Exclusive: Catching Up and Talking Cabaret with Faith Prince & Michael Kirk Lane

Are you ready? It's the Roundtable with me, Robert Bannon

Hey, Broadway World. Welcome to The Roundtable right here exclusively on Friday

You know, so many people have come to me and talk to me about being a cabaret singer

I have had the privilege of doing cabaret in New York for the past few years. if it's at green room, if it's at 54 below, if it's at don't tell mamas, wherever, if it's at the

wherever, the triad, if you go downtown, you go to the village, you want to sing at the duplex

You know, a lot of people talk about cabaret and a lot of people don't understand what cabaret really is, a concert with song, storytelling and songs and piano playing and moments

and fun, and it's such a range. So when the 92nd Street Y put together a week-long cabaret

Cabaret camp, I was here for the whole experience. And when you have that run by Michael Kirk Lane, who does cabaret and is a coach of

Cabaret and works with the 92nd Street Y. And then you add to that, Tony winner Faith Prince

What? They said to me, do you want Faith Prince to come? Do we want Faith Prince to come on the round table

Are you kidding? Do you know how many times I listened to Adelaide in Guys and Dolls that you want a Tony

Well, you can be an observer, you can be an auditor in the camp because the camp is sold out

But if you want to sit with Alex Rybeck, yesuhiko Fukuoka, who's my music director

if you want to see Natalie Douglas, Jeff Harner, talk about what it's like to make cabaret

if you want Faith Prince to teach you how to do cabaret, if you want Darnel White to sit down

and teach you how to play, if you want to learn the business of cabaret by like Jen Taper

who is the person who runs 54 below, who pays me to do it. my shows there, then we're going to figure it out. Plus, the rumor is Faith Prince is coming back

to Broadway. Broadway World, is she going to answer that question? You'll have to find out

Take a peek. Well, Michael Kirk Lane has, I don't know, taught every university that teaches

musical theater in the whole entire United States. And Miss Faith Prince, Tony Awards, and Broadway

shows extravaganza. I literally remember being obsessed with the guys and we did guys and dolls

and we listened to your voice. If I had a dollar for every time we listened to that cast album

I'd be on a Hawaiian beach right now. I'd be there with you from it. Yeah. I probably wouldn't be

there with you. I haven't heard it that many times. But I think it was one of the best ones I was ever

a part of. So I am proud of it and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Well, you don't have to listen because you did

You sung it up and down and around. And Michael, before we get started, you know, you both have had worked together and you've created

you know, Michael has a cabaret series that is at 92nd Street Y, that if you're a cabaret person

if you want to find the business of cabaret, if you want to know how to put up a show, the business of cabaret, you created this

How did you and Faith Prince get together to work on something like this

Faith and I had met the showbiz way a couple times in passing over the years

and then she was gracious enough to appear on one of our programs at 92 and why

an interview series I do called Cabaret Conversations, which has people who are part of the art form of cabaret

discussing the art form of cabaret, very New York sometimes. And Faith and I got to talking via that

and she called me the next day and said, honey, I think we should teach together

To which I said, don't threaten me with a good time. And so we started with a weekend master class workshop, which was last fall, with Faith and Alex Rybeck, who is a brilliant music director and brilliant teacher in the art form of Cabaret

He has been doing this thing and working with every major artist in this art form for decades

And honestly, he taught me everything I know. I mean, really. My first Joe's Pub cabrace, I think it was, oh, God

It was 1999 or something. And they had asked me to come down there

And I was like, I don't know if I should be doing this. I'm better at being other people

And then Stuart Ross had been after me. And so I hired him to sort of help me create it, Daisy Prince

And then Alex Rybeck came on and he said, you know, this is about you, right

And I was like, oh, okay. And he proceeded to ask me a bunch of questions

And that's how it all began for me was Alex Rybeck. Faith, do you ever think about coming from Georgia, growing up in Virginia, going to, you know, conservatory music in Cincinnati to then the journey, like I've talked to Michael about his journey from Michigan to New York and your journey from the South and Virginia to New York to now be on Broadway, put on cabaret shows

