With Broadway musical stars Sandy Duncan & Harvey Evans at the 2008 Nightlife Awards. Photo by Genevieve Rafter Keddy. Source: Broadway World.com

We aren’t the longest running show, but perhaps a close third. Long before I did my show I was involved with CABARET BEAT produced by Bradshaw Smith which is a show that morphed over time into BROADWAY BEAT which has a big following these days in New York. They are running longer than I am with a different format. Bradshaw is the reason I am on public access television.

Airing now is a half-hour show with the Gatlin Brothers. Upcoming guests include Jessica Molaskey who is also playing at The Carlyle with husband John Pizzarelli. At the same time "13" is opening on Broadway so there is another tie in. I am taping a song from Jason Robert Brown's October 13 show at Birdland. We will showcase Women Songwriters with MAC ASCAP showcase October 15 with Francesca Blumenthal, Phoebe Kreutz, Luba Mason and special guest Christine Lavin. I will host the show at the showcase at the Triad Theatre. Luba Mason from the songwriters show also performs at Birdland October 7. Gay Marshall is another talented guest who has a beautiful Piaf CD out. Ron Abel (Oct 20 at Birdland) is an upcoming guest you will see on the show too with Lucie Arnaz. We have Lisa Asher doing Ellis Nassour’s HONKEY TONK ANGEL and so much more!

Because I am involved in the productions I will be showcasing scenes from THE SEA GULL and ALL MY SONS. We will show as much Broadway and off-Broadway as possible along with a wide variety of artists I think people enjoy.

I don’t know if it was ever a consciously-made effort to wind up in cabaret. In many ways I am here by default because I thought I was headed toward musical theatre. In my early days in NY when I went to audition for people for the musical theatre stage, they told me what was lacking was talent for the nightclubs in and around New York. I wanted to sing for people so it didn’t matter where, but it was my intention to perform on Broadway. I found myself doing the Mountains and the Living Room and did very little theatre. I worked in THE DRUNKARD with Barry Manilow as Musical Director off-Broadway but kept getting booked back in the cabaret clubs after that.

I did cabaret shows, was divorced in 1975, and business really changed. I got a regular night at Reno Sweeney and I was no longer opening for the comic before the show like before but rather ended up as the headliner. Rupert Hitzig, who was at the time a partner of Alan King, attended a show and really was the one who encouraged me to go more into comedy.

With JERSEY BOYS star Christian Hoff during his January 2008 solo concert at NYC's Metropolitan Room. Photo by Linda Lenzi Source: Broadway World.com

What was happening in my solo career was that the people in audience would just start talking to me and I would quickly respond and it was funny. It was always spontaneous. Really great moments! At one show two agents, Lee Saloman and Lee Stevens from William Morris, saw me and told me to keep it up as there are a lot of female singers but not a lot of funny women who also sing.

I think stand up comedy was about the hardest thing some could ever do. So I felt comfortable with funny songs. It seemed the pressure of being funny is not as great as it is as if you present your self like a stand up comic. I liked incorporating music and various parodies. Playing Reno Sweeney really led me into the cabaret scene as the nightclub scene changed in New York. More cabaret was happening.

In a cabaret club you could express yourself and be funny whereas in clubs opening for other comics into doing full acts where I couldn’t be funny. Nightclubs didn’t want me to be too funny they wanted me to sing.

I was diagnosed with a thyroid tumor and my voice was threatened. I started thinking about what the hell can I do if I do love my voice and still stay in show business. For several years I had been giving these annual birthday parties and I would ask friends to come and perform. I decided to play on the format of these parties and in 1990 the TV and Variety show JAMIE DEROY & FRIENDS was born.

I was very involved with Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs and worked with a lot of artists and looked at a lot of great material. After waiting to be dubbed the Ed Sullivan of the fall of 1990s and picked by a network, in comes Bradshaw Smith who helped secure us a regular show on public access. The show is always taped live and has played many clubs in Manhattan.

I see so many great acts and talent, some a huge success and others who have a hard time getting an audience, which really has nothing to do with the level of talent. What I would try to do was help develop new audiences for shows and do 6 to 8 songs and 20 minutes of comedy. For example after Mario Cantone was on my show at Caroline’s he was immediately hired for a regular night there at the club and started finding a lot more work from there. Caroline Rhea told me I gave her more time and opportunities to express herself on stage than anyone else. The cabaret audience really allows for more traffic; meaning they were open to more and provide a safe haven where comics and singers could try new material.

At the second or third JAMIE DEROY & FRIENDS show, Steve Allen came. He had been writing me and sending parodies and ideas of things for me to sing. Since he knew he was coming to the show I asked spontaneously if he would get up on stage and perform it himself, which-- he did. What a night to capture on camera!

