The Oct. 20 Gala Opening Night will feature the talents of Liz Callaway, Barbara Carroll, Christine Ebersole, Corky Hale, Nicole Henry, Karen Mason, Colleen McHugh, Sylvia McNair, Steve Ross and Jennifer Sheehan. The evening will also feature 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 also feature a tribute to to Margaret Whiting entitled The Songs That Maggie Sang and the presentation of the Margaret Whiting Award. Performers will include Marcovicci, Elena Bennett, Joyce Breach, Ann Hampton Callaway, Natalie Douglas, Amanda King, Marilyn Maye, Amanda McBroom, Karen Oberlin, KT Sullivan, Ronny White and Amy Beth Williams.

The Convention will conclude Oct. 22 with Stars are Bright on a Saturday Night featuring Nancy Anderson, Anna Bergman, Carol Fredette, Maud Hixson, Nicolas King, Hilary Kole, Beckie Menzie/Tom Michael, Karen Oberlin, Linda Purl, T. Oliver Reid, Paula West and Amra Faye Wright. Presentations of the Noel Coward 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."