Stephen Hanks News

According to singer/actor Adam B. Shapiro, breakups can be one of the most devastatingly painful things in the world . . . but not if you know how to do them right. Four years after Shapiro launched his 2013 MAC Award-Winning show GUIDE TO THE PERFECT BREAKUP, Shapiro will reprise his hilarious and musically compelling show-with songs written by composers as diverse as Cole Porter and Weird Al Yankovic--in the BroadwayWorld Award-Nominated series NEW YORK CABARET'S GREATEST HITS at the Metropolitan Room on March 15 at 7 pm. The series is produced and hosted by Stephen Hanks (with Associate Producer Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD).

In what he has been calling the third part of a 'Cabaret Trilogy of Classic Hollywood Songwriters,' 2016 MAC Award nominee and 2016 and 2015 BroadwayWorld.com New York Cabaret Award Nominee Jeff Macauley will continue the run of his most recent show, Le Grand Tour: The Music of Michel Legrand, at Don't Tell Mama (W 46th St., between 8th & 9th Ave) on March 17 at 7 pm. Macauley's Musical Director/Arranger/Pianist Tex Arnold and Jon Burr is on bass. After performing his Legrand Tribute show at the Metropolitan Room last August, BistroAwards.com called it ' . . . smart, funny, and well constructed . . . a good mix of classic and rarer material . . .'

Billie Roe's uniquely provocative musical show MONOPOLY: SINGING THE LIVES FROM BALTIC AVENUE TO BOARDWALK, combines biting political commentary, humanity, and humor with songs by composers as diverse as Kurt Weill, Alan Jay Lerner, Stephen Sondheim, Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones, Pink Floyd, and Bono from U2. Roe's pithy and poignant script brings the people who reside within one of the world's most popular board games to life. MONOPOLY has earned Roe a BroadwayWorld.com Cabaret Award Nomination for 'Best Show, Female.' Directed by multiple Award-winning cabaret star Mark Nadler, with music direction by Steven Ray Watkins (the two combined on the show's musical arrangements), Billie Roe's MONOPOLY moves to Don't Tell Mama (343 West 46th St, New York, NY) on February 12 and 19, 2017, both shows at 5:30 PM. For reservations, call: 212-757-0788

Singer/Actress Jenna Esposito made her New York nightclub debut in 2004, and has been delighting audiences across the country ever since. Esposito is perhaps best known for her tribute to iconic pop singer Connie Francis-Jenna Esposito Sings Connie Francis-a show that has been a smash hit among audiences and critics since it debuted in 2009. Connie Francis herself has praised Jenna's work, raving, 'I've known and loved Jenna for years and love the way she sings. I'm so grateful for the love and respect she shows to the catalog of songs that has been so good to me through the years.' Now Esposito will be reprising her critically acclaimed show to launch the 2017 season of the BroadwayWorld.com Award-Nominated series NEW YORK CABARET'S GREATEST HITS at the Metropolitan Room on February 13 at 7 pm.

Stephen Hanks, the BroadwayWorld Award-Nominated producer of the recurring monthly variety show series at the Metropolitan Room, New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits, has announced that he is bringing the third installment of his newest variety series to the venerable cabaret room Don't Tell Mama (343 W 46th St, New York, NY) on January 26 at 7 pm. Stephen's Vixens will star Meg Flather, Rosemary Loar, Laurie Krauz, Barbara Porteus, Charlotte Patton, and Raissa Katona Bennett, with Daryl Kojak as Musical Director.

As a musical theater librettist, lyricist and lifelong connoisseur of Broadway and Hollywood musicals, Frank Evans would have been extremely sad to learn about the passing of screen legend Debbie Reynolds on December 28. But given his sense of humor and ability for self-deprecation, Evans might have also gotten a perverse kick out of knowing he died on the same day as one of his film favorites. Franklin G. Evans, 70, died last Wednesday evening at Methodist Hospital in Park Slope, Brooklyn, due to complications from multiple strokes that ravaged his brain over the last couple of months of 2016. Evans, who also suffered from Parkinson's-related dementia and diabetes, had spent the last year rehabilitating from a serious concussion sustained last December.