Was this ever in your consciousness? Was it a dream? Did you always think it was going to happen

What was the journey like to this moment? I'm a turtle, you know, in the race of the hair and the turtle

I'm always the turtle, slow and steady, right? I always thought of myself and dreamed about being a working actress

and that was it. All the rest was gravy. Really? How beautiful is that

And Michael, growing up, being a theater fan, what's it like? What joy do you get as being a facilitator

a professor, a teacher at 92nd Street Y and at universities teaching the art form of theater and

cabaret. In fact, I've had this conversation before, I find always that my teaching work

whether it's with my college students or with adults at the Y, it makes me so much better of a

performer because I'm constantly learning from my students, especially at the college level and

adult level. It's a collaborative learning experience at that point. Yes, I'm sharing my knowledge of maybe an art form that is new to the students in cabaret

or a different way of thinking of the art form of cabaret with them, but it's a collaborative

learning experience. Oh, yes. So here's the million dollar question. What Faith Prince makes good cabaret

What makes a good show? Well several things go into the broth

Truth. Irony. Humor

Pathos. Touching down sometimes on real things without dumping. It's not therapy

Great music. And one of the things I love about it is it can take so many different forms

And I always am excited to see what it reveals to us

Because you start out thinking it's one thing when you're putting something together

and it suddenly opens up into quite a different. And that's my favorite thing

But the people that have helped to do it have really come to the bone of themselves

And usually the people that come and see it and bear witness to it never knew those things about those people

So if it's crafted in a beautiful way, it is entertainment but it's really

discovering who that human being is and it's humanity oh yes that's what's so beautiful about it Michael

you do cabaret you've seen a lot of cabaret I've done both

I've done a lot and seen a lot it's to me cabaret

and at some place I think where they are from can be misunderstood

because a lot of people from outside the art form think of it as

a performer getting up and doing 16 of their favorite songs and

it could be very self-indulgent. But when Cabaret has done well, it is a storytelling art form

But a storytelling art form that is about the performer's truth. Not trauma-dumping

his fate said, but revealing these lyrics and these stories from a place of honesty

If you can take a song that I've heard 10,000 times, but in your cabaret show, you interpret it in a new and honest way

It's so enlightening and so exciting to it. If you can make, say, you know, if you're doing losing my mind, and there's a performer

that's going to be part of the 92 and Y conference on one of our panels, Jeff Harner

And he does losing my mind about. is of the years in his life he was struggling with alcoholism

And it just made me lean in and hear that song and hear that lyric in a completely different way

He didn't change the lyric. It's every word Sondheim wrote. But it was his interpretation and his honesty that opened it up, like Faith said, in a completely new way to me

And that's what excites me about cabaret. And yes, there could be humor. There could be character work

But it's about that honesty. as long as you enter from that honesty and enter from being who you are

that's where the magic happens. And that's what makes it scary to a lot of performers

Like Faith said when she was doing her first show, it's, you know, when you're a performer

you're used to having a character to hide behind or an ensemble of folks around you

And yeah, in Cabra, you may have a band. You may have a couple backup singers. Robert, you do great shows and you've got a full band and backup singers

But what it comes down to it, it's you. And you're the storyteller

And you're taking these lyrics in leading us on a journey for an hour to an hour hour

Absolutely. And it's one of people who poo it, but it's way harder to be up there and be vulnerable

Shout out to Jeff Harner, who was going to be on our show next week. Jeff Harner forever steals my Broadway World Cabaret Award

I get everyone I ever met to vote. and then Jeff Harner's fans come swarming in like a pack of bats

I don't know. I tell him all the time. It's he's that good. That's why

You take a year off, Jeff. Take a year off already. But you have, you, if you're in love with cabaret, if you're scared of cabaret, if you've

been dying to be a cabaret artist, if you've been working at it, and you want to learn from

literally a pack of the best, from top to bottom, best people working in this business, you

both have put together some monster. event, 90 Second Street Y. It's 929.org

The participants are sold out. You have 15 singers, but if you want to watch or learn

