EDITOR’S NOTE: The 37th Annual Mabel Mercer Foundation Cabaret Convention has wrapped. Over three glorious nights (Oct. 13-15), a feast of talent performed in one of the best convocations yet. And Team Nightlife Exchange was there: Bart Greenberg, Marilyn Lester, Beth Naji and Maryann Lopinto. We’ve compiled and crafted the documentation of these memorable shows for your enjoyment here in our mega-review. Enjoy!
By Bart Greenberg***The Mabel Mercer Foundation paid tribute to their namesake to kick off the 37th Cabaret Convention, hosted by the traditional team of Jeff Harnar and Andrea Marcovicci. Entitled Once in a Blue Moon, they assembled a top-tier cast of cabaret artists to share a wide range of material – as Phillip Officer observed,
it wasn’t difficult to find songs to sing since Mercer sang everything. But some of her choices still surprised.
Kicking off the first act was the superb close harmonies of the triplet trio MOIPEI, enchanting the audience with the title tune by Jerome Kern and Anne Caldwell. Then the hosts of the evening (and for the last 10 years) took the stage for a mashup of “Feelin’ Groovy” (Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel) and the swinging “Lookin’ at You” (Cole Porter). Marissa Mulder came up next with the delightfully sexy “Chase 
Me Charlie” (Noel Coward) and the very romantic “While We’re Young” (Alec Wilder, Monty Palitz). In between her songs, she paid tribute to the late and much missed cabaret director Sondra Lee. Making one of her rare New York City appearances, Barbara Brussell bewitched the audience with the gentle song of longing, “Mira” (Bob Merrill). More sweetness and true sentiment came from Stacy Sullivan offering a tribute to “Jenny Rebecca” (Carol Hall), along with the too amazing not to be true story of how Mercer came to perform it.
Chanteuse Karen Akers gave a master class in delivering the haunting “Matelot” (Coward) and a bewitching “Try to Remember” (Harvey Schmidt, Tom Jones). A second classic diva arrived with Amanda McBroom’s touching selections of “Remind Me”
(Dorothy Fields, Jerome Kern) and “Blame It on My Youth” (Oscar Levant, Edward Heyman). For something quite different, the unique Sidney Myer declared “I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore” (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe), including a partial singalong and some less-heard lyrics. The grand actress Tovah Feldshuh showed what range is about with a wickedly sinful “Confession” (Arthur Schwartz, Howard Deitz) and an emotional and personalized “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” (Cole Porter). To bring the first half of the evening to a close, a visitor from Las Vegas, Clint Holmes traced the similarities in his family background with that of Mercer before offering an original song about his parents, “1944.”. A pyrotechnic version of “It’s Alright With Me” (Porter) released an energized audi
ence into the intermission.
To start the second act on a high note, MOIPEI returned with a beautiful version of “Wait ‘Til You See Her” (Richard Rodgers, Lorenze Hart). Then this year’s recipient of the Donald F. Smith Award, Phillip Officer, who has been celebrating Mercer through a series of cabaret evenings, offered two gems, “Look at ‘Im” (Bob Merrill) and “Fly Me to the Moon” (Bart Howard). Meg Flather gave a fine example of Mercer’s surprising choices by her ignoring the title tune from Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane’s On a Clear Dear You Can See Forever to concentrate on the satirical “Wait ‘Til You’re 65.” She treated all the wordplay with a delightful sense of whimsy. Franc
esca Amari made her Cabaret Convention debut with straightforward renditions of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” (Lerner, Loewe) and “Little Girl Blue”(Rodgers, Hart). Avery Sommers took a much more stylized approach to “The Way We Were” (Marvin Hamlisch, Alan & Marilyn Bergman),which the audience loved.
Harnar reentered to delight the audience with all of the stanzas (and there are quite a few of them) of Porter’s “De-Lovely.”.His co-star Marcovicci then beautifully delivered the rather odd “Did You Ever Cross Over to Sneedens?” (Wilder), a particular favorite of Mercer’s. “Both Sides Now” (Joni Mitchell) received a surprisingly lowkey rendition from Charles Busch. However, there was nothing lowkey about the incredible Marilyn Maye 
who blasted across the stage with a medley of “My Romance” (Rodgers, Hart), “Why Did I Choose You?” (Michael Leonard, Herbert Martin) and “That’s All” (Alan Brandt, Bob Haynes). Sheer electricity. To close the evening, KT and Stacy Sullivan offered a lovely and fitting song written by their mother Elizabeth, “As Long as We Sing.” The entire ensemble joined in for a beautifully ending to the evening.
John Weber (piano), Ritt Henn (bass) and Sherrie Maricle (drums) were the standing trio for the concert. Other pianists who joined in were Alex Rybeck, Gerald Sternbach, Tracy Stark, James Bassi, Larry Yurman, Doyle Newmyer, and Jono Mainelli. All provided fine support to the vocalists.
Photos top to bottom: MOIPEI, Melissa Mulder, Amanda McBroom, Phillip Officer, Marilyn Maye, Stacy andd KT Sullivan with Jon Weber
Photos by Maryann Lopinto
