Sue Matsuki

33 Years at Don’t Tell Mama

By Chris Struck for Cabaret Scenes

Sue Matsuki is familiar to anyone who has stepped into a cabaret room in the last 30+ years, where she can be found on stage or in the audience supporting a friend. In addition to being a singer, she’s a producer, writer, reviewer, cabaret teacher, and an award-winning songwriter. This polymath also reminds her fans that she teaches at the University of Connecticut.

As a jazz vocalist, she began in her career in New York at The Village Gate before making her cabaret debut at Don’t Tell Mama 33 years ago. She’s a three-time MAC Award Winner, having been nominated 10 times across six categories. In 2004, she received the first Julie Wilson Award from the Mabel Mercer Foundation, and in 2009 she received The Jeff Matson Award for her exemplary support of the cabaret community. She’s performed at a variety of New York clubs, including 54 Below and The Town Hall, and was named a “Best of Connecticut” by The Connecticut Magazine. As an actor, she’s performed regularly at the Metropolitan Opera. Her CDs may be downloaded from iTunes.

We thought it was a good time to catch up Sue as she celebrates the anniversary of her first time on stage at Don’t Tell Mama

Chris: You’re celebrating 33 years of singing at Don’t Tell Mama. Did you ever take a break and why?

Sue: Like all singers, of course we pull back at times due to finances, day jobs, time, or frustration, but in my case, I kept working in some aspect of cabaret during those times. For example, I started to help Stu Hamstra at CabaretHotLineOnLine by reviewing up-and-comers, writing my original Sue’s Views column, producing and casting his annual fundraising shows and benefits, and producing a series called The People You Should Know, which were shows featuring four unknown talents that Cabaret Hotline had “found.” They got to be in a show sponsored by us, do three songs, and we even paid them! I did all of this while being on a four-year hiatus from doing solo shows because I thought it was a conflict of interest to be a working singer and writer/reviewer/producer. I did sing out-of-town gigs as well as my annual Christmas show with Edd Clark and that was it!

Any of the other times I thought I would quit due to frustration, something or someone would pull me back in. I’d get an invite to one of the higher profile gigs or be invited to do a major show at a club I really wanted to work at, or there was always Julie Wilson…the divine Miss Wilson! It seems she had some kind of radar honed in on me because whenever I’d get the “I wanna quit blues” I’d just happen to meet Julie on the street or she’d call me just to say hi and there would be a conversation and ultimately the response from Julie of, “You can’t quit, you’re too good and you still have so much to offer and learn!”  

My singing career over these past 35 years (I sang in jazz clubs prior to cabaret) was also singing in literally every club in New York. Don’t Mama, however, has been my family and the place where I have performed the most over all these many years. I even did a series in 2017 called Coming Home to Mama which, was a different theme show every month featuring the music and my 23-year (at the time) collaboration with my MD, Gregory Toroian.

 I take a break when I travel with my husband, but not really, as I am responding to this interview from the Canadian Rocky Mountains. I’ll be home just in time for my show!

Chris: I’m sure that your expectations for your first show at DTM versus now are much different. What do you think was the most important thing you learned on the stage that first time, and what has helped you throughout your career?

Sue: I learned what I am going to tell you that very first night and it remains with me until today. It’s not about how great you sing or if you drop a lyric or if you are wearing an expensive dress. It’s not about YOU at all! It is and always will be about those lovely people who came out and paid good money to spend an hour with you/me. Think about this…what an honor it is that anyone wants to do this. At my first show, admittedly, there were mostly friends and family, but here I am having posted my new show two months ago and having it sell out even before I received my postcards back from the printers was beyond awesome. We added the second show because more people, most of whom I know but many that are new to me, want to come and spend an hour with us (me and the band!) I will never take this for granted and I will do my best to bring my A Game to that night. I always say to the band before we get on stage, “Let’s make this the best hour of these folks’ day!”

There were no real expectations on the first show. I just wanted to get through it and remember all my lyrics. I remember being SO nervous, but when they laughed or clapped, oh boy, did that feel great.
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However, I had a nervous Elvis-type lip twitch that humbled me like nobody’s business, and I beat myself up over it for a long time. What I have learned and offer to everyone reading this now is to let it go. It’s a live performance, it happens! Deal with it with grace, learn from it, ask why it may have happened so that you can understand how not to let it happen again and move on! I also have learned to only compete with myself the last time I was on stage. I have a green-eyed monster just like all of us, but I have learned to emotionally bless other’s achievements and then get right back on focusing on what I need to do in my work.

