By Marilyn Lester***What does it take to begin an experiment? Cole Porter had one answer in his 1933 tune, “Experiment,” famously sung by the great Mabel Mercer. Bistro and MAC award-winning vocalist Ann Kittredge, who’s celebrating her tenth anniversary in cabaret has another answer, revealed in her new show, Love For Sale: My 10 Years in Cabaret, playing on Wednesday, February 11 and Saturday, 
February 14 at Don’t Tell Mama, where a new career was born.
But what about her “old” career? Kittredge, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, headed straight to NYC and jumped into a very successful career in theater. Then came her first career shift to wife and mother. After 11 years focused on raising her two children, she deemed the time right to get back to show business…but in what capacity? Kittredge figured 11 years out of show business is a long time. “None of the casting directors knew me,” she says. “My agent had retired. I didn’t know if I still had the technique and the skills…or how to get auditions.” Cabaret appeared as a way to find out. “I may not be good to start,” she reasoned, “but I might know that I have the potential.” It so happened that Kittredge went to High School with vocalist, songwriter and actor Jack Donahue who suggested cabaret definitely as the path. So, back to the question: what does it take to begin an experiment? For Kittredge, the answer was a native willingness to try, fearlessness, curiosity and gumption…
Enter (the late) Steven Lutvak, the performer and composer-lyricist who gifted Kittredge with a series of coaching sessions. She put together a demo video 
destined for Don’t Tell Mama booker Sidney Myer, who knew Lutvak well. There the twain converged, but, unbeknownst to Kittredge, the key song on the video, Cole Porter’s “Love for Sale” (hence the name of the anniversary show) would induce a gut reaction of “oh, no, not again.” “I’ve heard that song done about a thousand times,” he explains. But Kittredge secured a one-on-one interview with Myer. “It’s a very old-fashioned thing, and even the people that work with me now don’t believe in it, but I believe in that personal one-on-one connection.” He adds, “As much as I’m talking about the club and its protocols and its history and its contract, I hear your whole story and why you’re doing this and what your background is and what it means to you, and I don’t think there’s any substitute for that.” And to begin with, Lutvak’s recommendation was, as Myer says, like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Viewing the tape pretty much sealed the deal.
And so, in 2016, Ann Kittredge made her professional cabaret debut at Don’t Tell Mama with It’s About Time,
with Wendy Bobbitt Cavett as the pianist and musical director before Alex Rybeck—whom Kittredge had known before—was brought on board. Next up was One Night Only, followed by—the pandemic lockdown. Dauntless, with technology wizard Matt Berman and the technology-loving music director-pianist Christopher Denny, Kittredge produced a series of Virtual Shorts via JamKazam for viewing on YouTube. When the clubs reopened, director Barry Kleinbort was brought on board and the team powered ahead, presenting reIMAGINE, a show and a debut album (which received the LaMott-Friedman Award in 2022); Movie Nite; Just in Time; Fancy Meeting You Here: An Evening of Ahrens & Flaherty; Romantic Notions, the show and album; and most recently, When in Love.
Of the Kittredge team, Myer observes, “It’s an excellent dynamic. As important as it is to have talent and gifts, it’s equally important who you entrust with those talents and gifts, and (they are) top of the line.” Taking that assessment 
to heart, Kittredge adds that each of the three possesses a strong dedication to collaboration. “Some people don’t know how to collaborate,” she notes. “If you disagree with them, then they take it as a personal insult, and it’s not a personal insult.” It was also important for Kittredge to know she would be challenged. “I need to trust the eye that’s looking at me,” she adds. The subtext of that dynamic for Kittredge, is growth. “In cabaret,” she says, “you really never stop growing. That’s what I like. I like discovery.” And, the more the better if it’s organic, which defines the trio’s collaborative process.
During these ten years, Myer has watched Kittredge’s progress with keen interest, leading Kittredge to declare that he is probably the “only person in cabaret who has been a witness to my growing confidence, because I wouldn’t have known that (otherwise).” In response, Myer affirms, “You were always good, but I will tell you, you are great…and I do
n’t say that lightly…the different shows you’ve done, you’ve just blossomed in this.” Coming up to Love For Sale: My 10 Years in Cabaret, Myer can confidently add that’s it’s rewarding when he sees someone special and has had a feeling about them. Looking back on Kittredge’s demo and “Love for Sale” he reiterates how impressed he was: “What she got out of that song, I know that song, I could do it in pig Latin, I’ve heard it so much. But she made it so wonderful. She was, even then, exactly what cabaret is. It was personal, it was connected, it was moving.” As for Kittredge, she’s come to understand in this past decade that she has “such a passion to just get better and better and just do what I can in order to perform.” And while family will always come first, she concludes: “I want to end this anniversary show moving forward; it’s not about, yay, I did 10 years. It’s about, I survived 10 years and I want to do more. I can’t stop working on music.”
