Breaking Into Cabaret: Transcript of Chat by Celia Berk, Joshua Dixon and Surprise Guest Natalie Douglas

February 6, 2015

2015 Bistro Award winners Celia Berk and Joshua Dixon chat about breaking into cabaret. An edited (and slightly reordered) transcript follows:

“Celia Berk proved that one’s ‘second act’ can be most satisfying, that singing was her destiny,” Melody Breyer-Grell wrote in Cabaret Scenes of Celia Berk, who some 20 years into a successful career as a human resources executive, made her solo New York cabaret debut just last November at The Metropolitan Room. (Here opening song was “I’ve Been Waiting All My Life.”) Her show was  entitled “You Can’t Rush Spring,” which is also the title of her debut album.  Our reviewer Mark Dundas Wood called her “an earnest, classy performer,” Rex Reed hailed her as “one of the best singers I’ve heard in a long time” and Michael Feinstein weighed in: “Beautiful sound, style and taste in song choices.”

Celia returns to the Metropolitan Room February 8 and 16/March 28 and 29, 2015 with a program featuring songs from the album and what she calls “hidden gems: lesser-known songs from great songwriters.”

Joshua Dixon made his “exceptionally impressive” solo cabaret debut last May at the Duplex, Fly Up, which according to our reviewer Roy Sander, used song to trace the key stages in his life. There were segments on “a kid attending church with his Mormon family, one on his college escapades, another on his burgeoning interest in musical theatre, and one on his view as a gay man in a society that has not always been welcoming.”

http://youtu.be/rPCQkcCYa14

Avatar

About the Author

Sherry Eaker has been the producer of the annual Bistro Awards since the awards’ inception in 1985. She is the former editor of "Back Stage" and, during her 30-year run, produced panel discussions and workshop events on an ongoing basis, including the programming for Back Stage’s annual Actorfest. She compiled and edited four editions of the "Back Stage Handbook for Performing Artists," and compiled and edited "The Cabaret Artists Handbook." She is a member of the National Theatre Conference and the American Theatre Critics Association (and produced eight of ATCA’s New York weekend conferences). She is an advisor to the boards of both the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and the Women in the Arts & Media Coalition.