The Friday, Oct. 8 performance will celebrate the songs of the late Noel Coward. Tony and Emmy winner Elaine Stritch, who appeared on Broadway in Coward's Sail Away, will host the evening, which is titled If Love Were All: Celebrating the Timeless Words and Music of Noel Coward.

The evening will also include the presentation of the first Noel Coward Cabaret Award: A grant of $5,000 will be given to the cabaret performer chosen to receive the award, which is funded by the Noel Coward Foundation and administered by the Mabel Mercer Foundation.

Details about the other two cabaret evenings will be announced at a later date.

Elaine Stritch received Tony and Emmy Awards for Elaine Stritch at Liberty, which traces a stellar career that boasts roles in Company, The Little Foxes, Bus Stop, A Delicate Balance, Sail Away and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

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."