KT Sullivan Wants to Take You to 'Far Away Places'

"My seven siblings and I may have toured Oklahoma, Texas and the American southwest as the Sullivan Gospel Singers, but we were definitely not conservative," asserts multi-MAC Award winning cabaret chanteuse KT Sullivan. "We grew up liberal. My mom, who is a poet and still writing, wrote a poem called 'We Are One.' But you have to remember, when we were growing up in Boggy Depot, OK, the only place for miles around where music was sung and heard was the church."

Sullivan credits her poet/pianist/songwriter mother, Elizabeth, who just turned 95, with the family's love of music, which also propelled three of her siblings to become successful performing artists. Stacy is a multi-MAC Award winning cabaret performer, Heather is a folk singer/songwriter, and Tim is a country singer in Durango, CO.

Sulivan has gone from her humble beginnings to performing in three Broadway shows, including as Lorelei in the 1995 revival of "Gentleman Prefer Blondes," as well as becoming one of the fabled doyennes of the New York cabaret world, having won multiple MAC Awards, and then being tapped by Mabel Mercer Foundation founder Donald Smith as his successor as artistic director, which she has been since his death in 2012. This put Sullivan in charge of the monumental week-long annual New York Cabaret Convention, shoes she initially thought were too big to fill. Apprehension notwithstanding, the New York Cabaret Convention has been a resounding success under her watch for the past 13 years, and is still going strong.

While Sullivan has proved to be a formidable arts administrator and producer, it is as a performer in the spotlight where her star shines brightest. Of her show "Dancing in the Dark," Stephen Holden, longtime New York Times cabaret critic, said, "The ability to convey a sense of continual surprise and discovery while singing almost any standard is one of Ms. Sullivan's many gifts. That her light-operatic voice is as supple today as ever is her ace in the hole. A virtuoso at multiple styles of musical comedy who has refined a hundred variations of the double take, Ms. Sullivan can turn on a dime and deliver a formal rendition of 'Dancing in the Dark' in which her luscious middle and lower registers supply serious drama."

In her more than five decades of performing professionally on Broadway, national tours, regional theater, and cabaret, she has performed nearly 30 distinct cabaret shows, all written or co-written by her, half of them solo, and half as duos with such partners as Mark Nadler, Jeff Harnar, Steve Ross, and Larry Woodard. For nearly 20 years, she had a standing gig at the Algonquin Hotel's renowned Oak Room in Manhattan during its heyday prior to its closing.

In addition to playing so many of Manhattan's boîtes, Sullivan has travelled the world with her shows, performing in London's Pheasantry and Crazy Coqs, as well as the Mediterranean and other far-flung destinations on cruise ships as both a headliner and a passenger. "It's one of my goals to visit every continent," muses Sullivan. It is this wanderlust that inspired her current show, "Far Away Places," which she will bring to the Club Café's Napoleon Room on Friday, July 4th. Broadway World's Rob Lester proclaims, "'Tis a worthy voyage to 'Far Away Places' with KT Sullivan. Whatever locale she is addressing in lyrics or whatever venue's address she heads to, it's clear that KT Sullivan is at home with a cabaret audience." So, true to her show's theme, she's even taking the Queen Mary II to get to Boston!

EDGE was able to catch up with Sullivan while she waited for her flight in the American Airlines lounge of a New York City airport to discuss her family, her accidental role as arts administrator, and where she still wants to travel.

EDGE: What inspired your show "Far Away Places?"

KT Sullivan: I enjoy traveling, so the show is about my love of travel. I travel for work. When I come to Boston, instead of taking the train, I'm taking the Queen Mary II, which will stop in Newport, Boston, and Halifax, and then return to New York. I love to travel. I'm off to visit my mother now, as we speak.

I've done four transatlantic crossings on the QMII. The level of entertainment is so high. I got on the ship once and was surprised to have 12 of my friends on the ship celebrating the 65th birthday of one of their friends.

EDGE: What song or songs in your show best match what you love or find interesting about the place?

