Songwriters and performers Tom Wilson Weinberg and Andrew Crowley are joining forces again to step on cracks, walk under ladders, open umbrellas indoors and have black cats cross their paths when they present “Cabaret Vérité VI: Friday the Thirteenth.” The latest in their series of cabarets celebrates good songs and good humor, with this edition benefiting William Way LGBT Community Center.
Wilson Weinberg said the Friday the 13th theme is more about the date of the show — and not a promise of a horror aesthetic or mood.
“We’re trying to separate it from Halloween. We’re poking fun at superstition in a way, so we’re going for comedy rather than gloom,” Wilson Weinberg said. “It’s about good luck, bad luck and superstition.”
The duet performance is “classic cabaret,” he added.
“It’s a bunch of songs from many sources. Half of them are mine and we’re doing a song by Joan Armatrading and a Stevie Wonder song.”
Previous Cabaret Vérité shows, both before and after the last presidential election, incorporated a lot of politically charged humor.
For this latest show, Wilson Weinberg said they’re dialing the political jabs back just a bit.
“Our last show was mostly a spoof on the new administration and the one before that; we were taking the election to task, the whole process,” he said. “Even this show, which is a little lighter, we can’t resist going into the politics of the day. Andy and I will have plenty of barbs shooting around but I would say, in a certain sense, that we are tired of trashing Trump; it’s like preaching to the choir. Everybody knows what’s going on there and I hope people are reacting.”
The political missives that will be included will involve a call to action, Wilson Weinberg said, noting that such messages are sorely needed in both music and comedy today.
“I feel that there is a lot of very good satire and anger and humor about this unbelievable moment that we happen to be living in,” he said. “I also think it’s a little easy for people to do that and for people to watch Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel and think they’re engaged and included in it. It’s fine to listen to that stuff and enjoy it, but there also has to be a call to action as part of these routines, and that’s what I don’t see. We all are e-mailing each other about the latest outrage but does that in some way let people off the hook? Part of our message is we want people to engage and do direct things, and we even suggest direct things that people can do.”
Tom Wilson Weinberg and Andrew Crowley present “Cabaret Vèritè VI: ‘Friday The Thirteenth” to benefit William Way LGBT Community Center, 8 p.m. Oct. 13 at William Way LGBT Community Center, 1315 Spruce St. For more information or tickets, visit http://cabaretverite.brownpapertickets.com or www.tomwilsonweinberg.com.