Conversations with today’s most iconic cabaret artists and innovators, hosted by award-winning cabaret performer and 92NY School of Music faculty member Michael Kirk Lane.
In this series, Michael speaks with performers, directors, and journalists, who share stories of backstage and onstage antics and interrogate the current state of this unique performance style.
Each conversation ends with a lively Q&A session for participants to ask their burning questions. These conversations may be purchased individually, or as a package at a discounted price!
March 11, 2024: Sally Mayes
Sally Mayes made her Broadway debut in Cy Coleman’s Welcome to the Club. Her performance won critical praise along with a Theater World Award and Outer Critics Circle nomination as one of Broadway’s Outstanding Newcomers. On Broadway, Sally is perhaps best known for her performance in the Roundabout Theater revival of She Loves Me for which she won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations. Sally appeared as Aunt Corene in Urban Cowboy (Drama Desk nomination). She drew raves as Mae West in the National Tour of Dirty Blonde and also appeared in the Broadway revival of Steel Magnolias. Sally starred in several Off-Broadway productions including Closer Than Ever (Outer Critics Circle nomination), Das Barbecu, Pete N’ Keely (Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Musical), Play It Cool, Good Ol’ Girls, and The Best is Yet to Come. Film and television credits include Bye Bye Birdie Alpha House, City Hall, Double Parked, Law And Order Criminal Intent, Sex And The City, and The Job. Sally has five solo albums, The Dorothy Fields Songbook, Our Private World: The Comden and Green Songbook, The Story Hour, Boys and Girls Like You And Me, and Valentine. Sally’ s much anticipated nightclub appearances have garnered her rave reviews from coast to coast, she has been nominated for twelve Manhattan Association of Cabaret awards and has won two Back Stage BISTRO awards for excellence in cabaret and recording.
May 6, 2024: Leslie Uggams
Leslie Uggams is a Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress, singer, and recording artist whose landmark career took off at the age of nine, opening for Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald at The Apollo Theater in Harlem. As a teenager she went on to break barriers as a series regular on Sing Along with Mitch and later starred in her own history-making network variety series, The Leslie Uggams Show. She also won an Emmy for co-hosting the daytime series, Fantasy.
Leslie made her Broadway debut at the age of 24 in the groundbreaking musical Hallelujah, Baby!, earning TheatreWorld and Tony awards. Since then, she has starred on Broadway in Blues in the Night, Her First Roman, Jerry’s Girls, Anything Goes, King Hedley II (Tony Award nomination), Thoroughly Modern Millie, and On Golden Pond with James Earl Jones. She was recently inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.
Perhaps best known on screen for her stirring portrayal of Kizzy in the landmark TV mini-series Alex Haley’s Roots (Critics Choice Award, Emmy and Golden Globe nominations), Leslie, now in her seventh decade, continues to create memorable roles. Most notably, she can be seen in American Fiction; Dotty & Soul; Nanny; Deadpool; on television in New Amsterdam and Empire; and in the streaming series Extrapolations, The Bite, and the upcoming Fallout.
Leslie also continues an active concert and cabaret schedule with her one-woman show Uptown/Downtown and in her recent appearances at 54 Below in New York City. For more information, please visit www.leslieuggams.com, or follow her on Facebook, YouTube, Threads @LeslieUggams1 and Instagram @LeslieUggams1.
May 20, 2024: Mary Testa
Mary is the recipient of the Legend of Off-Broadway Award, Three Tony nominations, two Lucille Lortel nominations, six Drama Desk nominations, two Drama League nominations, two Outer Critic’s Circle nominations, an Obie Award, and a special Drama Desk award celebrating Queen of the Mist and ‘Three Decades of Outstanding Work.’ Broadway: Oklahoma!, Wicked, Guys and Dolls, Xanadu, Chicago, 42nd St, Marie Christine, On the Town, Forum, etc. Opera: Anna Nicole/BAM. Off-Broadway: The Gardens Of Anuncia, Oklahoma!, The Portuguese Kid, The Government Inspector, First Daughter Suite, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Queen of the Mist, Love Loss.., A New Brain, See What I Wanna See, etc. Film: Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, The Mother (short; 3 Best Actress Awards), Big Stone Gap, Eat Pray Love, The Bounty Hunter, etc. Television: The Good Fight, Divorce, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Bull, SMILF, Two Broke Girls, Difficult People, and Whoopi. Featured on fifteen original cast albums, Mary’s album with Michael Starobin, Have Faith, is now available.