By Andrew Poretz***Ahead of the annual MAC Awards, a celebration of some of the best performers and shows in New York cabaret (this year on March 23), Goldie Dver presented in another of her series Sneak Peak, a compelling approach for a cabaret show. In this iteration, And the Nominees Are, the simple concept was to present, several days before the ceremony, original songs and comedy/novelty songs nominated for awards, sung by the songwriters themselves or who wrote the songs
for others to sing, in an intimate environment—and The Brick Room at Don’t Tell Mama is about as intimate as it gets. A MAC winner herself, Dver emceed, performed several songs and interviewed each performer after their numbers, while music director Dan Pardo accompanied many of the singers.
The brilliant, funny songwriter and pianist John Forster performed his homage to the accidental phone dial, “Butt Call.” Amy Engelhardt thanked Forster “for opening for me,” and performed “It’s Sunny” (lyrics by Seth Christenfeld), with James Ballard on the piano. Maria Gentile performed “I Used to Be You” (music composed with Lynn Portas), though the title could have been its bigger lyrical hook, “All in God’s Time.” Gentile’s autobiographical lyric had her singing to her young self.
Ted Georgaklis, a Boston pianist known there as “Ted Grace,” performed “Autumn of My Life Blues,” something of an ode to the senior citizen organization, AARP. New to songwriting, this was his first time singing in a New York club. Pianist Marc Segan’s waltz, “Ode to a Code,” seemed to honor Morse Code inventor Samuel Morse, but with an overall vibe of “Andy Kaufman meets Victor Borge.” He taught “dits” and “dahs” (dashes and dots) to the audience to sing along, with the big reveal, th
at since Morse was an otherwise terrible human who supported slavery even after abolition, he was really having us sing “F.U. SAM” in Morse Code!
Michael Colby’s poignant “I Could Be a Hero” (music by Peter Millrose) was something of a Walter Mitty piece. “A Superman of small things,” Colby’s childhood escapism into monster movies, musicals and comic books was all over the lyrics, with references to Batman, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman and Marvel heroes. Apparently singing to his love, she “could make me a hero.” Jazz singer-songwriter Marcus Goldhaber, who writes songs in a Tin Pan Alley style, and who was wearing his trademark trilby hat, claimed, “I wrote this song for Disney,” adding, “They don’t know it yet.” His well-constructed “Two at a Time” was delightful.
Tom Toce’s “Heather” was surprisingly dark for a novelty song, inspired by “thoughts and prayers”-type reactions to countless school shootings. A challenging topic, the song was clever and tragic. Ned Paul Ginsburg, a jazz-oriented orchestrator and pianist with an impressive musical resume (who made his singing debut here), had one of the b
est numbers of the night in “A Soft Place to Land,” with lyrics by Hillary Rollins, a piece that was reminiscent of Joe Raposo’s “Being Green.” Dan Pardo, an excellent singer as well as a fine accompanist, stood in for songwriter Drew Paralic, who couldn’t make it to New York to perform “It’s Always Too Little, Too Late.”
The comedic “Too Much Love” (music by Tracey Stark, lyrics by Mark Dundas Wood) was written with Sidney Myer in mind, and Myer performed it in his inimitable way. Myer has, like Rumpelstiltskin, the imp who could turn straw into gold, the ability to turn any line—even a simple “Good evening”—into cabaret gold. Dver and Stark performed last year’s MAC Award-winning song, Stark’s “Better Place,” followed by the marvelous young performer Ava Nicole Frances, who closed the show with her stunning original, “Missing a Screw.” Frances, who has a powerful belt and a huge presence, performed her song beautifully and sensitively (and without the belt). This “sneak peek” was an entertaining and enlightening look into an essential and successful MAC category.
