Traveling Cabaret Marks 35 Years of Song, Dance and Comedy

While many of the members have entered their ‘senior citizen’ years, they say performing keeps them young

By Linda Quinlan

 

The saying goes that “the show must go on.”

In the Traveling Cabaret’s case, that means the show has gone on and on: for 35 years.

The song, dance and comedy troupe made its debut on July 4, 1990.

For the cabaret, the show also goes on when they’re performing at an outdoor venue and they’re covered but the audience is not. They just invited the audience on stage with them.

It also means that if there’s a flood on the floor as they’re performing, they just keep singing and dancing. Or if their accompanist becomes sick, they perform without the benefit of a piano. Or if someone has a cast from a broken bone, they just incorporate it into the show.

“We’ve got to be prepared for anything to happen,” said Phyllis Kravetz, the president and treasurer of the cabaret’s board of directors. It’s she and her identical twin sister, Sandy, who have largely been the driving force behind the cabaret since its inception, though all nine of the current members contribute.

Kravetz books the shows, does the communications and writes and sends out press releases, “I’m on the phone all the time,” she said.

“When you love something, you find the time,” added Sandy Kravetz.

At 84, the twins are still going strong.

Since the sisters dress alike and perform together in the cabaret’s shows, they often have people ask, “Where did you find two people who look so much alike?”

“We tell them we were born that way,” Phyllis said with a laugh.

Like the Kravetz sisters, Linda Maloney, now 76, has been with the cabaret since the beginning. That means a total of 600 shows in 35 years.

“We are a combination of many different artistic backgrounds, but blend together musically and care for each other immensely,” Maloney said.

Besides the Kravetz sisters and Maloney, the cabaret performers currently include co-president and choreographer Mark Battaglia, of Greece; co-president Linda Cocchiara, of Gates; accompanist and performer Robert Dietch, Mark King and Roseann Kraus, all of Irondequoit; and Steven Tylock of Penfield. The ensemble is complete with sound technician Bruce Dunn of Fairport.

Cocchiara, 70, has been with the cabaret for 20 years, but followed in her mother’s footsteps. Her late mother, redhead Toni Wacenske, also performed with the cabaret for many years. They performed with the cabaret together for a time, Cocchiara said, but never did do a duet together. Maloney, on the other hand, recalls performing a duet, singing “Lady is a Tramp,” with Wacenske.

“Mom used to make me sing in front of company,” Cocchiara recalled. “But my first show was “Oliver” — I was Mrs. Bedwin — when I was 14. From then on, I was always in chorus in high school, in choir at church and in community theater shows.”

The cabaret actually got its start as a fundraising arm of the Brighton Theater Guild, a community theater group and eventually became its own nonprofit entity. The performers generally each cover their own expenses and come up with their own costumes. The majority of the money the volunteer performers raise is given to charity. They have awarded at least $100,000 in scholarships alone over the years and annually send out scholarship applications to 90 schools in the greater Rochester area. After students apply, they must audition for the cabaret. Auditions are currently held over three nights at the Culver Ridge fire department’s meeting space in Irondequoit.

The “traveling” in the cabaret’s name comes from the fact that members travel to shows in dozens of locations throughout the area, from Batavia to Canandaigua and beyond. They do four shows a year at senior citizen living facilities that are part of St. Ann’s Community.

The cabaret’s venues are as diverse as their members. They have performed at nursing and senior citizen homes, churches, libraries, country clubs, business functions and even at Rochester’s Lilac Festival, at the Ryder Cup at Oak Hill Country Club and more.

The cabaret rehearses on Mondays two times a month, usually at the Kravetz sisters’ Perinton home.

“We’re a very close knit group,” Sandy Kravetz said. “We laugh with each other; we cry with each other; we’re ‘all for one, and one for all’,” Phyllis added.

The troupe not only has the social experience of working together, “but it also keeps our bodies and brains active, as senior citizens,” said Roseann Kraus. “That’s been an important secondary gain!”

The common denominator for each of the cabaret members is their shared passion for performing.

“I just love singing,” said Maloney, who can also trace her performing roots back to school days.

Last year, Maloney, who also likes to read, moved to Colorado to be close to a daughter, “but I read 57 books in five months and knew it was time to get back to Rochester,” she said. “I missed the cabaret and all my friends.”

