a Coward Cornucopia

This is an event posted after the fact. But I am doubting anyone really had the time or resources to make the trip to NYC and catch the benefit event. It was last Weds. the 19th at the Laurie Beechman theater. I mention it because I think Noel Coward had a particular slant towards cabaret songs. Some came from theater pieces, others were topical songs of the day - most which never reached the influence of say Gershwin or Porter. But they are witty pieces nonetheless, many involving sprawling lyrics colored with character. I know I sang one recently in our showcase "Why Do the Wrong People Travel?" and it continued to gauge audience reaction near a century later.

The evening in New York is/was a benefit for the Mabel Mercer Foundation, devoted to fostering cabaret. And in true cabaret format it was a mix of historical bon-mots of Coward by lecturer David Garrad Lowe with musical interludes by a popular slate of artists like D.C. Anderson, Lauren Fox and others. Perhaps this is a different spin that TCCAN could put on our Showcase format in the future which remains relevant to our own cabaret work but puts it in the context of a specified arc for an evening of entertainment...