magical work of cabaret art.”
A 2015 reprise performance earned this rave from Billie Roe, writing for BroadwayWorld.com: “Reyburn consistently makes a strong emotional connection to the lyric that easily translates to her appreciative audience . . . She absolutely soars–her magnificent mezzo soprano voice ever strong and passionate to the end . . .”
Last December, Reyburn performed numbers from Fate Is Kind in a “Best Of” New York Cabaret’s Greatest Hits show in the Urban Stages Winter Rhythms Festival and Marilyn Lester, reviewing for TheaterPizzazz.com, wrote:
“ . . . With beautifully evocative readings to go along with the songs, Julie Reyburn offered ‘Children Will Listen’ and ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’ with a powerful and emotional force that caused tissues to appear.”
Julie Reyburn is a four-time MAC Award winner and two-time Bistro Award winner. She is the first ever Nightlife Award recipient for Outstanding Female Vocalist (2003), and was also a finalist for the award in 2005 and 2009. In 2007, Reyburn was presented with the coveted Julie Wilson Award from the Mabel Mercer Foundation.
Julie Reyburn brought back this celebrated cabaret piece to the legendary club, Don’t Tell Mama in March and now is reprising the show on Saturday April 22, 7 pm. For reservations, call 212-757-0788 (after 4:00 pm) or visit www.donttellmamanyc.com/shows/main/julie-reyburn-fate-is-kind
Don’t Tell Mama is located at 343 West 46th St (between 8th & 9th Ave) New York, NY.
Leave a Reply