Color Her Celebrated: A Conversation with Our 2025 ASCAP-Bob Harrington Lifetime Achievement Recipient, Sandy Stewart

Mark Dundas Wood
Hesitation was never something that could hold singer Sandy Stewart back—not when it came to her career. The 2025 recipient of the ASCAP-Bob Harrington Lifetime Achievement Bistro Award knew, even as a kid growing up in Philadelphia, just what her life’s vocation should be. I recently had the honor of meeting with Stewart at her...

Bistro Bits: A New Album from D.C. Anderson and a Lina Koutrakos Trifecta

Mark Dundas Wood
In this column, I check in on an important new album from singer/songwriter/actor D.C. Anderson. Plus, I report on three recent club shows, all of which just happen to be directed by the gifted (and understandably ubiquitous) Lina Koutrakos. It's hard for outsiders to tell exactly what role any director plays in a cabaret show's...

Six Authors Talk About Publishing Books on the Great American Songbook and Its Artists in Today’s Market

Simi Horwitz
So, you want to publish a book about your favorite composers or singers right out of the Great American Songbook? Or, iconic Broadway musicals, for that matter? Think again, assert authors I interviewed, all of whom boast impressive track records. It’s more challenging than ever, they agree. Ken Bloom “Big publishers like Knopf or Simon...

Crowdfunding: The Do’s, the Don’ts, the Virtues, the Liabilities

Simi Horwitz
Doing What You Have to Do to Get Your Work Out There When James Beaman decided to return to cabaret after a 20-year absence, and in the wake of the pandemic, he admits frankly, he was short of cash. “I wanted to put on a show and needed money. I had to get past my...

Bistro Bits: Kazan Shazam! With Re-Released Albums, the World Gets a Burst of Vintage Lainie

Mark Dundas Wood
On February 3, 1965, singer-actor Lainie Kazan stepped onto the stage of Manhattan’s Winter Garden Theatre for the first time as Fanny Brice in the Broadway production of Funny Girl, the bio-musical that had opened nearly a year earlier. At that Wednesday matinee, she filled in for ailing star Barbra Streisand in one of musical...

Bistro Bits: Rolling Back the Years—with Mary Hopkin, Dory Previn, and Eydie Gormé

Mark Dundas Wood
The songs, sonatas, and symphonies we gravitate to early in our lives set in motion our own particular musical educations. If we hear and love Mozart or The Grateful Dead or Dolly Parton early on, we’re likely to seek out other music makers in the same general bucket. Of course, we may outgrow or otherwise...

2024 Bistro Awards Role Call: Maud Hixson

BistroAwards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnUYbgxPm_Q&t=11s Maud Hixson–Outstanding Recording: Permanent Moonlight: Songs of Richard Rodney BennettIn paying tribute to one of her musical mentors, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Maud Hixson gives us a glimpse at the depth and breadth of both his genius and her art. She sings a beautiful, adventurous selection of songs both familiar and rare. Here she...

2024 Bistro Awards Roll Call: Elvira Tortora

BistroAwards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yXJQGqK7ss Elvira Tortora performs her cabaret show, The Bookmaker's Daughter, which is as unique as the family tale she has to tell. Filled with humor and heart, story and song, she captures the audience in ways that only the finest storytellers can do. Here she is accompanied by her musical director, Gregory Toroian.

Roll Call: 2024 Bistro Awardee Julie Gold

BistroAwards
https://youtu.be/sW22iE7pKOQ Julie Gold: Outstanding Singer-Songwriter-RaconteurA veteran New York City singer/songwriter, Julie Gold has been a presence in New York cabaret for decades. She is best known for Bette Midler's version of her anthem,, "From A Distance," which won a Grammy Award as Song of the Year. Other Julie Gold songs have been recorded by an...

Roll Call: 2024 Bistro Awardee Roberto Araujo

BistroAwards
https://youtu.be/_5daTU98C0c Robert Araujo: Outstanding Autobiographical Show Originally from Mexico City, Roberto Araujo has established a presence as a performer across Mexico and the United States. Bistro Awards reviewer Gerry Geddes writes," Araujo's charming, multi-media show, was filled with bursts of humor, drama, and theatrical panache. He sang his way into the audience's hearts as he...