2025 Creative Team
Jason Kravits
Jason has appeared on stages and screens, large and small, for over 35 years. Recent TV credits include Only Murders in the Building (as Melissa McCarthy’s husband, “Big Mike”), Halston, The Undoing, Dr. Death,and Young Sheldon. Other favorite appearances include roles on Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30 Rock, Kimmy Schmidt, Gilmore Girls, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Practice, and the final episode of Friends. His voice can be heard as “Sneezy” in the current live-action remake of Disney’s Snow White. On Broadway, Jason has appeared in The Drowsy Chaperone, Sly Fox, and Relatively Speaking. Off-Broadway, Jason appeared in the New Group’s adaptation of the Philip Roth novel Sabbath’s Theater (alongside John Turturro and Elizabeth Marvel). For the last 10 years, Jason has been performing his completely improvised solo cabaret, Off the Top (winner of a 2017 Bistro Award), playing to sold-out crowds in London, Adelaide, Melbourne, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles. He can be seen regularly in New York City at venues like Joe’s Pub and Birdland. Jason is a native of the D.C. area, where he performed extensively at the Shakespeare Theatre, Round House Theatre, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co. He is a member of the Actors Center Workshop Company.
Daryl Kojak—Musical Director/Piano
Daryl Kojak—pianist, arranger, producer, musical director, composer and songwriter—is honored to have worked with a long list of talent, including Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Phoebe Snow, Ben Vereen, Sheila Jordan, Michael Feinstein, Jane Monheit, Cheryl Bentyne, Kristin Chenoweth, Vicki Sue Robinson, George Coleman, Randy Brecker, Sheldon Harnick, Sandra Bernhard, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Mary Testa, Rita Rudner, Richard Belzer, Tiny Tim, Catherine Russell, Laurie Krauz, Heather MacRae, Stephanie Pope, and many others. He has composed and scored music for film, television, stage, artist recordings, and video games and has been honored with the Bistro Award for Outstanding Musical Director, the Caribbean Gospel Music Award for Top Gospel Arranger, the MAC Award for Best Jazz Group, and—with Laurie Krauz—the Bistro Award for Outstanding Theme Show for Tapestry Rewoven.
Rex Benincasa—Drums
Rex Benincasa has been a freelancing drummer and percussionist in New York since 1978. Along with hundreds of television/radio soundtracks and commercial recordings, he has performed with the Concordia Chamber Players, Ba Ban Chinese Music Society, Eurasia Consort, New Music Consort, Apollo’s Fire, Ensemble Caprice, Alba Consort, Flamenco Latino, Carlota Santana Spanish Dance, Andrea Del Conte Danza España, Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre, Pilar Rioja, and Amanecer Flamenco Progressivo. He has recorded CDs and/or movie soundtracks for Marty Balin, Karen Mason, Andrea Marcovicci, Craig Rubano, Jamie deRoy, Stephanie Pope, Foday Musa Suso, Douglas Cuomo, Philip Glass, Sesame Street, and NFL Films to name but a few. Benincasa has played many show scores for all kinds of productions. His Broadway appearances have been with Fosse, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, The Full Monty, Flower Drum Song, Man of La Mancha, Never Gonna Dance, Little Shop of Horrors, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hairspray, The Drowsy Chaperone, The Color Purple, Shrek, In the Heights, Billy Elliot, Peter and the Starcatcher, Motown: The Musical, and Mrs. Doubtfire. Rex likes all kinds of music. [email protected]
Ritt Henn—Bass
Ritt Henn plays bass, writes songs, and lives in New York City. He’s played Off-Broadway, toured the U.S., Europe, and Asia, and been a featured performer with Carnatic global fusion violinist Dr. L. Subramaniam. He has released four CDs of original music and a DVD of short films, produced over 200 episodes of ManBassBoxTV, and won both Bistro and MAC Awards for his work as a solo artist. Ritt has played for Kathleen Turner, Liz Callaway, Ann Hampton Callaway, Len Cariou, Penny Fuller, Anita Gillette, Chuck Berry, Amanda McBroom, Karen Mason, Bob Malone, and more. He also whistles and plays the ukulele. ManBassBoxTV.com
Jean-Pierre Perreaux—Sound Design/Engineer
Jean-Pierre Perreaux is currently technical director for the Laurie Beechman and Triad theatres as well as for The Players. He was born and raised in France. Combining his background in electronics with his love and study of music, he headed up both the music and technical departments of the Clamart Cultural Center, located outside of Paris. He has designed lights and sound for various nightclubs and theatres in France and the U.S. As sound engineer and/or tech consultant, he has run—and overseen—the lights in many NYC nightclubs and music spaces. Jean-Pierre is a Billboard-reviewed record producer. He has done sound work for film and television and was featured as a multifaceted technician in Live Sound magazine. He received a Bistro Award for Outstanding Achievement in Technical Direction in 2002. He is the recipient of 12 Manhattan Association of Cabarets Awards for Best Technical Director, received MAC’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024, and recently won a 2024 Broadway World award for sound design, for Craig Rubano’s Take the Moment (Laurie Beechman Theatre).
