The Oct. 20 Gala Opening Night features the talents of Christine Andreas, Emily Bergl, Liz Callaway, Bill Charlap and Sandy Stewart, Barbara Carroll, Corky Hale, Colleen McHugh, Sylvia McNair, Sidney Myer, Steve Ross, Craig Rubano and Jennifer Sheehan. The evening also includes the presentations of the Mabel Mercer Award and the Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence in Cabaret as well as a remembrance of Cynthia Chisholm Saint-Amand.

The Oct. 21 performance, which will be hosted by Andrea Marcovicci (Act One), will feature a tribute to Margaret Whiting entitled The Songs That Maggie Sang and the presentation of the Margaret Whiting Award. Performers are scheduled to include Marcovicci, Elena Bennett, Natlie Douglas, Amanda King, Amanda McBroom, Karen Oberlin, Amy Beth Williams, Joyce Breach, Ann Hampton Callaway, Marilyn Maye, KT Sullivan and Ronny Whyte.

The Convention will conclude Oct. 22 with Stars are Bright on a Saturday Night featuring Nancy Anderson, Anna Bergman, Matt Cavenaugh, Carol Fredette, Maud Hixson, Nicolas King, Hilary Kole, Beckie Menzie, Tom Michael, Jenny Powers, Linda Purl, T. Oliver Reid and Amra Faye Wright. Presentations of the Noel Coward Cabaret Award and the Julie Wilson Award will be part of the final evening.

All shows begin at 6 PM.

For more information about the upcoming convention, visit www.mabelmercer.org or call (212) 980-3026.

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Produced by the Mabel Mercer Foundation, the first annual Cabaret Convention was mounted in 1989. Since that time similar events have been produced in Chicago, Palm Springs, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Donald F. Smith is executive director of the Foundation, which is the "first to perpetuate the American popular song through the art of cabaret."