Two shows this week by the English performer La JohnJoseph have just been canceled. Read more about it here on our sister blog, Upstaged.

Time Out Award honoree Poor Baby Bree

The Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs, or MAC, has just released its slate of nominees for its 2009 awards, to be held on Monday, May 18, at B.B. King Blues Club and Grill. As usual, the nominees reflect a deep insularity on the part of the cabaret community: For example, the English singer Barb Jungr, who gave two of last year’s best performances, hasn’t been nominated, while many performers with deeper ties to the local scene have been lauded for lesser work.

That said, the MAC Awards have their place, which is to give recognition to smaller clubs and lesser-known performers, and the awards ceremony provides a useful chance to sample the wares of many performers at one admittedly long sitting.

Among the highlights of this year’s slate are two of its honorary MAC Award recipients: The marvelous Polly Bergen, who is to be recognized for lifetime achievement; and the unique Poor Baby Bree, who will received the Time Out New York Award, selected annually by yours truly. (Past recipients include Jackie Hoffman, Maude Maggart and Leslie Kritzer.) A copy of the full list of  nominees—not yet available on the MAC site—is after the jump.

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Last year, the sensational Barb Jungr took the top spot on our top-ten list of the year’s best cabaret shows. Her new set gives her an excellent shot at repeating that distinction in December. Simply put, this English chanteuse—whom TONY has written about several times in the past, including in this 2008 profile—is one of the very best nightclub singers in the world, and she knocks the genteel Café Carlyle on its pearl-studded ear.

Jungr’s engagement ends this Saturday, March 28. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a cabaret person, you must see this show. And here’s why (after the jump):

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