Stephen Hanks News

Hanks will bring together a group of 16 women “Blue Wavers”—all fabulous female cabaret performers—along with Award-Winning Music Director Tracy Stark, to present BLUE WAVE 2024: NEW YORK CAN SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY FUNDRAISER on Friday, May 24, 7 PM at Don't Tell Mama

When Dawn Derow and Sean Harkness first teamed up in 2011 to perform a duo cabaret show called Music 4 Two, she was a relative unknown on the NY cabaret scene, while he was a rising star musician having just been named “Outstanding Instrumentalist” by the Bistro Awards.

The popular political fundraiser plays The Laurie Beechman Theatre and Helane Blumfield is there to capture it for Broadway World Cabaret.

On Friday, May 27, producer Stephen Hanks and the performers of the series' CABARET CAMPAIGNS: BLUE WAVE 2018 and THE VOTING RIGHTS SHOW 2020, will reunite at the Laurie Beechman Theater at 6:30 PM. The evening is hosted by Hanks, with music director Tracy Stark.

Seven months prior to the 2018 Midterm Elections, Cabaret Show Producer, Publicist, and Performer Stephen Hanks launched a series of five variety shows as fundraisers for Democratic Senate, Congress, and State Legislature candidates.

Bistro and MAC-award winner Dawn Derow is debuting her latest cabaret performance, GYPSY IN MY SOUL: Dawn Derow Sings Eydie Gormé on Sunday, May 23rd at The Bijou Theatre.

So what is the show, you may ask - the show is Mark. He is the show, the show is him and SONGS AND SCANDALS OF THE 1920S is merely the vehicle to deliver Mark to his adoring audience - an audience that goes with him wherever he plays. Mark is an unparalleled musician and singer whose piano playing is a true phenom and his vocals are some of the finest, smoothest, and richest you will here in our Cabaret's these (or any other) days.

STEPHEN HANKS' CABARET ALL-STARS FIGHT CANCER, a fundraiser dedicated to the late cabaret performer Charlotte Patton, will be presented on March 10, 2020 at 7 pm at Hidden Cabaret (at The Secret Room), Behind the Cooper Door at 707 8th Avenue, between 44th and 45th Streets. Featuring Musical Theater Composer Michael Roberts at the piano, the roster of All-Stars include: Sandra Bargman, Remy Block, Lane Bradbury, Bruce Clough, Meg Flather, Laurie Krauz, Erica Linn, Jeff Macauley, Marissa Mulder, Craig Pomranz, Scott Raneri, Julie Reyburn, Sarah Rice, Billie Roe and Tom Toce. All proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to the Melanoma Research Foundation. Main table tickets are $20 and can be purchased at www.hiddencabaret.com/march-10th.

Since immersing himself into the world of New York Cabaret in late 2010, Stephen Hanks has been a reviewer, editor, performer, producer, publicist, and promoter. Now he's diving head first into helping a new cabaret club get off the ground. The former lead New York cabaret reviewer/section editor for BroadwayWorld.com (between 2012-2016) has joined the producing team at HIDDEN CABARET, which is now 'in residence' on Monday nights (and select other weekdays) at the Secret Room on 707 8th Avenue (behind 'The Copper Door' between 44th and 45th Street) in Manhattan.

The HIDDEN CABARET is no longer a SECRET. Since starting its Monday night residency at the Secret Room on Eighth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen in November, the Hidden Cabaret has staged two sold-out Variety shows, as well as a recently critically acclaimed solo show featuring American Idol finalist Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon.

In early 2015, Stephen Hanks decided to transition from being a cabaret show reviewer (first for Cabaret Scenes Magazine and then as the Cabaret Editor and lead reviewer for BroadwayWorld.com) into producing and promoting shows. Having been inside the world of New York cabaret for just four years at the point, Hanks would hear stories about award-winning or highly-praised shows of the past that he'd wished he'd seen. By August, a new variety show series was born at the late Metropolitan Room in Chelsea called NEW YORK CABARET'S GREATEST HITS.

