Come and join one of Chicago's landmark cabaret comedians, entertainer DARYL NITZ as he brings his biggest, most in-your-face songs and hosts a celebration for Matthew during his birthday month. Matthew is so pleased to feature Daryl on his YEAR of Cabaret! and knows his unforgettable songs will leave everyone - and Matthew most of all! - in a joyful mood.
Combining celebrity impressions with his outrageous comedy style, the incomparable Daryl Nitz creates what Cabaret Hotline hails as “a blockbuster evening of entertainment.” Amazing and amusing audiences with over 30 celebrity voices, Daryl’s outrageous musical antics and impressions have been featured on WGN-TV, NBC-5 and CLTV-Metromix. One never knows who will take the stage once Daryl opens his mouth: Louis Armstrong, Dean Martin, Neil Diamond, Harry Connick Jr., Carol Channing, Eartha Kitt, Katharine Hepburn, "Edith Bunker" and even Flip Wilson's "Geraldine"! With his amazing three-octave range, Daryl effortlessly can switch from Frank Sinatra to Sarah Vaughn or Bob Dylan to Eartha Kitt. And if that’s not enough, his dead-on Billie Holiday leaves audiences convinced he is channeling her!
Called a “Rat Pack Man for the New Millenium,” Daryl is a master showman who recalls the glory days of the “supper club era.” One of Chicagoland’s most-sought after nightclub performers, Nitz has performed at the Park West, the Royal George, Steppenwolf Theater, Naperville’s Crossroads Theater, The Big House, Set ‘Em Up Joe’s, The Lakeshore Theater and The Mercury Theater. He was also a featured performer at the first Chicago Cabaret Convention in 2002.
Daryl has been a staple of Chicago’s premiere cabaret club, Davenport’s Piano Bar for the past thirteen years. His one-man shows, featured in their cabaret room, have been performed to critical and audience acclaim. His “Jazz Legends Live Show” was named “One of the Ten Best of the Year” by Cabaret Scenes and After Dark Chicago. Along with his musical "Ed McMahon" and partner in crime George Howe, Daryl performs every Saturday in the front room, in what Cabaret Scenes Magazine calls “the best party in town.”
Matthew Lorenz is a growing artistic presence in the American Midwest and the international stage at large. Matthew’s performance experience as a pianist extends from Bismarck, ND to Santa Rosa, NM, then Paris; and beyond, now currently active in Chicago. Besides his regular performing schedule Matthew is on the Piano Faculty at the New Music School, the Gold Coast’s premier music academy. Read more about Matthew at his website, mlorenzmusic.squarespace.com!
Matthew has become a regular performer at Davenport’s since playing his first cabaret there in Spring of ‘22 (he prepared for character by watching Liza Manelli’s 1972 classic Cabaret! three or four times). Now he chases cabaret’s electric atmosphere, and is on a mission to present a new cabaret at Davenport’s every month of 2024: the YEAR of Cabaret!