We had so many applicants for singers. It was very hard for us to go through and choose who were going to be our 15 singing participants

But what we have done, because this is the first conference really of its type, in New York

City, Yale has had a great conference over the years. The O'Neill, John McDaniel is doing amazing work at the O'Neill in their clever

conference, but this is the first really based in New York. And there's St. Louis

In St. Louis, yes. Chicago has a conference as well that Lena teaches

Yeah. This is the first really New York focused one. And we wanted to have the option for people then who love this art form in New York

City to come in an audit for the week or come in an audit for a day

So we have space for people to come in and look at our schedule on the website

You can learn so much by watching. You really can. I mean, when I worked with Jerome Robbins on Jerome Robbins Broadway, most of the time

watching him work with other people, I was soaking it up. I was really, so that when I got in front of him, I wasn't sort of deer in the headlights

I knew what he was wanting and looking at. And you can learn so much by watching

Well, if you want to learn about song choices, then you're going to get

Michael to learn about song choice. If you want to learn about how to do comedy on stage

and Cabaret, Faith Prince is going to teach you and talk to you about how to do it

or connecting to your lyrics with Tony Winter Faith Prince, or if you want to know about the business

of Cabaret, which is a whole other thing, Michael, you have created a group and artists to talk

to you about how to book, how to promote, how to sell, how to maybe make 42 cents and do

a cabaret show in New York City. You know, that's, those are all things

45 if you're lucky. After you take the class. That's if you get the guarantee

And then to put on your final work and have a session So how did you get this group of people to come on and teach here for the week You have the best We have amazing people

We've got, as you said, the business of Cambray panel. We've got Jennifer Ashley Tepper from 54 Below

We've got Sidney Meyer from Don't Tell Mama, Carolyn Montgomery, who's the executive director

of the American Songbook Association, Jeff Harder, who we've already talked about his brilliance

And the amazing performer and teacher, Natalie Douglas, is also on that panel

then that's on Thursday of the week. And then on Wednesday we have a panel that Faith and I felt was important to really talk to music directors about what their process is

And they each have their own process and how they choose collaborators and how they like to dig into the music

And of course on that panel are two music directors who are with us all week long, Alex Rybeck, who we've mentioned, and the amazing Yasupiku Fuqua is with Faith and I all week as well, who's Robbie's music director

the two of them will be with us all week. They're on this panel, but on the music director panel

they are going to be joined by Tracy Stark, Darnel White, and you can't go wrong with Billy Stritch, y'all

Come on. Billy Stritch is going to be with us for that panel. And these are all people, though, who love this art form

and are excited to talk about this art form. And that's, and, you know, many of them are friends of Faith and mine

So it was calling up and saying, hey, Faith and I are doing this thing that we think is going to be fun. Come be a part of it. Come join us

And it's going to be fun. Absolutely. You can audit a day or the entire week. Faith, when you're

sitting there, business of cabaret, musical director panel, after all of the shows and after all of the

concerts and all the symphonies you've sung with, you probably are still soaking up information

This business is constantly changing. Oh, completely. Every time, you know, I'm at a conference or I go

to all the meetings too, because I'm constantly learning. And the business is always changing

And the venues are always changing. And there's different ways to approach it. And there are different

strategies. So everybody's always learning. Nobody has it covered. I mean, in a way, that's kind of good

and just give up that ghost, you know, because we're all here to learn. I'm here to learn from

the students, like Michael said. I'm here to learn from the other people on the panel

I love to hear their approaches, how they think out of the box

And with my own students that I have separate from the cabaret

just in terms of musical theater or film and television and things like that

I always say, you know, when in doubt, do a cabaret show

It's a live business card. And I've seen so many of my students like get agents, get projects

get out there. Yeah. I mean, it's not easy. But if it were all easy, everybody could do it

I mean, you know, that's how you can really get in there and put your name in there and throw your name in the pile

Absolutely. I was just going to say that to when you said television, I instantly went to Melissa and Joey

