GLR November-December 2020

50 The G & LR M ATTHEW H AYS F OR FANS of cabaret performance (bless them!), Mark Nadler is a fa- miliar name. He has performed in virtually every cabaret venue in New York City and has toured the world, winning many awards and rave reviews. During the Covid-19 lockdown in New York City, Nadler sheltered with his part- ner Dominic Meiman and their dog Fi- garo, and he decided to do something to cheer up his fellow New Yorkers, and oth- ers around the world, by performing a daily song from his immense repertoire and then posting it on-line for all to view. The response to “A Daily Bit of Mark” on You- Tube was instantaneous and sensational, with thousands of views and hundreds of emails of appreciation. Nadler’s en- cyclopedic knowledge of the American songbook was on full display (the videos are archived at marknadler.com) , and the response showed how many people still love the old standards when well performed. What fans didn’t know was that Nadler caught the Covid virus himself during the lockdown, but continued performing despite being very ill. Nadler spoke to me by phone from his home in New York City. Matthew Hays: When did you first find out that you loved musicals? Mark Nadler: I was a little kid. I hon- estly don’t remember a time when I didn’t love musicals but also perform- ers or performing. I watched The Carol Burnett Show as a kid. This was the time of variety shows. The musicals were being broadcast on TV too. I did my first performance when I was five years old. Of course it was some sort of show tune, though I can’t recall which one. MH: What performers have been most in- fluential for you? MN: The performer who probably had the most influence on me is Bugs Bunny, to tell you the truth. It’s just his whole playfulness with music. My mom had a record collec- tion that included Ethel Waters and Mahalia Jackson, so the sounds of those people’s voices had an influence. Waters was acting out the songs, and of course Mahalia’s voice was just thrilling. There were the gay icons: Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Bette Mi- dler. Bette influenced me a great deal. Just the idea of being such an entertainer, some- one who can make you laugh, who can make you cry. Someone who rides the edge the way that she did. All of that really ap- pealed to my teenaged rebelliousness. Just to hear the bawdy jokes. She was doing rock and roll songs, she was doing Kurt Weill— the choice of material was so eye-opening to me. That you could mix and match like that—oh, my god, you really can wear pais- ley and stripes! If you do it right. MH: So that takes us through your forma- tive years. How and where did you actually get started as a cabaret performer? MN: I was born in Waterloo, Iowa. I real- ized pretty early on that I was going to have a very hard time of it if I had to go to high school there, given the fact that I was Jew- ish and into show tunes (read “gay”)! I was getting beat up in school a lot for not being athletic and, frankly, for having killed Jesus. So, as I had already been performing for groups like the Kiwanis Club and the Ro- tary Club, I was a pretty seasoned performer by the age of ten. I went to a place called the Long Straw Saloon in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and I got a job entertaining there. The place had singing saloon girls, so adding a little kid who could entertain to the mix was a big draw. I worked there all through my teens and was thus able to pay for a board- ing school for the arts in Michigan called the Interlochen Arts Academy. Because of that experience, when I first came to New York, right after high school, I was able to get a job as the house music director and master of ceremonies at a New York City cabaret called the West Bank Café. It’s now called the Laurie Beechman Theatre, and it’s still my preferred cabaret room to play in New York. I created my own act for that room and was pretty successful. That’s how it began. MH: You’ve also had a career in musical theater, including Broadway and Off-Broad- way shows. Can you talk about some of the high points? MN: I have appeared Off-Broadway and even wrote two shows, which I starred in. I’ve done both straight plays and musicals. (One “straight” play I did was The Boys in the Band ). Both of the shows I wrote and starred in Off-Broadway— American Rhap- sody and I’m a Stranger Here Myself —were nominated for Drama Desk Awards. On Broadway, I was the onstage pianist for the first show that Dame Edna did on Broadway called Dame Edna: The Royal Tour . I was the re- placement cast for that part. I was also in a huge flop called The Sheik of Avenue B . It was technically a Broad- way run, because it was in a 1200- seat theater in the Broadway district called Town Hall, and we ran for ten weeks. But if you try to find the show on sites that list Broadway shows, that one never comes up. At the time, it was very exciting, though. It was the first time I played a lead singing, dancing, and playing-piano role on a Broadway stage. MH: When did the idea first come up of making the Coronavirus videos? MN: We were in lockdown for a week, when a website called “Theater Piz- zazz” asked me to do a video for them. It was my first one, and I performed “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” It got such a response that I decided, what the hell, I’ll just do one of these every day until we’re allowed to go out again. So I did. I ended up doing 76, without missing a one. What my subscribers didn’t know was that during the early part of that time, I had Covid. I was very ill, but I had made this promise, so I would drink a lot of tea, take a shower, and rally all the troops of my body. My partner would do the video and I’d do the numbers. Then, when it was over, I would just pass out. It was actu- ally very tough, because a couple of times I really felt like I was going to die. MH: Wow, that sounds pretty intense. MN: It was. The thing that I found out Mark Nadler: The Show Must Go On (YouTube)! ARTIST’S PROFILE Continued on page 49