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As a member of Bistro Awards Committee, my lips have gotten sore and chapped from being sealed for so long, not revealing the chosen winners. But look for the announcement finally this week! The awards show is Tuesday, April 13, at Gotham Comedy Club on West 23 Street. See www.bistroawards.com for all the juicy details and tickets as they become available, and the news will be here as well. Meanwhile, two ladies you saw as part of last year’s Bistro show are around this week. Catch ‘em while you can: At 6pm this Wednesday, March 9, last year’s Bistro Award winner for Outstanding Vocalist, SUSAN WINTER, appears as part of the ongoing FREE series at Barnes & Noble on Broadway at West 66th Street. She’ll be singing from her first CD, a live recording of her cabaret show Love Rolls On. Well worth the roll, or, rather spin.
Rolling right along, as the 2008 Bistro Lifetime Achievement winner, MARILYN MAYE does (she also opened last year’s Bistro ceremonies), 
she’s back in town. Although her mega-medley of Cole Porter songs doesn’t include “You’re the Top,” her appreciative audiences, which include other cabaret singers, might as well be singing that to her. She is at the top of her game and difficult to top. Whether it’s an invigorating upbeat number with jazzy smarts ,pulling out the stops, or a nuanced story song like her blend of “Lazy Afternoon” and “Bye Bye, Country Boy” pulling you in emotionally, she commands attention, respect and the collective dropping of jaws. Reigning at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency for another week, with a show called In Love Again, returning fans are falling in love with her show and showmanship and personality all over again. The night I was there, I think I overheard three people use the word “amazing!” on the way out. It’s not just the power of the voice that remains strong after decades of singing, but the power to connect with people: a smile in someone’s direction; an expansive, inclusive gesture on the word “you” in a lyric; or a nod and locked eye contact during a key lyric that seem to say, “You know what I mean, don’t you? We’ve all felt that way.” Open about having passed the age of 80, Marilyn tells the crowd she’s grateful for having been able to make a living all these years as a singer and thus “never had to learn to do anything else.” She’d make a pretty good ranch hand nailing the horse shoes on horses, assuming she could nail them as efficiently as she nails every song in her show, doing a bang-up job on each, including the old warhorses in the Porter medley like “I Get a Kick Out of You.” She moves at quite a gallop herself, and those quick-tempo numbers with zip and Marilynized embellishments, are dazzling and don’t get old. And neither does she. Is it Maye wine? With the sensationally simpatico trio of her drummer of 48 years and counting, Jim Eklof, bassist Tom Hubbard getting a couple of great solo moments and Tedd Firth at the piano doing truly interesting, complementary things, never glib, your ears and the songs are well treated. You’ll leave feeling thoroughly (and thoughtfully) entertained.
Marilyn’s just a kid compared to a songwriter being celebrated this month at the Metropolitan Room. BERNIE BIERMAN is currently 101…and a half. He and his songs are being sung by JOE BACHANA and his guest VALERIE DiLORENZO. With a knack for writing cute novelty songs, along with more serious fare, his song bag is a varied one and if you’ve seen him around town at cabarets, or perhaps heard him do his own material, you know his personality is irrepressibly impish and sunny. That comes through in his material. They are the kind of unpretentious, light, but solid commercial songs that might be right up your Tin Pan Alley. Some are with co-billed, co-writer Jack Manus, like “My Cousin Louella,” which Sinatra recorded early on. I’ve taken a nip of the nostalgia flavor his old and newer tunes evoke, with the albums of his songs that have been released on the Original Cast Records label. The remaining dates are St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, and March 24. I caught the gallant balladeer and swinger Joe, sounding great with a preview of this show a few weeks ago, hosting the weekly open mic known as The Salon (Sundays from 7pm til 10pm at Etc. Etc. Restaurant on West 44th Street near Ninth Avenue) along with pianist Barry Levitt, who is leading the five-piece band for the gig.
Speaking of the Metropolitan Room: Starting March 13, the venue will be invaded by SHARON McNIGHT, the fabulously feisty, funny female sure to raise some eyebrows --- and also the roof. She’s irreverent and a blast – as far as blazing-belted vocals and just great fun. Hurricane Sharon is also in the forecast as the host of the MAC Awards on May 4. If you are a MAC member, don’t forget to mail in your ballot by March 15. MAC is sponsoring another of its panel discussion seminars on Saturday, March 20 starting at 11:30 in the morning. The topic is “The Business of Cabaret," as MAC helps you mind your own business. The location is Studios 353, located at 353 West 48th Street. The panel will cover how to market your show from a producer's standpoint. It’s free for MAC members, $15 cover for non-members.
Possible nominees in MAC’s Debut category presented a strong showing at the recent showcases. The second was at Broadway Baby Bistro, 
which has been mostly a sleeping baby as a venue for quite a while. But this downstairs performance space, sharing quarters with The Broadway Comedy Club on West 53rd Street, near Eighth Avenue, is ready for a baby boom, actively taking cabaret bookings again. Colette Black, a familiar name in Cabaretland for years as director and tech person, is booking acts, and has already signed up the revue Ziegfeld’s Midnight Frolic. She told me there’s also a show coming up with kids who have Broadway and other stage experience, putting on their own group shows.
Another group show, with folks with more mileage, is at the Laurie Beechman Theatre on Thursday, March 11 at 7pm. A benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, it’s hosted by Marianne Challis with guests Laurie Krauz, Kevin Dozier, Lisa Viggiano and Reagan Stone. March 22nd is the next date for the series of Cabaret Cares benefits for Help is on the Way, another HIV/AIDS charity which helps kids, at the same space on Theatre Row, inside the West Bank Café. Show time is 9:30pm, and it features performers from the Broadway musical In the Heights. And if you’ve ever been curious what faced the Beechman’s familiar face with the sly grin and wit, writer Phil Geoffrey Bond, when he was growing up, he’ll be glad to tell ya. His Indiana boyhood tales of truth, My Queer Youth, takes the spotlight with his own unique perspective at the venue on Fridays and Saturdays in March, starting on the 19th.
Those are a few cabaret tips, but just, as always, the tip of the iceberg (not even a 15% tip, like what you might add to your check; there’s a lot of cabaret out there in the NiteLife).
CATCH-UP ON CABARET is made possible by Jamie deRoy and friends
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