By Andrew Poretz***The third and final night of the 2024 New York Cabaret Convention, Everything Old Is New Again: Classic Songs, Old and New, was hosted by KT Sullivan, who arrived onstage in a resplendent red gown and wearing one of her signature fascinators. She related that she first wore the gown at her wedding to her late husband, Steve Downey, all those years ago, and it still fit perfe
ctly. She opened the show by playing and singing “The Kerry Dance,” written in 1879 by James Lynam Molloy, a tune sung by Mabel Mercer herself. Sullivan regularly performs at the Algonquin, where she sings and accompanies herself with simple piano playing.
The show’s title made for an evening of re-imagined songs, veteran star performers having their Cabaret Convention debuts and high school performers singing songs closer to 1924 than 2024. There was a raucous contingent of students present, kids who reacted with glee to their fellow students’ every high note. Two of them were Julia Parasram on “Savin’ All My Love For You”, and Faye Cantero on “I Love You For Sentimental Reasons.” The house band of pianist Jon Weber, bassist Steve Doyle, and drummer Daniel Glass played for all performers with some noted exceptions.
Rosemary Loar, who has countless Broadway credits, somehow merged the ballad “People Will Say We’re In Love” from Oklahoma with rocker Bonnie Rait’s hard-hitting “Something To Talk About,” which had related ideas, but weren’t quite musically compatible. Frank Ponzio joined on piano. Craig Pomranz, with pianist Michael Roberts, made his Cabaret Convention debut with a cute number, “I Always Say Hello To A Flowe
r.” Ali Harper is a dynamic New Zealand singer with a delicious accent, whom pianist Alex Rybeck recommended. Harper made an outstanding debut with the endearing “Marieke,” sung partly in French. She has a very good voice and delivery, with a powerful and dramatic approach.
The impossibly tall and handsome jazz cat Alex Leonard performed a swinging “Teach Me Tonight.” The stunning, statuesque Marnie Klar was quite a vision in red, and made a fine Convention debut with “Anticipation,” from her Carly Simon show, with pianist Steven Ray Watkins. The beloved Sidney Myer, who runs Don’t Tell Mama, is a sui generis performer. His unique demeanor and decidedly deliberate delivery make one suspect he could be the love child of Noel Coward and Tallulah Bankhead. Every word out of his mouth is pure gold. His simple “Good evening” is good for a laugh. He performed, with pianist Tracy Stark at the keys, Steven Lutvak’s hilarious “The Dinner Party (Bagel Makers To The Czar)” ); sublime delivery brought the house down.
Of the teen performers, the best by far was Luz Velazquez, with an excellent “Midnight Sun.” Hesitant at first, by mid-song it was clear why she won an award. She has great control of her instrument, whether straight notes or winding phrases. It was a shock that it took 35 years for former Broadway ingenue and current cabaret star Melissa Errico to make her debut appearance. The brainy beauty a
nd class act is quite the storyteller, and in a long preamble, broke down what “The Lady Is a Tramp” actually means. “She is the woman we want to be… She’s my kind of gal… or maybe she is me,” said Errico. The distinguished, debonair Robert Cuccioli brought his beautiful bari-tenor voice to “In My Own Lifetime” with a powerful delivery and a big finish.
Broadway and international performer Amra-Faye Wright always seems to appear like an Erté etching come to life. The statuesque blond has a posh South African accent. She spoke of being cast as “Velma” in Chicago, and how the late Chita Rivera, who originated the part, symbolically “gave me her skin” to support her taking on the role. In tribute to Rivera, Write performed “Where You Are” from Kiss of the Spider Woman, with her musical director, Mark Hummel. She sang and danced, and brought great movement and huge star quality to her bravura performance.
In the second act, Klea Blackhurst truly lived up to the show’s title with a nearly unrecognizable “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” with pianist Michael Rice. She threw out every part of the Streisand playbook for this version, and it paid off. Everyone’s favorite show business couple, pianist-singer Eric Comstock and singer Barbara Fasano gave tribute to Margaret Whiting with a marvelous medley of some seven songs, showing both their significant chops and humor. Deborah Stone was in fine form for Sondheim’s “The Ladies Who Lunch.” Naathan Phan is, improbably, a magician and singer, but everything about him is improbable: he has a Scottish accent, a
lthough visibly of Asian descent and he uses all of these things to their full entertainment effect. For “The Joker,” he cleverly combined magic, humor, showmanship and an excellent singing voice. Fantastic!
Lorna Dallas told the remarkable story of “Here’s That Rainy Day,” now a songbook standard. However, he song initially appeared in the Broadway flop Carnival in Flanders, which played all of six performances, Dallas, with Christopher Denny at the piano, sang the song in its original context, the complete show version with a very long verse to set up the main parts of the song, a mid-song monologue, and a second verse. This was a surprising show highlight. Celia Berk, performed a song by Elizabeth Sullivan, the matriarch of the Sullivan family. Berk, in strong voice, sang “Just Turn It Around,” a song about perspective. It was made all the more poignant by Seoyeon Im’s violin playing.
Carole J. Bufford made something of a “Jessica Rabbit” entrance for “Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad Woman,” with pianist Ian Herman. This “Red Hot Mama song” was chosen in honor of Julie Wilson’s centennial. Bufford killed it. Broadway tenor Arbender Robinson, who has made over 5,000 appearances on the Great White 
Way, sung an excellent “Make Them Hear You.” Pianist-singer Alexis Cole also took the show title seriously, and with “Theme from New York, New York,” turned it into an entirely new song, untouched by the influence of either Minnelli or Sinatra.
An energetic Tim Connell jigged around the stage to perform “Everything Old Is New Again.” He was in fine voice. James Followell accompanied Connell. Bay Area singer Paula West returned to the Cabaret Convention after a long absence. With “Like A Rolling Stone,” like Blackhurst and Cole before her, she completely re-imagined this song and made it her own, with an understated delivery and a funky rhythm, with Jerome Jennings on drums. The evening came to a rather abrupt end after West’s performance, with no return of the cast or even closing remarks by Sullivan. After the house lights came on, Sullivan got the band to play a simple melody while she danced around the stage, but only the band was lit. Sullivan was in the dark, as if the lighting tech walked out for a smoke. The stage lighting was, in fact, underwhelming for much of the show.
Photos by Maryann Lopinto
