As a former cabaret critic for the New York Daily News, I've seen tons and tons of cabaret singers through the years.
And I'd say that the best ones are terrific actors AND musical storytellers with vulnerability, timing and a sense of drama.
Every song is like a one-act play, and the top artists perform in the moment, delivering every lyric as if they had lived them.
I'll grant you it's easy to mock bad cabaret, as brilliantly as ''Oh, Mary!'' does, but great cabaret is an artform unto itself. |