Jonny Mercado—Production Stage Manager/Light Design
Jonny Mercado is an actor, musician, and freelance technician who’s been working professionally in New York City since 2014. This is his seventh year as lighting designer for the Bistro Awards, as well as his second year as the event’s Production Stage Manager. He joined the technical staff at the Metropolitan Room in 2015, earning a MAC Award Nomination for his work the following year and in subsequent years as well. His past experience has included being technical manager at Don’t Tell Mama—eventually the club’s associate booking manager—and the booking manager and special events director at the Laurie Beechman Theatre. Jonny received his training at the Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University and enjoyed a decade of work at Chicago’s Davenport’s Piano Bar and Cabaret before relocating to New York City. He also serves as a member of the Technical Staff at The Players, and is the Director of sacred music at a Roman Catholic parish in Brooklyn where he is also organist and choirmaster.
Sidney Myer—Announcer
Sidney Myer has been seen on screen most recently in the six-time Emmy-winning Amazon Prime series After Forever, Seasons 1 & 2. He has entertained from Palm Springs to London and is a recipient of MAC, Bistro, Broadway World, Theater Pizzazz, Mabel Mercer Foundation’s Cabaret Classic, Mabel Mercer, and Paula Laurence Awards. Sidney has been a cabaret booking manager for four decades (Don’t Tell Mama, Rose’s Turn, Panache). Off-Broadway credits include Grandma Sylvia’s Funeral, Dressing Room, and Split Ends. Other theatre: 25th Anniversary Revival of Irene, Kaye Playhouse; Edinburgh Festival Fringe with La Gran Scena Opera Co.; Beauty and the Beast, Theatre By the Sea; Times Square Angel with Charles Busch; The Boys in the Band; Laughing Wild, The Ball. Film: 20th Century Fox’s Headin’ for Broadway. Television: Celebrity interviewer on cable’s Broadway Beat and Cabaret Beat, and on a Nancy LaMott DVD, I’ll Be Here With You. Commercials: RCA Victor, New York Lotto. Radio: Regular on The Joey Reynolds Show.
Frank Dain—Program and Promo Design
Frank Dain has designed the Bistro Awards program since 2010. He has been the Editor of Cabaret Scenes magazine since 2013 and was honored for his 20 years at the magazine at a star-studded event in December 2022. He is the treasurer for the American Songbook Association, on the Advisory Board of the Mabel Mercer Foundation, and served on the Board of the Manhattan Association of Cabarets for eight years. He has served as one of the permanent judges for Don’t Tell Mama’s talent contest, Mama’s Next BIG Act!, since its inception. He has provided designs for Kurt Peterson’s James William Productions (Proud Ladies, When Everything Was Possible, Zero Hour, Captain Louis), St. Luke’s Theatre, Theatre at St. Clement’s, and for many cabaret performers. Dain is a MAC nominee for Male Vocalist, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, Café Pierre, Waldorf-Astoria, Jazz at Kitano, Don’t Tell Mama, Laurie Beechman Theatre, Metropolitan Room, Pangea, Chelsea Table + Stage, and Danny’s Skylight Room. He has just released his new CD, I’ve Had a Love, which has garnered high prai
Site Rockstar—Website Producers
Site Rockstar specializes in helping new businesses establish a strong website and also helping established companies enhance and expand their existing sites. Services include domain registration, hosting, website maintenance, security, and more. Site Rockstar prioritizes an understanding of each client’s unique goals and requirements, so that they can provide tailored, effective recommendations. siterockstar.com
Bob Peterson—Logo Design
Bob Peterson, a director and digital artist/animator, comes to the Bistro Awards with more than 35 years’ experience in multimedia design and production. He is the lead animator for the Exhibitions Department at the American Museum of Natural History. His animations and designs have been viewed on Broadway in The Normal Heart (Hewes Award for projection design), Lucky Guy, and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. His past work has included permanent installations for the British Olympic Museum in London, Russia’s first Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow, and the Museum of Tolerance in Chattanooga, Tennessee.