This review of The 1998 Back Stage Bistro
Awards at The Supper Club was written by Andrew Martin and appeared in Volume
III, Issue 1 (April, 1998) of Applause! Applause! published by Dr. Thomas
Robert Stevens.
The 1998 Back Stage Bistro
Awards
The Supper Club (240 West
47th Street, NYC)
Reviewed 3/9/98 at 7:00
p.m.
If the MAC Awards are the
Tony Awards of cabaret, the Bistro Awards are undeniably the Golden Globes.
Ever since the late cabaret critic Bob Harrington launched the first list of
Bistro Award winners in the theater trade publication thirteen years ago, the
Bistros have continued to gain momentum as one of the cabaret medium's most
eagerly-anticipated annual events.
For those of us who've been
on the cabaret scene in New York since the 1980s, the list of Back Stage Bistro
Award winners reads for us like a surreal trip down memory lane, just to
realize the wide number of artists who've passed through cabaret's portals and
gone on to greater glory. Winners from before 1990 include Kathy Najimy and Mo
Gaffney, Linda Wallem, Emo Phillips, Rita Rudner, Judy Tenuta, Michael
Feinstein, Jenifer Lewis, Faith Prince, Maxine Lapiduss, Vicki Lewis, Colin
Quinn, Brett Butler, Rockapella, and Hazelle Goodman. In 1990, the Bistros were
officially set forth as a live performance event at Eighty Eight's, with
memorable performances by BETTY, Sara Zahn, Karen Saunders, Wiseguys, Rainie
Cole, and Craig Carnelia and Maureen Silliman topping the bill, not to mention
speeches by Sylvia Syms, Carol Lawrence, and Julius LaRosa among others.
Since that time, several
changes have taken place. A committee of five now oversee the awards selection
process (this includes Editor-In-Chief Sherry Eaker, cabaret critics Roy Sander
and John Hoglund, and comedy columnists Donna Coe and Amelia David being called
upon for consultation in the standup comedy categories), and the ceremony has
shifted homes from the Ballroom (now the home of Catch A Rising Star on West
28th Street) to the Supper Club (at the old Edison Theater). However, the
Bistros have retained Bob Harrington's tradition of never awarding an
individual in the same category more than once. (Artists may receive awards in
several different categories over the course of their career).
And as usual, not every
spectator agreed with every choice on the part of the selection committee.
There were, of course, those for whom all present could be ecstatically happy;
Jeff Macauley was a shoe-in for his delectable "MWAH! The Dinah Shore
Show" (Outstanding Theme Show) at Eighty Eight's last season. Jane A.
Johnston (Outstanding Vocalist), who was nothing less than a total wow at
Danny's last autumn, continued her history of outstanding performance on stage
at the Supper Club. And, in turns too marvelous to mention in detail, Audrey
Morris (Outstanding Singer/Instrumentalist), Christian Nova (Outstanding
Recording), Elena Bennett (Outstanding Vocalist), Joyce Breach (Outstanding Recording),
Jim David (Outstanding Comedy Performer), and a newly-slim (and
AMAZING-looking) Jeanne MacDonald were nothing short of splendid. None of
these, however, measured up to the genius that IS vocal group Minimum Wage
(Outstanding Musical Comedy), featuring Jeff LaGreca, Charlie LaGreca, Sean
Harris and the superb Brian Chenoweth, or the show's crowning highlight, an
appearance by Georga Osborne (Outstanding Musical Comedy).
Then, of course, were those
individuals whose selection for award receipt was simply baffling. At the
indisputable top of this list is the cast (and all others involved) with
"Heartbeat It's A Lovebeat", who presented the bubblegum anthems
"Sugar, Sugar" and "Make Your Own Kind Of Music" along with
choreography so unsyncopated that one more flub might have qualified it for
performance art...barely. Rob Maitner did a fine performance job, and Mark
Cannistraro provided visibly perfect direction, on "I Don't Want To Be The
President", tho' Eric Lane Barnes' music and lyrics frequently missed the
mark in the presentation from "Fairy Tales" at the Duplex. But one of
the most miserable moments of the evening came in the unfortunate guise of
Richard Skipper as Carol Channing (Dolly, won't you ever go away, again?). One
might forgive Skipper, and then only might, if he didn't use his talents to
make a name impersonating the singularly most imitatable personality the
entertainment world has ever produced. The other was Mark Nadler's vomitously
deliberate upstaging of the divine KT Sullivan while accompanying the lady. In
addition, though a video portion showing the formidable talents of Tommy Femia
(Outstanding Impersonation) went off without a hitch, clips of Judi Connelli
and David Campbell weren't quite so lucky, and made all the more painful by a
microphone through which we could barely hear Portia Nelson's lovely speech
about both artists.
Comedian Jeff Ross MC'd in a
style for which not enough superlatives can ever exist (and, in fact, the
presenters of the Bistro Awards absolutely have the consummate permanent MC in
Ross should they decide to keep him in a position for which he could have been
born), and Marcia Lewis' receipt of the Bob Harrington Lifetime Achievement
Award provided a perfect climax to the festivities (even if it meant having to
gaze upon the regrettable countenance of Donald Smith, who brought the Broadway
legend on stage with the dullest speech this side of a wake).
In any case, the Back Stage
Bistro Awards continue to be one of THE reasons to venture out during a cabaret
season, if simply to see some of the very best of today's popular artists in
the medium. I know I'll be there for ceremony number fourteen, next spring. See
you there!
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