Two of those friends, and their daughter, actually flew out to Colorado, rented a truck and moved her back. Maloney, whose late husband, Mike, was also involved in musical theater, just settled in Penfield, not too far from Phyllis and Sandy, after residing in Irondequoit for many years. She worked at Hillside Children’s Center for 27 years, then at similar jobs with children for another eight years. She just retired when she turned 75. She has two daughters and two granddaughters.

Cocchiara, from Gates, was in banking for 20 years, then worked at school cafeterias for a couple of years. She also likes to crochet and do what are called “diamond dot” pictures. She has a daughter, a son and two grandsons and enjoys following their sporting events.

Other cabaret members work as an information technology specialist and a respiratory therapist. Another is a social worker.

Phyllis and Sandy first started performing at the tender age of 4 at their father’s lodge. They later performed for their older sister Elaine’s sorority and in school. In grammar school, they won a six-month scholarship to study at the Eastman School of Music.

Sandy recalled it was the late 1980s when she and Phyllis decided to audition for a production of “Fiddler on the Roof” at Bishop Kearney High School. That’s also where they met the Maloneys and the rest is, well, history.

The sisters started job-sharing as dental assistants in high school. “Some patients never knew there were two of us,” Sandy said. They both went on to train at the Eastman Dental Dispensary and became dental hygienists. She worked in a private dental office for 14 years and then joined Phyllis, who had remained at Eastman Dental. They each had about 35-year career in the field. Phyllis was senior dental hygienist in the periodontal department at Eastman Dental for 31 years and also worked as a hygienist at Monroe Community Hospital one day a week. She was the first-ever hygienist at that hospital.

Besides performing, each of the sisters, who have remained single and share their home, is an artist. They do paintings. Sandy’s specialty is florals and she makes vibrant, beautifully detailed stone creations.

Phyllis did model for Eastman Kodak on a couple of occasions and has an example of it on display in their home, along with their own artwork, that of their late older sister and family mementoes.

The cabaret remains a constant.

The troupe has well more than 100 numbers in its repertoire and does around 28 in each fast-paced show. The revues include a variety of numbers January through November, then the cabaret switches to Christmas and Hanukkah classics during the holiday season.

Each of the performers selects his or her own solos for each show, Cocchiara explained. But now Battaglia puts together the show, with members’ input.

“After we rehearse something a little, if it doesn’t feel good,” Cocchiara explained, then they might move on.

They perform a range of music, from the 1920s on up, including Broadway, movie and pop culture favorites.

Maloney said one of her favorites to perform is “I Dreamed a Dream” from “Les Miserables”, but in the last show the cabaret did, she sang “Second Hand Rose.”

Cocchiara said she especially enjoys performing “Orange Colored Sky” and “Love.”

Phyllis and Sandy go for comedic numbers like “Nobody Loves the Ump,” “My Birthday Comes on Christmas,” or an Irish medley.

“We like fun songs … to make people laugh,” Sandy says. She usually provides the harmony, Phyllis the melody or tune.

As a whole group, the cabaret often sings “Good Times.” They usually close their shows with a “red, white and blue” patriotic tribute. Collectively, they are known for their “signature” red, white and black evening wear for some group numbers.

“We try to sing songs we love and that audiences appreciate,” Phyllis said.

“So many times, people say they didn’t want the show to end,” Sandy added.

King calls it a “magic” the troupe members create together.

“The prospect of standing up in front of strangers might seem daunting, but you can find an enthusiastic face in the crowd and then it’s like singing with your friends,” Tylock said.

Not everyone has the talent or interest, to perform, “but we need – and appreciate – audiences too,” Phyllis Kravetz said.

“We love to see the audience singing along with us,” Cocchiara said.

The cabaret has earned awards and recognitions from Monroe County, individual towns, Rochester’s Arts and Cultural Council and more. They have also received more than two dozen grants that help with expenses over the years. They have no plans to stop.

The cabaret also has no plans to formally mark their momentous anniversary. They do have six shows already scheduled for this year.

The membership, which has maxed out at around 12, has fluctuated over the years due to deaths or changing circumstances, but auditions are held when a new member is needed.

“We’ll keep going as long as we have breath, we enjoy what we’re doing and audiences want us back,” Phyllis said. “The cabaret keeps us young. We love it and we love each other.”