(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Singer and songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway performs Diva Power, a tribute to great female vocalists and singer-songwriters including Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, Anita O’Day, Edith Piaf, Etta James, Carole King, and Joni Mitchell, in an online cabaret for Barrington Stage Company on Monday, August 31, and Tuesday, September 1, at 7:30pm.
In this rare intimate setting, Callaway’s one-woman show takes a personal look at the iconic women who were trailblazers in music and whose careers, voices and songs helped to shape Callaway’s own artistry. Selections include “Over the Rainbow,” “People,” “How High the Moon,” “Tenderly,” “La Vie En Rose,” “The Folks Who Live on the Hill,” and “A Case of You.”
Callaway has made her mark as a singer, pianist, composer, lyricist, arranger, actress, educator, TV host and producer. Callaway was voted by Broadwayworld.com as “Performer of the Year” and two years in a row as “Best Jazz Vocalist.” Her unique singing style blends jazz and traditional pop, making her a mainstay in concert halls, theaters and jazz clubs as well as in the recording studio, on television, and in film.
Callaway is best known for Tony Award-nominated performance in the hit Broadway musical “Swing!” and for writing and singing the theme song to the hit TV series “The Nanny.” Callaway is a Platinum Award-winning songwriter whose songs are featured on seven of Barbra Streisand’s recent CDs. The only composer to have collaborated with Cole Porter, she has also written songs with Carole King, Rolf Lovland, Amanda McBroom and Shelby Lynne. Callaway has shared the stage with great artists from many genres, including George Shearing, Dizzy Gillespie, Stevie Wonder, Dr. John, Liza Minnelli, Betty Buckley, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Audra McDonald, Harvey Fierstein, Ramsey Lewis, Kurt Elling, and Michael Feinstein.
Callaway’s live performances showcase her warmth, spontaneous wit and passionate delivery of standards, jazz classics and originals. A gifted improviser, she takes words and phrases from her audiences and creates songs on the spot, whether alone at a piano or with a symphony orchestra. Ann has been a special guest performer with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood and has been featured at many of the Carnegie Hall tributes.
Callaway has sung with more than 40 of the world’s top orchestras and big bands and performed for President Bill Clinton in Washington, D.C. and at President Gorbachev’s Youth Peace Summit in Moscow.
Callaway performed with her sister, Broadway star Liz Callaway, in their award-winning show Sibling Revelry at London’s Donmar Warehouse. Their act, “Boom!,” a critically acclaimed celebration of the baby boomer hits of the 1960s and ‘70s, was recorded by PS Classics which debuted in the top 25 on Billboard Jazz. Her symphony shows include “The Streisand Songbook,” “The Linda Ronstadt Songbook,” “Diva to Diva,” and “Broadway with the Callaways”. Callaway’s performances and recordings have garnered her The Theater World Award, 15 MAC Awards, several Bistro Awards, The Mabel Mercer Award, The Johnny Mercer Award for Songwriting and The Blanton Peale Award for Positive Thinking. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, “For sheer vocal beauty, no contemporary singer matches Ms. Callaway.”