Dawg, many thanks for your post. You won't get any trouble from me. Some of these are excellent observations. I will be very blunt in my response and am open to discussion.
On the good side, the world of cabaret accepts all who want to perform. On the bad side, the world of cabaret accepts all who want to perform. On the other hand, of the hundreds of cabaret shows I see a year, I feel the percentage of deserving, up & coming performers is high. If coverage is cut, then the 1’s who should get coverage won’t, & then they won’t find an audience. How do the next Karen Mason’s become the next Karen Mason if there’s less coverage. How would a paying customer know who’s worthy of their hard-earned money without adequate coverage?
True, there are vanity acts. That’s why we need press to separate the talented from the less talented.
You betcha cabaret needs re-tooling. It needs a real game plan. It needs a trade association that lobbies for its industry. 1 way is to get the major cabaret performers, perhaps the best known Broadway performers Michael Feinstein, Christine Ebersole, Karen Mason on TV shows like Charlie Rose and Larry King. To his credit Larry King did this about 8 yrs ago with performers from the "golden age", but we need to get the current &/or up & coming performers out there.
I went to Juilliard with Wynton Marsalis and am ecstatic that Jazz has a champion in him. We need a cabaret performer who's "made it" thru the ranks to the top of cabaret and beyond to Broadway & film who is willing to go the extra mile for cabaret.
I have put notices up on every board imaginable to let cabaret performers know about the cut backs of coverage and reviews in publications & on websites. If these "performers" were serious about their "business" of show, all the publications & websites would be flooded with emails & letters of concern.
What is MAC, the current cabaret trade organization, doing to fight for coverage? To my knowledge, it hasn't seen fit to email members of the cabaret industry or to construct any game plan to lobby these publications & websites. IMHO, it is totally worthless. This situation is essentially more important to cabaret performers than the MAC Awards, which means nothing outside of the tiny cabaret community. Why aren’t they fighting for the survival of cabaret as a substantial art form, which can be viewed as an alternative to other live performance art forms? There are so few publications and websites of any merit that cover cabaret to begin with, even fewer of the critics that are respected, that the loss of any coverage is a definite cause for alarm.
What is supremely disturbing to me is that cabaret performers themselves are so unwilling to organize to fight for a better trade organization and 1 that answers their needs to increase visibility of cabaret in all the media. I do not understand why they’re unwilling to organize themselves to fight for coverage which is crucial for the public to have an interest in seeing them. They wouldn’t organize to fight for the Cabaret Guide in the NYT, they have not responded to a 50% cut back in cabaret coverage by TheaterMania and the loss of reviews in TIME OUT NEW YORK. The majority of what’s left to cover cabaret are vanity websites or publications where everybody gets a good review.
Why aren’t club owners & booking managers up in arms about the loss of coverage? Why are they not writing on these boards trying to garner support? Why are they not concerned about the advantage of press as the only best free method to get the word out about who’s in their clubs?
We in cabaret are reaping what we sow.
Having said all this, I believe in the value of cabaret and I believe in its quality. I’m out there seeing a lot of shows & I know it’s worthy of being covered and being seen. Please show your support for this art form by going to see shows and contacting the publications & websites that are cutting back our crucial coverage.
Milla
Updated On: 10/22/04 at 01:26 PM