But that's just my age and stage of my life faith prints. But I just wanted to say that I was going to say you talk about a lot of people say, Michael, to me

and I'm sure they say to you, and I'm sure they say to you, Faith, is that how do you start

How do you get started? How do you find a venue? How do you find a ban? Well, one of the ways you can do that is by coming and auditing this because you're going to meet

and network everybody that's literally making it happen in this business. Well, and, you know, I have so many students that are lawyers, psychiatrists, doctors

run businesses, CFOs, CEOs. and they do music and cabaret on the side

So, I mean, yes, this is for professionals, but I've seen people in other sort of walks of life

add it to their life, and you know what? It changes their life

I get a lot of students at the Y, similarly, Faith, who maybe loved the arts when they were younger

were part of their high school or maybe a little bit of college musical theater, and then went on to be a lawyer or a doctor

had this wonderful student. She's an oncologist at Mount Sinai, and that she comes into class

our weekly class that we do with the Yaz and I, to sing it all out and to reconnect to that side of herself

And as a therapy for herself, after dealing with patients who are dying all day long

Yeah, I have two that I can think of right now, one that just did the law of imagination

and she is a Privacy Act lawyer in Boston. And she did music on the side

She always did this when she was going to law school. And now she's a mother and in her 50s

And she did this for maybe 150 people, most of which her firm was there

And their jaws were on the floor because they realized that the law of imagination mixed with law

is how she created her privacy act. And she did it through a song

You said something, Faith, that just spurred me. I think the thing that is so special

about the art form of Cabaret also is, whether it's a doctor or a lawyer

sharing their story, or it's 21 or Faith Prince sharing her story

Cabaret is such an intimate art form. We are dealing with venues

where you've only got 150 people in the room. So you all feel like you're right there together

And it allows that energy to flow in a way that the audience becomes the performance scene partner in a way

that energy is just there and that intimacy is there. And that's also very exciting about this art

I don't think there's anything more exciting than seeing someone break their heart and make it art

and share a song or story that relates to you. or sing something uplifting and being on the stage as a performer

and seeing it resonate with people that are right 10 feet away from you

There's nothing, nothing like that. And it is something that's so incredibly special

Michael, we're ready for your next cabaret. There's some ideas brewing. Nothing's booked yet, but there's some ideas brewing

My musical director and I actually talked last week. Yes. Okay, so maybe there's a maybe, maybe you tinker

Do you keep a notebook? Do you keep idea list? Do you, what is your, what is your go to

How do you keep a vomit? I always I always have a list going on my phone of songs If I hear you know I hear a new song like oh I need to listen to that one I need to think about that one There always a list And there songs on that list that have been there since the first cabaret show I did

so many years ago that, you know, maybe haven't found their way

into a show yet, but they're going to someday. In my last

show I did, there was a song that had been on the list for 10, 15 years

that finally found its way into a show because the storytelling was finally

right for it. I was going to say to you, What is it like when you go to a cabaret and see one of your students for both of you

What's it like when you sit in the audience for one of your students' shows

Okay, I can answer that. It is one of the most exciting, thrilling, and honestly, I've never been so scared in my life

It's like, what child get up there? And, you know, a part of you get up there for the first time and do everything

The first couple times that I did that after I directed something, I thought it was going to throw up in the audience

I have never been so nervous. And I was like, just let me get up there and do it

I am so much more nervous for my students or clients that I've directed for their shows than I am for my own shows

Oh, my God. Because at that point, as director, we've relinquished to the control

Yeah. We hope we've taught them well at that point. Exactly. You know, I'm better about it now. I just kind of cool out and I let go, let God

And I try to prepare them within an inch of their lives. And I'm not my final word

I'm not like a tough person, but I am a relentless person in terms of just sitting on them going, come on

I've got to get this again. All right. We've got to remember that. Okay, let's do it again

All right, you're off book. I know you got this, you know. And I'm, you know, you're the cheerleader in a positive way

I'm always thinking a positive way I can go. But honey, you want me sitting on you

