Cabaret Variety Show
Previews
Alice in ChristmasLand
December 18 at 7:00 PM
(Full show is December 19, 20, 22 at 6:00 PM)
Times Square Arts Center
John DeSotelle Studio: NuBox Theater
300 West 43rd St. (3rd floor), NYC
(Additional post-Christmas performances December 28, 29, 30 “on the road” TBA)
Three cabaret singers named Karen—Karen Wyman, Karen Mack, and Karen Z. ChristmasTree—are among the performers on Monday, December 18 celebrating and benefiting the missions of the charity-focused and inter-generational theater company called Play Nice, founded by someone known to those in the cabaret community initially as one of its journalists: Rob Lester. The 7:00 PM variety show at 300 West 43rd Street’s third floor Nubox Theater will include excerpts from past, present, and future original family musicals, including its Alice in ChristmasLand, which opens the next night, with the famous Wonderland characters created by Lewis Carroll living in a place where, due to a magic spell, for 12 years, day in and day out, every single day is Christmas Day (and they’re tired of it!).
Joining those females named Karen are male vocalists from Cabaret Land: Marcus Simeone and Joshua Lance Dixon, with songs from the CD A New York Christmas with Miranda Music, marking the third anniversary of the release from that record company. And a 102-year-old singer coincidentally named Miranda Music will make her cabaret debut in the show.
In the interest of full disclosure, Miss Music and Karen Z. ChristmasTree are actually puppets —minor characters in the winter Wonderland musical—who, like the other Karens, Simeone, Dixon, and Play Nice cast members—have volunteered their time and talents for the fundraiser. Miss ChristmasTree will co-host the segment with fellow cast members of Alice in ChristmasLand, along with Andres Gallardo Bastillo, an actual human actor, who plays both the Mad Hatter and White Knight in the musical.
The C.E.O. and founder of the Miranda Music label Kitty Skrobella will co-host the section presenting their material, along with the lovely Miranda Music, whose presence and Christmas presents are made possible by Jenna Rossa Tee and Phil Lanthropic, two financial supporters who are also puppets. Human beings in the family-friendly Alice cast include a teen and pre-teen from the same family—Tori and Mary-Lynn Israel—who were also in Play Nice’s November musical, Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?, as were fellow ChristmasLand castmates Alex Bello, Ruby Quarles, Stefania Verbitsky, and Sofia Lopez (all under age 12). They join a trio of teens new to the company: Emma Blue as Alice and Jesus Delacruz and Mira Ardon as her siblings.
https://www.thescanfoundation.org/wp-content/languages/new/neurontin.html
Six-year-old Mackenzie Maxwell is the youngest actor; others in the group—all claiming to be, officially, adults who are young at heart are Amina Ben Smail, Kea Chan, Natalie Hunter, Debra McNulty, Chloe Perez, Paula Perseke, and Joseph Tolve (who has played Humpty Dumpty in three distinctly different Play Nice plays), plus Maryann Lopinto who, like Mr. Lester, is a longtime contributor to Cabaret Scenes magazine and its website. Monday night’s benefit’s musical director is Tracy Stark.
https://www.thescanfoundation.org/wp-content/languages/new/ventolin.html
Play Nice depends on contributors and its all-volunteer acting company so it can donate 100% of its ticket sales (and more) to charities and non-profits in the arts; past recipients have included HelpUsAdopt.org, the Amas theatre company’s workshops for teens, Juvenile Diabetes Association, and Actors Theatre Workshop programs for at-risk youth and families in NYC shelter system.
For more information/tickets/audition appointments for 2018’s shows or to volunteer time, talent, materials: email— OnTheJobRob@Gmail.com or see www.PlayNicePeople.com