Cabaret Life Productions Owner Stephen Hanks has announced that NEW YORK CABARET'S GREATEST HITS, the BroadwayWorld.com Award Nominated monthly series at New York's Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street) he launched (with Associate Producer Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD) in August, 2105, will present productions of eight Award-winning or critically acclaimed shows of the past during 2017. The series' new season will open on Monday, February 13 at 7 pm with Jenna Esposito's MAC Award-Nominated 2009 Connie Francis Tribute Show, Jenna Esposito Sings Connie Francis , followed by Adam Shapiro's 2013 MAC Award-Winning Guide to the Perfect Breakup on Wednesday, March 15 at 7 pm.

Urban Stages has confirmed the line-up for this year's award-winning series, WINTER RHYTHMS 2016, which will begin tomorrow, Thursday, December 1, and will feature some of New York's best musical performances through Sunday, December 11, 2016 at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue).

BroadwayWorld Cabaret is pleased to announce the nominees in 14 categories for the 2016 BWW New York Cabaret Awards.

Urban Stages and Stephen Hanks' Cabaret Life Productions has announced that on Saturday, December 3 at 7 pm, the 2016 Urban Stages Winter Rhythms Festival (December 1-11 at 259 West 30th Street, NYC) will present highlights from seven of the 16 shows that have been presented at Hanks' highly praised monthly series at the Metropolitan Room--New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits (Associate Producer, Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD)--and two shows that will be featured in the series in 2017.  

Urban Stages has announced the line-up for this year's Award Winning series, WINTER RHYTHMS 2016, which will begin Thursday, December 1 and will feature some of New York's best musical performances through Sunday, December 11, 2016 at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue).

On December 13, 2015 Meg Flather revived her 1993 solo show PORTRAITS as part of Stephen Hanks' Metropolitan Room series NEW YORK CABARET'S GREATEST HITS (Associate Producer, Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD). Backed by Paul Greenwood on piano and John Mettam on drums, and with Lennie Watts on board as Director to tweak the former show, Meg mesmerized the Metropolitan Room audience with what has become a critically acclaimed performance, perhaps one of her best ever. Flather then performed her new PORTRAITS three times early this year to packed houses at Don't Tell Mama. Now she's doing it one more time at the venue on Sunday, December 11 at 7 pm.

Sarah Rice first burst onto the Broadway musical theater world in 1979 as the original Johanna in Stephen Sondheim's TONY Award-winning musical Sweeney Todd. The dazzling soprano later became a cabaret star, winning a 2010 Bistro Award and 2011 MAC Award for Best Female Vocalist. After performing cabaret in almost every major venue in New York, Rice has been performing an exciting new show—MUSIC OF THE NIGHT--at the popular restaurant/club PANGEA (178 2nd Avenue, between 11th and 12th Streets) and will be presenting her fourth performance at the venue on Friday, November 25 at 7 pm. Back in August, TIMEOUT NEW YORK recommended it as one of their “shows to see.”

In what he is calling the third part of a 'Cabaret Trilogy of Classic Hollywood Songwriters,' 2016 MAC Award nominee and 2015 BroadwayWorld.com New York Cabaret Award Nominee Jeff Macauley will continue the run of his new show, Le Grand Tour: The Music of Michel Legrand, at the Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd St., New York, NY) on November 19 at 7 pm. Macauley's Musical Director/Arranger/Pianist Tex Arnold and Jon Burr is on bass.

With a show that is a perfect fit for holiday season and the winter ahead, Cabaret's hottest series, New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits (Producer, Stephen Hanks; Associate Producer Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD), will feature Nightclub Singer/Entrepreneur Ellen Kaye with a reprise of her hit 2010 show, Ice Wine: Songs For Christmas and Dark Winter Nights, at the Metropolitan Room on Tuesday, December 13 at 7 pm. Kaye's show will be the 16th presentation in the series, which launched in August, 2015. The Metropolitan Room is at 34 West 22nd Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues). Tickets for Ice Wine are $25 ($20 for MAC Members) with a two-drink minimum.

