In a celebration of music and cabaret, CabaretFest is coming to the Newfound Lake area on April 26, 27, and 28. CabaretFest is the nation’s only mobile cabaret festival. Created by John O’Neil, CabaretFest has previously traveled to such communities as Provincetown and Newburyport, Mass. The weekend promises to be a unique demonstration of cabaret performance and instruction rarely seen outside of New York City.
Headlining CabaretFest will be award winning cabaret artist Carol O’Shaughnessy. She has just completed a successful run playing Mama Morton in Chicago at Worcester Foothills Theater in Worcester, Mass. Cabaret critic John Amodeo voted O’Shaughnessy’s recent show Stuff In The Box: The Provincetown Years one of the ten best cabaret shows of 2001. Her numerous awards include being named Boston’s Entertainer of the Year Award and Provincetown’s Entertainer of the Year Award. To those in the business, she is known as Boston’s First Lady of Cabaret.
Other featured performers are Brian Patton, Jim Rice, and Valerie Sneade. Brian Patton has been involved with theater and cabaret in the Northeast for the past ten years as both a performer and musical director. His latest creation At The Movies II, Fully Animated!! premiered at Boston’s Scullers Jazz Club in March 2002. Jim Rice is the original music director and accompanist for CabaretFest, and has been with the festival from the beginning. Valerie Sneade is the recent recipient of the 2001 Independent Reviewers of New England Award for best cabaret act.
The weekend starts Friday, April 26, with a Piano Bar presented by Brian Patton at the Wild Hare Tavern Inn, located in Bridgewater. Brian Patton’s Piano Bar will also be presented the following night at the same place. On Saturday, April 27, Carol O’Shaughnessy and Jim Rice will be teaching a Cabaret Masterclass at 1:00 p.m. at the Federal House Inn in Plymouth. Later on Saturday, at 4:30 p.m., there will be a Cabaret Happy Hour with Valerie Sneade and Jim Rice at the Federal House Inn.
At 7:00 p.m. at the Pasquany Restaurant Inn in Bridgewater, O’Shaughnessy and Rice will perform a Cabaret Dinner Show. Tickets for this are $50 plus tax and gratuity; call 1-603-744-9111 for reservations. Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m., also at the Pasquany Inn, will be a Cabaret Brunch with Sneade and Rice. Tickets for this are $12.95 plus tax and gratuity.
CabaretFest’s next stop is Provincetown, Mass. on May 16-19. For more information on CabaretFest, visit their website www.cabaretfest.com.