Our coverage of the narrowing-down of the Metropolitan Room's NYC summer singing contest continues this week with the weekly observations by one of last year's contestants who went on to do her own successful show, a MAC nominee in the Debut category.

The word "glee" has been bandied about quite a bit over the last season in pop culture, most probably because of the groundbreaking series of the same name on the Fox Network, which has made household names of Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison, Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele and Chris Colfer, among others. It therefore, must have seemed a natural step for writer/composer/lyricist John Gregor and the Prospect Theater Company to name his latest musical opus With Glee, as a means of capitalizing on this new phenomenon.

Hello, NiteLife Exchange Readers! And thank you. The fact that you are reading my words right now, instead of one of the countless other things you could be doing, is not something I take for granted.  We all lead busy lives, with a myriad of “stuff” out there, competing for our attention, our time.  You could be … Wait a minute!  If I remind you of my competition, you may stop reading and choose it!   Competition.

Like so many million other schoolchildren from New York in the 1970s, your humble writer and his siblings would race home every day to watch "The Magic Garden," the daily half-hour TV show presented by co-hostesses Carole Demas and Paula Janis on WPIX-TV Channel 11; therein, the two took their throng of youthful spectators through a magical thirty minutes of song, stories, short plays, lessons about the world, and such characters as Sherlock the pink squirrel and Flapper the bird (both given virtual life by the great puppeteer Cary Antebi) as well as journeys with the Storybox, the Chucklepatch, and the Magic Tree growing lollipop sticks.

Memo to: The Emmy nominating committee…what are you guys thinking? “Big Bang Theory” is the best comedy on TV and NO EMMY NOMINATION FOR BEST COMEDY??? Whatever! At least Jim Parsons got a nomination as quirky geek-of-the-century Sheldon.

Hello, NiteLife Exchange Readers!  Before you read on, please look at the logo of this website.  You’ll notice the slogan “It’s All About Entertainment,” not   “It’s All About Cabaret.”  On this site, you’ll find Penny Landau’s irreverent column “The TV Junkie,” as well as reviews and articles about current plays, CDs, web sites, etc. This is a smart policy.  If cabaret is to take its rightful place on the entertainment food chain, it needs to mix with the other items on the menu! 

 Once again, we invite Kathleen France, singer and blogger, to comment on Metropolitan Room's weekly rounds of the singing competition. It's held each Monday at 7pm. Here is her report from the second night of preliminaries. She is a former competitor herself, and last year, was a MAC nominee for her debut cabaret show.

I wanted to let our readers get an inside view of the birthing process where a MetroStar is born: the delights, the divas-in-training, the dramas of discovery.  Since I’m one of the judges in this every-Monday singing contest at Metropolitan Room, along with fellow reviewer Roy Sander (with guest judges joining us in August, and the audience vote factored in), I have a different kind of role in observing the proceedings, and this regular cabaret column should not be a place for me to state opinions at this point,  However, it is an important and interesting event – and I wanted to let readers know more about what goes on in the room, if not in my head. 

Hello, NiteLife Exchange Readers!  First off, I’d like to thank those of you who sent me comments on my first piece last week entitled Sondheim at the Cabaret.  The response was gratifying, and leads me to believe there’s a need for a column that puts the nightly events in the cabaret world in a larger perspective.  Please know that the blurb at the bottom of your screen is for real – if you have a strong (or weak!) reaction to my musings, I’d like to hear from you.  And do pass on the link to those you think might be interested.  Now, on to the show that’s my jumping-off point of the week.  Let’s hope the pool I jump into holds water!

For nearly the last two decades, songstress Perry Payne has retained a most interesting reputation in the cabaret arena; she's a true Southern belle by birth in Lynchburg, VA, a champion real estate agent by day, and a top-notch entertainer by night. And she proved all beyond compare in her most recent annual turn at the Metropolitan Room. Directed by perennial Broadway mainstay and international theatre star Evan Pappas, and backed musically by Michael Rice on piano, Ray Kilday on bass, Steve Bartosik on drums and the truly sensational Amy Hamilton Soto on violin, Payne once again comes up swinging, as always.