Oh, yes. It's about that rehearsal. Absolutely. Because then you get to that day

And the last thing I always say to my client says, all right, trust the work we've put in and have fun

There's nothing. Now that's what it's about. Have the fun and enjoy the experience

Absolutely. But we've put in the hard work beforehand. Is being prepared

Absolutely. I just had this conversation with my students here at NJ. Pack and Newark

my 13 to 18 year old young ladies and gentlemen who are here for musical theater

I said, the work is not in the room. The work is when you go home and you prepare and you practice and then you come in

and you nail it. But it's not always just, it's about living it and breathing it, putting in the time

When you're sick and tired of it, then you know you're ready to go perform it when you can't

handle it anymore. You've listened to it so many times. You know who's going to be prepared

The people that are going to be there from July 22nd till July 26, from 10 to 5, full day, full

week. This is your cabaret summer camp with the best of the best at one of the most iconic locations

in New York City for learning, which is the 92nd Street Y. And I'm obsessed with this lineup

I think you have the greatest lineup. Faith, I was going to ask you when your next cabaret is, but I think Faith Prince is going to be booked this next year. I think you're booked and ready

I'm excited about a new little show. And I don't think it's that little

and I think it's going to be pretty big in extravaganza. I hear that it's pretty stunning

It is so much fun. And I have to tell you, the real stars are these beautiful young people

that you're going to get to meet for the first time. I mean, you know, listen, I'm like the ante in the corner

It's great. And they treat me so well, and they're wonderful. But those kids are

just they are stars, I'm telling you. They're star, well, we're ready to find out, get our tickets, get our, you know what we're

talking about everybody. Boop, boop, bo, bo, bo, doop. And we're ready to, we're welcome you back to New York on Broadway with big giant open arms

Well, thank you. You know, I'm just, I'm kind of up there having so much fun, you know

It's, um, Jerry Mitchell said to me in Chicago, he said, I don't think I've ever

seen anybody love the stage like you do. Oh. And I said, you know, honey, you're right

I don't need it like I did when I was young, but I love it

Oh, that's beautiful. Faith, it's such an honor to have you here

Michael, we got to follow Michael, follow Michael on all socials because he's always putting

up events at 90 Second Street, why. He's always speaking to legends. He's always the best

The best. Honey, he gets him there and just. just carves this stuff out

I go, I'm riding shotgun, right in a second. Well, we're excited

Get your audit passes to come see the week and then stay on top of it all and follow Ninety Second Street Y as well

So you can see all of their programming. If it's books, if it's Broadway, if it's music, if it's art, they're the place to learn about it

They have so much great programming. And I am so blessed that the 96th Street Y School of Music

and Yana Stotland, the director there, have given this commitment to the art form of cabaret

And it's going to be delicious. I'm telling you things. It's going to be fun

And you want us sitting on you. Oh, yes. Thank you so much for being here

Have the most amazing time. We're so excited to hear how it is. And we'll be seeing you all on stages in no time

Well, thank you for having us, Roberts. So much fun. 992 Street

Why go to the website. Ninety Second Street, why? Stay up to date. We are here every single Friday

We have really good shows for you. We are coming to you all summer long. We don't take a break from that

the Broadway world because Broadway doesn't take a break. Cabaret doesn't take a break. Tours don't

take a break. Go support some art today. Go see a cabaret. Go see a Broadway show. Go see a tour

Go see a high school production, a regional production, a community theater production of something

great. Watch a movie, see, go to a concert, do something to support some art because they're amazing

artists out there who are making it happen for you. Thank you for making the roundtable your place

to be on Fridays. We look forward to joining you next week. Telly Leong will be here with a brand new show

coming to Birdland and so much more. If you want more information about me, go to Robert Bannon.com, follow us at Robert M. Bannon or watch the roundtable on YouTube

or on the Broadway podcast network. If you're into podcasts, listen every single day. You can get all

that information. Come on. Come on down. Join the party. We want to hear about it. And I'll see you

next time. The best is yet to come. Bye, everybody