Goldie Dver

Sneak Peek—And the Nominees Are

Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, March 19, 2026

Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

Goldie Dver’s Sneak Peek series returned with the second annual version of And the Nominees Are—MAC Award Nominated Original and Comedy Songs, a terrific celebration of all the nominated songs with performances of them and interviews with their writers. Our hostess kept things moving with her great enthusiasm and sense of humor as well as the interesting questions she asked her guests. She also gave them the opportunity to promote future events and projects. Longer than your typical cabaret show, but considerably shorter than the actual award ceremony, the show was great fun indeed. Dan Pardo served as music director and pianist except where noted.

Things kicked off with John Forster thanking Dver for “giving us an excuse to crawl out from under the rocks.” Accompanying himself, he delivered his funny number “A Butt Call” in his self-described “cartoon voice.” Next was Amy Engelhardt, who thanked Forster for “opening for me.” James Ballard accompanied her on “It’s Sunny,” which she wrote with Seth Christenfeld. It was a bluesy torch song with comic touches, a fascinating hybrid. “I Used to Be You,” a moving tale of mother/daughter relationships, was beautifully delivered by Marie Gentile, who wrote the ballad with Lynn Portas. Ted Georgaklis, visiting from Boston, was given a warm welcome before he launched into his wryly comic jazzy number, “Autumn of My Life Blues.”

A truly unique selection came next, perhaps the only number ever written filled with Morse Code. Marc Segan wrote and performed “Ode to the Code,” an amusing old-fashioned jazz waltz. A deeply personal number followed; Michael Colby’s “I Could Be a Hero” (with music by Peter Millrose) grew out of his lonely childhood and his escape into comic books. Marcus Goldhaber announced that “Two at a Time” was written for Disney, but “they just don’t know it yet.” With its echoes of Randy Newman’s work for the studio, it’s easy to see why he would suggest that. Demonstrating the wide variety of subjects cabaret songwriting can cover, Tom Toce’s “Heather” was about the epidemic of gun violence; it had some very clever word play in describing a woman who “stuck to her guns.”

Neil Paul Ginsburg made his debut as a singer, sharing a song he wrote with Hillary Rollins for her daughter, the lovely “A Soft Place to Land.” In great contrast, “It’s Always Too Little, Too Late” was a cynical break-up tale written by Drew Paralic and Bob Levy and sung by Pardo. Tracy Stark took the piano to present two of her numbers. The first was “Too Much Love” (with lyrics by Mark Dundas Wood) whose clever lyrics were deftly handled by Sidney Myer in duet with Stark. This selection won the MAC Award for Comedy/Novelty Song a few days later. Then Dver performed the song that won last year’s award, “Better Place,” which had music and lyrics by Stark. To draw the evening to a close, Ava Nicole Frances tore the place apart with her own folk/torch creation, “Missing a Screw.” This number, which she delivered sitting down because “I wrote it sitting down,” also won a MAC Award for Song.