Stepping Out Productions Announces Milwaukee's 4th Annual Cabaret Artist Series

Stepping Out Productions, Milwaukee's premier professional cabaret entertainment venture, proudly announces its 4th annual Cabaret Artist Series. Running four weekends this summer, Stepping Out Productions will be showcasing four of the country's top cabaret artists in performance in the intimate setting of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater's STACKNER CABARET (108 East Wells Street, Milwaukee, WI - 414-224-9490 - http://www.milwaukeerep.com/). Performers include Karen Akers (June 18th & 19th), Sally Mayes (July 9th & 10th), Andrea McArdle (July 30th & 31st), and Chicago favorites Joan Curto, Tom Michael and Mary Monica Thomas (August 13th & 15th). Performances are held on Fridays at 8:00 pm, Saturdays at 6:00 & 9:00 pm. Cash bar service will be available 30 minutes prior to and during each performance. Ticket Prices: $35 per ticket for Ms. Akers and Ms. McArdle, $30 per ticket for the other performances, or $110 per ticket for the full four artist performance series.

To open this year's series, Stepping Out proudly presents International performing star Karen Akers in her new, highly acclaimed cabaret show Theater Songs. Performances will be June 18th & 19th. Karen has performed throughout the United States, Europe and the former Soviet Union in many prestigious venues worldwide from Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, New York's Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, and London's Pizza on the Park. The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner says of her sound: "It's a great voice, an instrument with the power of Streisand's, the dark passion of Piaf's and the lean irony of Dietrich's, but a voice uniquely her own, because it's coupled with an intelligence that creates moments of riveting theatricality." She has appeared on Broadway as one of the original stars of the Tony Award-winning musical Grand Hotel, directed by Tommy Tune. She made her debut on the Great White Way in 1982 in the original production of Nine (also directed by Mr. Tune) for which she won a Theatre World Award, as well as a Tony Award nomination. Ms. Akers has had two of her own PBS television specials: Presenting Karen Akers and Karen Akers: On Stage at Wolf Trap. Karen's film roles include the femme fatale in Mike Nichols's Heartburn, opposite Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo and Vibes.

Appearing next will be the incomparable Sally Mayes. Ms. Mayes will appear July 9th & 10th. One of the true national treasures of the cabaret stage, Ms. Mayes has an extensive stage resume. Broadway credits include Welcome to the Club, for which she received the Theatre World Award as well as an Outer Critics Circle nomination, She Loves Me, which earned her Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations, and Urban Cowboy. Off-Broadway Sally was seen in the hit revue Closer Then Ever, for which she received an Outer Critics Circle nomination, Das Barbecue, and as Keely Stevens in Pete 'n' Keely (Drama Desk nomination - Outstanding Actress in a Musical). She can be seen in the Al Pacino film City Hall and in the television version of the Broadway musical classic, Bye Bye Birdie.

Following this show will be Broadway's original orphan Annie, Andrea McArdle. Ms. McArdle will be performing July 30th & 31st. In addition to starring in Annie, Ms. McArdle has appeared on Broadway in Beauty And The Beast (Belle), State Fair (Margy Frake), Les Miserables (Fantine), and Starlight Express (Ashley). Milwaukee audiences may also remember her from some of her appearances at Melody Top, including Meet Me in St. Louis and The Wizard of Oz.

To close out this year's series, Stepping Out is proud to present "An American Romance - The Songs of Irving Berlin." This show will be brought to you by the team that brought last summer's highly acclaimed tribute to Richard Rodgers to the Stackner. Featured in this production will be three of Chicago's most popular cabaret performers Joan Curto, Tom Michael and Mary Monica Thomas. This production will be seen August 13-14.

 

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