Seven months prior to the 2018 Midterm Elections, Cabaret Show Producer, Publicist, and Performer Stephen Hanks launched a variety show series as fundraisers for Democratic Senate, Congress, and State Legislature candidates. The critically acclaimed CABARET CAMPAIGNS: RIDE THE BLUE WAVE 2018! at Don't Tell Mama featured 28 different performers and raised more than $6,000 divided among 30 candidates. Election Day 2018 was indeed a a?oeBlue Wave,a?? as the Democrats flipped 40 seats in Congress.

When Actor/Singer Scott Raneri was pondering a theme for his New York Solo Cabaret Debut Show, he decided to go back to his rootsa?"literally.

Continuing its 35th Anniversary season, Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director) proudly announces the line-up for a brand-new festival patterned after its award-winning series WINTER RHYTHMS. SUMMER MELODIES 2019 will begin Thursday, June 20 featuring some of New York's best musical performances through Saturday, June 29, 2019 at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue). Tickets are $30 ($45 for two shows in one day), for tickets and full schedule please visit www.urbanstages.org or call (866) 811-4111.

Continuing its 35th Anniversary season, Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director) proudly announces the line-up for a brand-new festival patterned after its award-winning series WINTER RHYTHMS. SUMMER MELODIES 2019 will begin Thursday, June 20 featuring some of New York's best musical performances through Saturday, June 29, 2019 at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue).

Cabaret show producer Stephen Hanks sits down with Eugene Ebner to talk about his two upcoming CABARET CAMPAIGNS: RIDE THE BLUE WAVE 2018 victory shows.

Last December, with the 2018 Midterm elections on the horizon, New York-based Cabaret producer, performer, promoter, and former reviewer Stephen Hanks decided he needed to combine his passion for cabaret and politics and channel that energy into action on behalf of the Democratic and Progressive candidates running for the US Senate, the US Congress, and some state offices this November. To help him with his “Campaigning,” Hanks has recruited All-Star Casts of Cabaret performers who are equally passionate about motivating people to “Ride the Blue Wave” in 2018. On Hanks' Birthday, October 13, 7 pm, CABARET CAMPAIGNS: RIDE THE BLUE WAVE 2018! (with Michael Roberts, who wrote the Series theme song “The Great Blue Wave” as Musical Director) will feature the 4th All-Female Cast, featuring 2018 Two-Time MAC Award-Winner Natalie Douglas (representing Florida Governor Candidate Andrew Gillum).

Provincetown CabaretFest 2018 (May 31 to June 3) will feature over thirty vocalists, musicians and comedians, appearing in the Paramount Room of The Crown and Anchor, during its Friday night show 'Music, Music, Music'. The Friday evening show is the largest variety show every produced in the festival's eighteen-year history. The entertainers hail from all over the U.S. and will perform in a variety of shows, in one of the most extensive cabaret festivals in Massachusetts. All festival events share theme of sophisticated and soulful 1950s music and will showcase the unique art form of live cabaret.

New York-based Cabaret producer, performer, promoter, and former reviewer (for Cabaret Scenes Magazine and BroadwayWorld.com) Stephen Hanks is in the midst of a serious love-hate relationship. He loves the art form of Cabaret and hates the dramatic rise of voter suppression and white supremacy in America during the current Republican Party rule of all three branches of the United States Government. So with the November 2018 Midterm elections on the horizon, Hanks has decided to combine the objects of his love and his hate and channel that energy into political action on behalf of the Democratic and Progressive candidates running for the US Senate, the House of Representatives, and perhaps some state governorships in November.

Lane Bradbury - dainty June to Ethel Merman's Rose in the original Broadway production of Gypsy - returned to the stage of Don't Tell Mama cabaret theater for another rousing performance of her current cabaret, LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU, AGAIN with a script by award-winning playwright, Doug DeVita.