Chris: Was that your first show in New York?

Sue: While I had been singing in a few jazz clubs, most notably at the Village Gate’s sidewalk gig, I had taken one class with Billy & Judi Sheppard (who in NY hasn’t?) so I think that was probably my first time on a cabaret stage. But it was only one number. From there, my first cabaret show was on September 16, 1986 at Don’t Tell Mama (the reason why we’re celebrating my 33^rd year of singing there), but there was no theme…it was just a bunch of standards that I knew and had been singing strung together with some chat. It was not a very polished act or show.
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Chris: What were some of your inspirations then?

Sue: First and foremost it was my dear friend Trudi Mann. She and I met at the Village Gate and I learned SO much from her simply by watching her. Her choice of music, her phrasing, her style, and her jazzy renditions of tunes but always with such respect to the lyric…I wanted to be Trudi! Famous inspirations were Ella, Peggy, Rosie, Carmen, Dakota…I was a “Frankensinger”—I took and emulated all that I could from these great ladies.

Chris: And what about now?

Sue: The same as above, but over the years, beside Trudi, I have had some incredible woman come into my life as mentors and teachers: Helen Baldassare, Lina Koutrakos, Cynthia Crane, Julie Wilson, Jan Wallman, and Marilyn Maye. It is no accident that I am coming “full-circle” with Lina directing this current show.

Some of the guys I have to acknowledge would be Sidney Myer (of course), Gerry Geddes, Stu Hamstra, Roy Sander, Richard Skipper, and of course, my Musical Director for the past 25 years, Gregory Toroian.

There are literally hundreds of other folks who have all contributed to my growth is some way or another (musical directors, booking agents, directors, musicians, press, songwriters) so please forgive me for not mentioning you all or this interview would become a book. Speaking of books, new to my team and world is David Sabella with whom I am co-writing a booked called So You Want to Sing Cabaret (Rowan & Littlefield, 2020). David has to be included as an inspiration to me now because of what he brings out of me both artistically and intellectually.

Chris: Your career has spanned a lot of changes in the music industry. What has been your favorite thing/movement to be a part of over the last 33 years?

Sue: I grew up listening to everything from all my gals mentioned above as well as Funny Girl, West Side Story, Tower of Power, Bette Midler, The Beatles, Earth, Wind and Fire, so I have so many different tastes in music. What’s exciting to me in the new trend in cabaret and how it’s grown is that now anything goes! It’s no longer just the Great American Songbook.
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This just keeps this art form more and more interesting to me. I try to always looks at all kinds of music and then try to look at what “new take” in which I can present them. It’s a constantly changing process that I just love, but I love the process as much as I love getting up on stage with the final product.

Chris: What have been some of your favorite songs to sing and some of your favorite songwriters?

I happen to love all the American Songbook writers and I tend to draw heavily from that repertoire, but always in my own way and usually with a jazzy flair. I could not pin down one or 100 of my favorite songs because with me, they would never make it to stage if they weren’t one of my favorite songs. I love so many of songwriters out there—Zoe Lewis, Jay Leonhart, David Finck, Mary Liz McNamara, Bob Levy being just a few of them.  I even championed Scott Evan Davis in my People You Should Know series years ago and look at him now! But again, there are hundreds of names of amazing songwriters that I have had the honor of singing. Without them, where would any of us be?

Chris: Can we expect songs from that original show as well as some of your favorites?

Sue: I am only doing my opening number from that original show (but it’s not the opening number!) The show is composed of many of my opening numbers, hence the name of the show, How’s that for Openers? This original number is also not the very hep chart that we are doing in this show, Gregory Toroian re-arranged an amazing chart for me (with my input of course), but you will all have to come to the show to hear what that tune is! It’s also not a show about my opening numbers…confused?

The 7:00 show is sold out and we’re just over half filled for the 9:30 show so make your reservation today if you’d like to attend! (Hey, I am NOTHING if not a shameless self-promoter!)

Chris: What do you love most about performing today?

Sue: That very first show, yesterday, tomorrow and always…the audience!