You've got to hand it to Scott Siegel. It takes more than sleight-of-hand to keep twelve different Town Hall productions a year varied and interesting. Siegel's show-biz sagacity and trove of interesting and amusing anecdotes meets the challenge. With his string of productions -- Broadway by the Year, the New York Cabaret Festival, the Nightlife Awards, Broadway Unplugged, and the Summer Broadway Festival - Town Hall became a choice spot to catch some of cabaret's and Broadway's finest practitioners.

Broadway's Rising Stars tapped new, unexpectedly rich, veins of talent - performing newcomers, professional school hopefuls and piano bar open-mike wannabees. Some of Siegel's twenty-two new faces already had the ease of veteran performers; others were clearly on their way.

If it's still too soon to spot the next generation's Alfred Drake, John Raitt, Barbara Cook or Ethel Merman, Siegel's players strongly suggest it's a reasonable bet they're literally waiting in the wings.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
July 23, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org