It will be a festive Halloween night on October 31 at the Pangea Club and Restaurant (178 Second Avenue, between 11th and 12th streets) when Stephen Hanks and his Cabaret Life Productions presents the second of his new bi-monthly variety series with a special Halloween Night Variety Show. The show stars six sensational and highly-praised women cabaret performers who are smart, sassy, sexy, and whose singing is SCARY great--SANDRA BARGMAN, REMY BLOCK, CORY SEMINOWICZ, RACHEL WINELL, MAC Award-Winning Songwriter AMY ENGELHARDT, and KIM SUTTON, who won a 2015 BroadwayWorld.com Cabaret Award for 'Best Show, Female.' Featuring Musical Director/Pianist DARYL KOJAK with Hanks as host.

Many New York cabaret performers have tackled the songbook of the iconic Joni Mitchell, but few have put the kind of transformative twist on it the way Remy Block did when she performed On a Lonely Road: Travelin' with Joni between 2014-2015 at Don't Tell Mama and The Duplex. Block's tribute to the legendary pop singer/songwriter was a personal exploration of a young woman's life as a seeker, a lover, and an artist, with Mitchell's tunes serving as the "sacred text and rough guide" for her journey. Cabaret show reviewers raved about Remy's take on Joni's songs. Now, Remy Block is bringing a revised version of On a Lonely Road: Travelin' with Joni to PANGEA (178 2nd Avenue, between 11th and 12th Streets) on November 7 at 9:30 pm and December 8 at 7 pm.

Union Temple of Brooklyn (17 Eastern Parkway) and Cabaret Life Productions Producer Stephen Hanks have announced that Union Temple will be presenting the third show of its 'Cabaret Concert Series' (which serve as fundraising events to help finance some of Temple's many programs and projects). On Saturday, November 5, international Cabaret Superstar Mark Nadler will present his Award-Winning and critically acclaimed show Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians), which won a 2003 Bistro Award for 'Raising Standards of Cabaret Performance,' and received MAC and Nightlife Award Nominations for 'Outstanding Performance in a Major Engagement.' Union Temple will host Nadler's show in the Third Floor Social Hall. Tickets for the event are $30. Doors open at 6:30 pm, with the show starting at 7:30 pm.

Manhattan Musical Theatre Lab, a developmental organization founded 17 years ago by the late Director and Choreographer Bick Goss, will present the new musical Brooklyn Bridge at the St. Luke's Theatre on October 24 at 6:30 pm (St. Luke's is at 308 West 46th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues). With a book and lyrics by Ray Roderick, music by Joseph Baker, and musical direction by Laura Bergquist, Brooklyn Bridge is an innovative musical inspired by the extraordinary life of Emily Roebling, wife of Brooklyn Bridge Chief Engineer Washington Roebling. 

When singer Billie Roe returned to performing in 2012 after a nearly 30-year hiatus, she set the New York cabaret scene on fire, winning the annual MetroStar Talent Challenge at the Metropolitan Room and capturing a 2012 Bistro Award for "Outstanding Theme Show" for her compelling Dangerous Women: Life In Film Noir. Roe quickly followed that up with her critically acclaimed Tom Waits Tribute Show 1978 NYC Underground, which earned her another Bistro Award and also a 2014 MAC Award for "Best Female Vocalist." Now Billie is back again, this time with a uniquely provocative musical show, MONOPOLY: SINGING THE LIVES FROM BALTIC AVENUE TO BOARDWALK, that combines biting political commentary, humanity, and humor with songs by composers as diverse as Kurt Weill, Alan Jay Lerner, Stephen Sondheim, Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones, Pink Floyd, and Bono from U2. Roe continues her three-show run on October 15 and November 20, both shows at 7 pm.