John McDaniel continues to deliver
Top-tier line-up for this year’s Eugene O’Neill Cabaret & Performance Conference
John McDaniel has surely proven that he knows how to bring in great talent to the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center every year. Since 2013, he has been working as the theater’s artistic director of the Cabaret & Performance Conference doing just that, and this year, which is his fifth, he has continued to live up to that reputation.
In a conference that will showcase a range of talent, he has managed to attract well-established and up-and-coming performers whose music spans genres from jazz to Broadway.
Most notably, a performance by Tom Wopat is slated. He starred on the iconic television show “The Dukes of Hazzard”; earned Tony nominations for his leading roles in Broadway’s “Annie Get Your Gun” and “A Catered Affair”; and played U.S. Marshal Gil Tatum in the 2012 film “Django Unchained.”
Also on the schedule is Judy Kuhn, a four-time Tony nominee who is best known as a member of the original cast of “Les Miserables” and who sang the title role in Disney’s “Pocahontas.”
Besides these theater heavyweights, however, McDaniel was also sure to feature promising new performers such as Spencer Day, who recently hit #1 on the iTunes Jazz Chart with his song collection “Daybreak.”
“I’ve followed my instinct to the programming this year and will usually trust that alone. It’s always my goal not to end up with five ladies in a red dress singing next to a piano,” McDaniel says with a laugh.
“I hope that the line-up will allow for a variety of experiences, and even if someone only comes once, I hope that they are able to get lost in the music and maybe spend time with someone that they may have heard of but may not have experienced live.”
McDaniel, of course, has a notable career of his own. He led the band on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” and is also a conductor, composer, pianist, orchestrator and
record producer.
Through his years in show business, he has built a mélange of contacts, which he has often drawn from to bring in top-tier talent to the O’Neill. That isn’t to say, however, that his many off-chance encounters with performers around the world also haven’t shaped the conference each year.
One of those instances was his meeting Spencer Day last year in California. “I knew that after seeing
his work that I needed to make a mental note to get him to come here this summer,” McDaniel says.
On August 5, Day will debut at the O’Neill, where he will be performing and celebrating the release of his new recording, “Angel City.”
On August 3, O’Neill junior fellows organizer Brad Simmons teams up with master impressionist and YouTube sensation Christina Bianco for a show created specifically for the conference.
“I’ve been a friend for the longest time with Christina, and I first saw her in New York at the Birdland Jazz Club, and she is extraordinary,” McDaniel says. “Here at the O’Neill, she will be doing all kinds of crazy stuff. She is a tiny little thing with a big voice.”
McDaniel himself won’t be excluded from the line-up either. Barb Jungr, an O’Neill favorite, and McDaniel will perform their new show celebrating the music of the 1970s and featuring hits from Bob Dylan, The Eagles and Joni Mitchell, to name a few.
During the 2015 conference, McDaniel and Jungr held a similar performance where they debuted their celebration of music from The Beatles. That show, titled “Come Together,” has since brought them around the world to such venues as the Edinburgh Festival and the Bar Jeder Vernunft cabaret venue in Berlin, Germany.
“We’ll be performing songs showcasing the peaceful and easy feelings of the ‘70s and are so excited to be debuting these tunes together at the O’Neill,” McDaniel says.
August 8 will be Tom Wopat’s debut performance at the O’Neill, where he will feature a “multi-genre evening of songs and stories.” Wopat originally met McDaniel during the Broadway production of “Annie Get Your Gun” in the late 1990s, and McDaniel says Wopat is a “terrific interpreter” of songs from the Great American Songbook, which will be the focus of his show here.
On August 9, the junior fellows will take the stage for their performance of “Music of the Bee Gees.” Following on August 10 will be a performance by the cabaret fellows.
On August 11, Judy Kuhn is up. McDaniel said he has been a fan of hers forever and, after meeting her in the Caribbean in February, “I knew that I needed to get Judy to the theater.”
“She is such a great Broadway performer, and once I met her, we hit it off and had a nice connection. She is really wonderful,” McDaniel says.
The conference wraps up with a grand finale on August 10.
“Each one of these performers has a perfect personality for the O’Neill, in my opinion. I really tried to look for good people who were empathetic and who also wanted to help foster the new generation of singers. Those personalities really come across in their performances, and that is important when performing at the O’Neill,” McDaniel says.