April 26, 1999

By Jim Caruso

Ann Hampton Callaway

"How many cabaret singers does it take to sing 'My Funny Valentine?'" asks singer-songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway.  "All of them," she replies dryly.   But not one sings it quite like this lady.  The lushness of her contralto mixed with her floating coloratura has helped establish Callaway as one of today's most highly acclaimed club singers.  Still, you shouldn't try to label this tall, raven-haired beauty.  After winning nine MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabaret) awards for her club work, she successfully made the switch to her first love: jazz.   Her CD To Ella, With Love was a tribute to that legend accompanied by a concert-sized jazz orchestra; the recent After Ours is informed by the spirit of Miles Davis; and on the upcoming Easy Living, Callaway offers her three-octave interpretations of more jazz standards with special guests Winton Marsalis, Kenny Barron, and Bill Cherlap.  The singer isn't content just running from concerts to recording studios, though; her setting of a Cole Porter lyric was formally recognized by the Porter estate.  Callaway penned and sang the theme song to The Nanny; another of her compositions, At the Same Time, was performed by Barbra Striesand for President Clinton and then included by Striesand on her latest CD, Higher Ground.   (Striesand recently asked Callaway to write lyrics to a Rolf Loveland melody, and the resulting song -- "I've Dreamed of You" -- was sung by Striesand to James Brolin at their wedding.)  Callaway brings her new show to the chic, downtown boite Joe's Pub for two weeks beginning May 13.  If all this isn't enough, this daring, dazzling diva will make her Broadway debut in the fall, starring in the new musical Swing.

Billy Stritch

Duke Ellington once said that a successful performer is "in the right place, doing the right thing, before the right people, at the right time."  This could have been Billy Stritch's yearbook quote After his swing-infused vocal trio of Montgomery, Plant & Stritch quit the cabaret scene, he made the move from Houston to Manhattan.   Would he ever work again?  Listen to this sob story:  Stritch got a gig subbing at Bobo's piano bar, where Liza Minnelli heard him; she brought 10 friends to his Eighty Eight's gig the next day, then immediately hired him as musical supervisor and arranger for Liza Live From Radio City Music Hall.  So it doesn't only happen like that in the movies!  Cabaret fans cheer Stritch but, as they say in the ginsu knife commercial: "Wait...there's more!"  He and Sandy Knox wrote the Grammy Award-winning country song Does He Love You?, recorded by Reba McEntyre and Linda Davis.  Stritch still arranges for Liza, and was associate producer and arranger of her Gently CD, which earned two Grammy nominations.  His own recent album, Waters of March -- The Brazilian Album, has samba-ed him to performance sin such venues as the Municipale in Rio, the Russiya in Moscow, and the Royal Albert Hall in London.  Not bad for a kid from Sugarland, Texas.  Stritch recently wrote the music for Lily & Lily, a new musical comedy co-authored by Mark Bramble (book) and Mark Waldrop (lyrics).  You can see him perform at the Jazz Standard, April 21-25, and in tribute to the great M-G-M musicals at the 92nd Street Y in June.

Julie Halston

Not many actresses can boast a background that includes Wall Street and drag queens; while she was doing the corporate thing as a gold analyst, Halston was moonlighting as a founding member of Theater in Limbo, one of the most important off-Broadway companies of the 80's.  She stared in Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, The Lady in Question, and Red Scare at Sunset.  Charles Busch, her Limbo collaborator, coerced her to write a one-woman show which found its way to off-Broadway for a successful run.  Halston may be best known for her "whine tastings" in comedy clubs and cabarets, but she also starred in a CBS-TV pilot with Harvey Firestein, had roles in several films (including Addams Family Values) and plays nut case Blanche Trash on All My Children.  Currently on stage in Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Halston makes monthly appearances at Carolines Comedy Club, where she hosts Julie Halston's New York.  She's about to film Stanley Tucci's Joe Gould's Secret, and is developing (with Donna Daley) an animated television series.  Her spleen-venting will no doubt color her new theater piece, which showcases at Sag Harbor's Bay Street Theater this August.   "I've been able to do many different things," Halston reflects.   "Like Sybil, I've been allowed to take on many voices.  Luckily for me, the industry has encouraged me to continue this disorder!"