New York's Stacy Sullivan on the art of cabaret

Stacy Sullivan has been embraced by critics and music aficionados both sides of the Atlantic, winning the Backstage Bistro Award and the MAC Award for Outstanding Female New York Debut. She's appeared at Lincoln Center in New York, the Ford Theatre in Hollywood, and recently at London's Crazy Coqs. The Times Square Chronicles described her as “A performer who can captivate an audience on many levels: voice, phrasing, acting, persona, sensuality, and physical beauty. She has that extra wisp in her singing that leaves you breathless.”

In part one of this two part interview Stacy Sullivan talks about the differences between British and American audiences and if it's right to adapt what we do for each audience. Stacey doesn't like to see a performer who seems needy, there is, she says, something repellent about it, “like going out to dinner with a friend you know is going to ask you for money”.

She's been performing her Peggy Lee show for about five years throughout the world, “Not,” she stresses, “doing Peggy Lee, but doing me telling Peggy Lee's story”.

She loves cabaret because of the narrative, the story, the feeling that you learn something new having watched a show. The patter, she tells me, is “the meat of the show” and it's something she's worked hard to keep fresh and truthful. Stacy is all about truth. Being sincere and honest on stage, both in the songs she chooses and the things she says is key in her approach.

She clearly has huge respect for her audiences: “They're not there to give me anything! I'm the one who paid to give them what they want.”

In part two we discuss recording albums in the studio.

Recorded 1st August 2014