Up until a few years back we sent out a special (but stealth) APRIL FOOLS DAY ISSUE on CABARET HOTLINE ONLINE on or around April 1st each year, with lots of faked news releases - some of which actually later turned out to occur. We had one fake release about a church one block from DON'T TELL MAMA, THE FIREBIRD CAFE, and DANNY'S (that's how long ago it was) that was converting to a cabaret space - and low and behold, a few months later ST. CLEMENTS THEATER (423 West 46th Street, NYC) began presenting cabaret shows, most notably shows by Caroline Montgomery! Then, when I had the operation on my knee on March 30th, 4 years ago, I sort of wasn't in the mood (and just a bit too groggy) to produce a special issue - and never resumed the practice.
I am wondering if Cindy Adams was the object of an April fools prank with her very short one phrase item in today's N.Y.POST that the Algonquin Hotel's OAK ROOM Cabaret would be closing. One of my "sources" was put "on the case" to see of there was any element of truth in the rumor, and the answer from booking manager Barbara McGurn was that she had no knowledge of such an event. I sent a request for an "official" statement to Ms.McGurn for inclusion in the next issue but it was not received by press time.
Such rumors are often self-fulfilling - staff members read the item, and morale drops, folks begin to look for new jobs elsewhere and the venue loses a lot of its glamor and cache. I even had a difficult problem deciding whether or not to write about this particular item - its from Cindy Adams, it was in the N.Y. POST - but everyone gets "pranked" from time to time. Stay tuned.