Click on the graphic to hear clips and/or purchase IF I SING: THE SONGWRITERS ALBUM

I absolutely love one your latest recording productions -- IF I SING: THE SONGWRITERS ALBUM -- which features musical theatre songwriters performing their own material. How did this project come about and how on earth were you able to bring on board such an astounding array of talent?

I guess this album was a long time in the making. When I started to produce the series of JAMIE DEROY & FRIENDS CD’s which began with the release of CHILD IN ME, I knew I really wanted to do a singer/songwriter album. When I had Julie Gold in the studio for the second JAMIE DEROY & FRIENDS album and I asked if she would record FROM A DISTANCE for me. She was first to record on the project. It continued to grow from there. While in the process of making this CD I met Larry Gatlin and he recorded two songs for me, one for this album and another not yet released. Due to the success of this recording I will most likely do a second album with singer/songwriters. Tommy Krasker of PS Classics has Maury Yeston on his label and invited Maury to come on my show and I asked him to also do the CD. I heard Andrew Lippa do ‘Live Out Loud’ which is from a show that has yet to be produced, and really loved they way he perfumed the song and I asked him to record it. I met Lucy Simon through Daisy Eagan of SECRET GARDEN fame who recorded for my JAMIE DEROY & FRIENDS children’s album. Lucy offered to do backup vocals for Daisy and when she did I asked her if she would like to do a cut as well and she immediately agreed. Shelly Markham used to be my musical director and I really love his song. Jeff Marks & Bobbie Lopez do a song cut from AVENUE Q, and that song is pretty hysterical. My song ‘Daddy’s Girl’ is on an album I dedicated to my father and re-recorded. Nancy Ford and Gretchen Cryer, whom I met through the League of American Theatre Women, are also on the CD. As for Stephen Schwartz, I met him the night I attended the last preview for GODSPELL. My friend was an associate producer and knew Clive Barnes was coming and she had come across him. His reaction was not the same as mine, I loved the show while he did not. At least not as much! Stephen also attended Carnegie Melon in PA a few years after me, we are fellow alumni. I had had him in the MAC ASCAP Songwriters Showcase and loved this song so I asked him to do the CD too. There are also great songs by Rick Jensen, David Shire & Richard Maltby, Jr. and Emily Bindiger.

JAMIE DEROY & FRIENDS CDs
(Click on links to hear clips and/or purchase at CD Baby.com)

The Child In Me, Vol. 1	The Child In Me, Vol. 2
Tis The Season	Family
When I Grow Up	The Real Thing
The Real Thing

It seems like I perform less and less. My next big show is December 4th at the Metropolitan Room with a slightly different version of my variety show. I keep threatening to do my own evening with little or no guest artists but with video footage of my early work and TV shows. I have footage where I did a S&M strip while singing ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’. I had a song called ‘What Makes Bobby Short’. I have footage of a night where I am performing and my ex-husband snuck into the show with a Siamese kitten and presented it to me after I sang the very funny ‘Pussy Cat Song’. To see the reaction on my face will be worth the cover charge alone on December 4th. Just a great night with highlights of some of the funniest moments of JAMIE DEROY & FRIENDS TV show.

Kristin Scott Thomas in THE SEA GULL.  Photo by Johan Persson. Source: seagulltheplay.com

Cast of ALL MY SONS - Dianne Wiest, John Lithgow, Katie Holmes, Patrick Wilson. Source: allmysonsonbroadway.com

SPEED THE PLOW stars Jeremy Piven, Raul Esparza & Elizabeth Moss. Source: speedtheplowonbroadway.com

You currently have several Broadway-bound projects in the works. Could you tell us about them?

I have three play revivals opening. THE SEA GULL – Walter Kerr Theatre, which begins October 2; ALL MY SONS - Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, begins October 16 and David Mamet’s SPEED THE PLOW - Ethel Barrymore Theatre, on October 21. My schedule is a bit insane how many things are going on at the same time but I still attend cabaret and jazz acts and theatre all over the city.

Don’t expect to make money! I don’t want to say it’s not possible, but it more work than you think. There are very few cabaret singers that make real money. These days you need to have gigs in performing arts centers, in music festivals and in cabaret series outside of New York. In New York there are people who do pack their houses and therefore make money. But if you’re empty they don’t make as much.

It really shouldn’t matter not how many people are in the audience because people come to see you on the stage and it’s your moment to shine. A performer should give those audiences great shows no matter the size of the house. I remember a night when I performed to a small house and I would perform like it was Radio City Music Hall and I got jobs from shows like that.

As a producer though I really want a full house and I pack the house for my variety shows for the sake of my guests so they get exposure. It doesn’t matter if you’re making $10,000 for the gig or $250 you still want to do the best job. People take notice! I tell people to give every show their best shot and it will pay off.

Next update to this page: Sunday, November 2, 2008