Simi Horwitz is an award-winning feature writer/film reviewer who has been honored by The Newswomen’s Club of New York, The Los Angeles Press Club, The Society for Feature Journalism, the American Jewish Press Association, and the New York Press Club (among others), most recently winning two 2020 NYPC awards for criticism and entertainment news, respectively. The publications that have printed her work include "The Hollywood Reporter," "Film Journal International," "American Theatre," and the "Forward." She was an on-staff feature writer at "Backstage" for fifteen years (1997-2012).
What Are the Differences? Do They Prefer One Over the Other? Does Each Serve the Artist in Different Ways? Some cabaret-cum-musical theatre performers equivocate, but most, at least among those I interviewed, suggest that any performer who does cabaret can do musical theatre whereas the reverse may not true. In fact, cabaret hones your acting […]
Article #2 of Simi Horwitz’s ongoing series on alt-cabaret. Drag King Mo B. Dick (aka Mo Fischer), best known for his self-defining quip, “Instead of being an angry woman I became a funny man,” reluctantly admits it’s never been a better time for drag kings. Thanks to the shuttering of live venues, drag kings—performing artists […]
(This is Part One of a multi-part series on alternative cabaret by Simi Horwitz.) The diva-inspired bitchy and/or adorably naughty drag queen is still with us. Hey, she’s the archetype and a few have elevated drag to high art. Think Varla Jean Merman, the self-described love child of Ernest Borgnine and Ethel Merman, indisputably brilliant […]