Two current Broadway stars, Marcia Lewis and Lewis Cleale, will take their free Sunday and Monday evenings and appear in the brief return of a cabaret revue of songs by Barry Kleinbort called Big City Rhythm, March 23 & 24. The show was a hit last season and returns for these performances to celebrate the release of Harbinger Records' original cast CD. Choreographed by Michael Marotta, the cast also features cabaret fixture Eric Michael Gillett and Melanie Vaughan, who will soon appear in Broadway's King David. The show looks at New York; what draws people to Manhattan, keeps them here or drives them away. Christopher Denny serves as musical director and arranger.

Winner of the 1993 Edward Kleban Foundation Award for lyric writing, Kleinbort has written for Kaye Ballard, Emily Loesser, Jason Graae, and Lewis. Kleinbort is currently working (with Denny Martin Flinn) on a musical version of Garson Kanin's The Rat Race, as well as a new musical (with David Levy) titled Girl Singers.

Before Chicago, Lewis appeared on Broadway in Grease, Fiddler On The Roof, Roza, Rags and Annie. Cleale, Sir Harry in the current Mattress, made his Broadway debut in Swinging On A Star. He's acted at the Goodspeed, Missouri Rep, Cleveland Opera and Actors Theatre of Louisville. Gillett, whose own cabaret show, "Wherever Love Takes Me," will play at Don't Tell Mama March 21 & 28, is the singing ringmaster of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

For tickets ($10 cover, $15 min) and information on Big City Rhythm: The Songs Of Barry Kleinbort at the Village Gate 52nd, on West 52nd St., call (212) 307-5252.

--By David Lefkowitz