Porgy and Bess is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play Porgy, itself an adaptation of DuBose Heyward's 1925 novel of the same name.
Barry Manilow is an American singer and songwriter with a career that spans seven decades. His hit recordings include "Could It Be Magic", "Looks Like We Made It", "Mandy", "I Write the Songs", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ".
Robert Mills is an Australian actor, television host and singer-songwriter. He was one of the finalists from the first season of Australian Idol. He co-hosted the late-night quiz show The Mint, and was a regular singer on the game show The Singing Bee both on the Nine Network. Mills took part in the ninth season of Dancing with the Stars, and appeared on Celebrity Apprentice. In 2008, Mills won the lead male role of Fiyero in a production of Wicked, and continued the role when it moved around Australia. He has since starred in a number of popular large scale musical theatre productions. In 2012, Mills was announced as the host of Network Ten's revamped Young Talent Time. He played teacher Finn Kelly on Neighbours from 2017 until 2022.
Barbara Cook was an American actress and singer who first came to prominence in the 1950s as the lead in the original Broadway musicals Plain and Fancy (1955), Candide (1956) and The Music Man (1957) among others, winning a Tony Award for the last. She continued performing mostly in theatre until the mid-1970s, when she began a second career as a cabaret and concert singer. She also made numerous recordings.
Barb Jungr is an English singer, songwriter and theatre writer, who has recorded versions of songs by Bob Dylan, Sting, Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen.
Adelaide Louise Hall was an American-born UK-based jazz singer and entertainer. Her long career spanned more than 70 years from 1921 until her death and she was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Hall entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2003 as the world's most enduring recording artist, having released material over eight consecutive decades. She performed with major artists such as Art Tatum, Ethel Waters, Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Fela Sowande, Rudy Vallee, and Jools Holland, and recorded as a jazz singer with Duke Ellington and with Fats Waller.
Mabel Mercer was an English-born cabaret singer who performed in the United States, Britain, and Europe with the greats in jazz and cabaret. She was a featured performer at Chez Bricktop in Paris, owned by the hostess Bricktop, and performed in such clubs as Le Ruban Bleu, Tony's, the RSVP, the Carlyle, the St. Regis Hotel, and eventually her own room, the Byline Club. Among those who frequently attended Mercer's shows was Frank Sinatra, who made no secret of his emulating her phrasing and story-telling techniques.
Samuel Kent Harris is an American pop and theater musician as well as a television, theater and film actor.
Ann Hampton Callaway is an American jazz singer, songwriter, and actress. She wrote and sang the theme song for the TV series The Nanny.
Nancy LaMott was an American singer, popular on the New York City cabaret circuit in the 1980s and breaking out into radio and the national and international scene in the 1990s. Along with Karen Mason, she was the first singer to do a continuous long run at Don't Tell Mama in New York City. She went on to play all of the smaller clubs in New York, and began to record in the early 1990s.
Chip Deffaa is an American author, playwright, screenwriter, jazz historian, singer, songwriter, director, and producer of plays and recordings. For 18 years, he wrote for the New York Post, covering jazz, cabaret, and theater. He has contributed to Jazz Times, The Mississippi Rag, Down Beat, Cabaret Scenes, England's Crescendo, and Entertainment Weekly. He's written nine books and 20 plays, and has produced more than 40 albums. As D.A. Bogdnov noted in a lengthy profile of Deffaa published in TheaterScene.net on December 5th, 2022, Deffaa "has produced more recordings of George M. Cohan songs than anyone living, just as he's produced more recordings of Irving Berlin songs than anyone living. And having produced more than 40 albums in total now, Deffaa has surely recorded more members of New York's theater/cabaret community than anyone living." He was born in New Rochelle, New York. Mentored by former vaudevillian Todd Fisher and studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in his youth, Deffaa became hooked on show business while performing as a child actor. His interests evolved into writing. He wrote his first play and first song at age 17. He graduated from Princeton University. He freelanced for various publications before finding a longtime home at The New York Post, where editors V.A. Musetto, Matt Diebel, Steve Cuozzo, and Faye Penn gave him wide latitude to write about jazz, cabaret, classic pop, and theater.
Russ Lorenson is an American singer and actor. Though a stage actor since childhood, Lorenson more recently established a reputation as an interpreter of jazz standards. With a retro crooner style, Lorenson's sound and approach are an amalgam of Broadway, jazz, and pop.
Carol Woods is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in Sweet and Lowdown (1999), The Honeymooners (2005) and Across the Universe (2007). In February 2008, she received a standing ovation during the 50th Grammy Awards broadcast singing "Let It Be" from the Across the Universe soundtrack, with Timothy Mitchum.
Amanda Strydom is a South African singer and songwriter. Although she is known best for her singing, Strydom has also been active as a playwright and actress, most notably in the fields of cabaret and also in television.
Marilyn Maye McLaughlin is an American singer, musical theater actress and masterclass educator. With a career spanning eight decades, Maye has performed music in the styles of cabaret, jazz and pop music. She has received one nomination from the Grammy Awards and had commercial success as a recording artist.
Steve March-Tormé is an American singer/actor/songwriter and radio host. He is the son of the singer Mel Tormé and actress Candy Toxton. They divorced and Toxton married actor/comedian Hal March who became Steve's stepfather.
Alan Eichler is an American theatrical producer, talent manager and press agent who has represented several stage productions, produced Grammy-winning record albums and managed singers including Anita O'Day, Hadda Brooks, Nellie Lutcher, Ruth Brown, Johnnie Ray and Yma Sumac. He is a cousin of California architect Joseph Eichler and nephew of writer Lillian Eichler Watson and advertising executive/novelist Alfred Eichler.
Rebecca Spencer is an American singer and actress, known for her roles in musicals and cabaret productions. Over the course of her career, Spencer has performed principal roles in over 50 opera, national tour, regional and Off-Broadway productions, including co-starring in Hollywood Bowl's 2019 production of Into the Woods. She created the role of Lisa Carew in the world premiere of Frank Wildhorn's Jekyll and Hyde at the Alley Theatre, opposite Linda Eder and Chuck Wagner, and premiered the role of Madame Giry in the $35 million production of Phantom - The Las Vegas Spectacular, under the direction of Harold Prince.
Frank Holder was a Guyanese jazz singer and percussionist. He was a member of bands led by Jiver Hutchinson, Johnny Dankworth and Joe Harriott.
John Oddo was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He is most notably associated as pianist and musical director for Woody Herman, Rosemary Clooney and Michael Feinstein.