KT Sullivan: I was in Istanbul, and someone mentioned the song "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" might be fun for me to sing. So, I began to think about songs related to places where I've traveled. I love to speak Italian, so I sing a song in Italian. I sing "Ah, Paree" ("Follies"), because I love France. I also do "La Vie En Rose." I also love Dublin, and I'll sing "Molly Malone" [softly sings "alive, alive O"]. I bring it back home with "I Happen to Like NY," and "Give My Regards to Broadway," because I tell people in my show that I've been in three Broadway flops. I always sing "Hello, Young Lovers," because it is set in Siam (now Thailand). And my mother taught me "Far Away Places" (Joan Whitney/Alex Kramer).

EDGE: Were there any places you had travelled to that you were dying to sing about but struggled to find a song about it?

KT Sullivan: I hope to make a trip to Africa, so I'm looking for songs about the great continent of Africa. Coming up, I will I do Lisbon to London on a ship, and I'll be on the piano there. The cruise is called "Sullivans on the Sea." My sister Heather will be playing in the main room. Since we're going to Portugal, I'll be gathering some Portuguese songs. The Portuguese Fado songs are like cabaret, because they are sung by women of a certain age and about things that only come with experience. Like Mabel Mercer holding court on a cabaret stool with her devotees at her feet. She was like a Fado singer. I'm adding Portuguese to my list. That will be next, but not on the 4th.

I've been to China twice, and I'm looking for songs about that. I also love singing in German, too. I'll be joining my brother Tim in Spain, so that will get added to my list.

EDGE: You sing a song written by your sister Heather called "Carpet Ride" in this show. Do you easily adapt to her songwriting style?

KT Sullivan: She wrote this song just for me when I opened on Broadway in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." When I was nine and she was two, we were playing together. I held my arms out and she asked me what I was doing, and I said, 'I'm on a magic carpet ride.' She turned that into a song about my love for going to exotic faraway places.

EDGE: How did you come to be named Artistic Director of the Mabel Mercer Foundation, which produces the Annual Cabaret Convention?

KT Sullivan: For Donald Smith to start a foundation named after Mabel Mercer was a feat in itself. He passed away in 2012, and in 2010 he started talking to me, and I almost fell off my chair because I didn't think I was an administrator. But I like a good party, I like to be a hostess, I like assigning songs. People say he made the right decision, and I think it is. One of the last things he said to me was the following piece of advice: "Not everyone has to love you all the time."

I still love the thrill our opening night in Lincoln Center. I like to spotlight new singers and debuts. I have 10 debuts this year. When Donald started it, he gave two songs per person, but when Tommy Tune came to the show, he told me, "I would love there to be just one song per person, because when you don't like someone, that second song is interminable." I liked that because I could showcase more singers, 20-24 in an evening instead of only 10-12.

Donald Smith is from Boston, and I've always wanted to do a Cabaret Convention in Boston. Maybe next Spring.

EDGE: You are known as a champion of the Great American Songbook, but you also acknowledge more contemporary songwriters who have written songs you feel are destined to become classics. Does that happen in this show?

KT Sullivan: My sister's song is the only example in this show. As long as you can hear the lyric, that can become a classic. Country music is oddly close to cabaret because they tell stories, and you can hear the lyric. Some contemporary cabaret songs are now becoming classic. I love Francesca Blumenthal. [Her song] "The Lies of Handsome Men" is one of the best songs ever written. Mabel sang lots of contemporary songs. Mabel would find gems like "Once Upon a Time" from the [Broadway] flop "All American." Mabel was always looking at new songs, and would sing them, like "It Isn't Easy Being Green."

EDGE: Might this show provide an antidote for our troubled times?

KT Sullivan: I think it can. I'll take you to faraway places, and we'll come back home with some hope. Because it is the 4th of July, I will have a few patriotic singalongs, including Leonard Bernstein's "Take Care of this House" (from "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue"). We can still be patriotic as we keep our hopes up to keep the eternal flame burning bright.

KT Sullivan will perform "Far Away Places" on Friday, July 4, 2025, 6 PM at Club Café's Napoleon Room, 209 Columbus Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. No cover, but donations requested. For reservations, visit: https://www.clubcafe.com/club-events/kt-sullivan-0704205/