New York-based cult performer Lady Rizo has scooped the inaugural Edinburgh Cabaret award, as jointly judged by Time Out and the Soho Theatre.
Lady Rizo receives the inaugaral Time Out & Soho Theatre cabaret award.
The award, presented yesterday evening (22 August 2012) by the three judges — Time Out cabaret editor Ben Walters, Soho Theatre comedy & cabaret producer Steve Lock and Frodo McDaniel, artistic director of the Glasgow Cabaret Festival.
On presenting the award, Walters said “I’m confident that Time Out readers who respond to the cabaret artists we have been championing for many years will find Lady Rizo sensational”, with McDaniel adding “I could clearly see a cabaret star in the making. She deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as Camille O’Sullivan and Meow Meow.”
Ben Walters, Lady Rizo, Steve Lock and Frodo McDaniel at the award presentation.
Cabaret has been listed as a separate genre in the Fringe programme since 2011, and Time Out and Soho Theatre’s award is the first specifically aimed at cabaret performances, which many claim are given insufficient attention by traditional arts media.
Other shows shortlisted for the award include Dusty Limits: Post-Mortem; EastEnd Cabaret: Notoriously Kinky; An Hour Long Sinister Wink, Creative Martyrs, Piff the Magic Dragon in…Jurassic Bark and An Audience with Tomas Ford.