BWW Cabaret Winners Vereen, Maye, Brown, Stritch, Sullivan, Caruso and More Appear at NYC Cabaret Awards Show at Metropolitan Room Tonight

Performing legends Ben Vereen and Marilyn Maye, celebrated composer Jason Robert Brown, as well as cabaret stars Jane Monheit, Billy Stritch, KT Sullivan, Karen Kohler, Jim Caruso, and Colleen McHugh are among the winners of the first-ever BroadwayWorld.com New York Cabaret Awards, and who will appear in a star-studded show at the Metropolitan Room tonight, February 21 (6:30-9 pm). These entertainers and many others became award-winners after almost two months of voting and the casting of an astounding 10,000 votes over 20 categories on the Cabaret section of the BroadwayWorld.com website.

The 2012 BroadwayWorld.com New York Cabaret Awards Show will be hosted by BroadwayWorld.com's lead Cabaret Reviewer/Columnist Stephen Hanks, while the show's Musical Director will be MAC Award-winning MD and composer Bill Zeffiro, who this year was a BroadwayWorld.com Award nominee for his original song "My Kind of Guy" (written for "Best Female Vocalist" nominee Marissa Mulder's show Illusions).

To make your reservations for what promises to be a fantastic and memorable evening, go to: http://metropolitanroom.com/show_right.cfm?id=87846&cart

Vereen was awarded "Best Male Celebrity Vocalist" for his 54 Below show Steppin' Out. Maye won for "Best Performance by a Duo/Group" for her show with Michael Feinstein, Swingin' The Night Away at Feinstein's, but Maye (photo next page) will be performing at the Awards show with Billy Stritch, who won as "Best Musical Director" for his show with Maye at the Metropolitan Room, By Request. Musical Theater composer Brown won the Award as "Best Singer/Songwriter Show--Original Material" for his run at 54 Below. Jane Monheit was the runaway winner for the Award as "Best Jazz Vocalist: Male or Female," while KT Sullivan and Karen Kohler took "Best Cabaret Show Revue" honors for their show at The Triad, Vienna to Weimar. Caruso and McHugh each won two Awards; Caruso as "Best Host of Variety Show/Recurring Series or Open Mic" for Cast Party at Birdland, while Cast Party, for which Caruso is the Producer, also won an Award for "Best Variety Show/Recurring Series/Open Mic." McHugh took the Awards as "Best Female Vocalist" mainly for her Calendar Girl shows at The Duplex, and for "Best CD Release (Solo, Duo or Group)" for her disc Pret-A-Porter, based on the Cole Porter tribute show she performed at Birdland last year.

BroadwayWorld.com New York Cabaret Award winners who will also perform at the show at the Metropolitan Room include: William Blake, "Best Male Vocalist" for his show Echoes of Etta: Tribute to Etta James at Birdland; Scott Evan Davis, who won "Best Original Song for a Cabaret Show" for the song "If We Say Goodbye" from his Don't Tell Mama show Cautiously Optimistic; Alison Nusbaum, the "Best Musical Comedy Performance" winner for her show Ladies! A Raucous Homage to Mel Brooks Broads at Don't Tell Mama; Stacie Perlman, who was voted as producing the "Best Female Debut Show" for The Story Underneath at the Metropolitan Room, the clarinet and saxophone playing Will Anderson, who won "Best Instrumentalist (Non Piano)" honors, mainly for his work in Carole J. Bufford's show speak easy. at the Metropolitan Room; and Jackie Kristel, who will be representing "Best Director" Award-winner Collette Black, who guided Kristel's debut show "A Girl You Should Know," at Don't Tell Mama. (Please click on Page 2 Below to continue)

During more than 30 years as a magazine and website publisher/editor/writer, Stephen Hanks has written about sports, health and nutrition, parenting, politics, the media, musical theater, and cabaret. In addition to writing about New York City cabaret for BroadwayWorld.com, Stephen also reviews cabaret shows for Cabaret Scenes Magazine and CabaretScenes.org. He is the Board President of Musical Mondays Theatre Lab, which workshops new musicals in New York City, and a former Board Member of the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs. In 2011, Stephen was an Associate Producer for the Off-Broadway show THE FARTISTE. Please contact Stephen with your comments and questions at: stephenhanks41@gmail.com

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