By: James Manley
Every December in New York, when tourists flock to Rockefeller Center and holiday concerts fill the city’s biggest stages, a quieter but deeply beloved ritual unfolds in a modest Off-Broadway theater on West 30th Street. At Urban Stages, more than 150 performers and musicians gather for Winter Rhythms, the highly regarded cabaret and music festival that, now in its 17th year, has become one of the city’s most treasured end-of-year traditions.
Running December 3–14, 2025, the festival presents 21 shows over 11 days, ranging from cabaret and jazz to musical theatre, folk, classical, comedy, and drag. It is a benefit for Urban Stages’ outreach programs, which aim to provide free multilingual arts programming to New York City libraries and community spaces year-round. But for many artists, Winter Rhythms is more than a fundraiser. It is, in the words of producer Sue Matsuki, a “non-Diva Zone” — a December home for the performers who return year after year.
“I’m creating a family that has to live with each other for two weeks,” Matsuki said in a recent conversation. “So I want that family to get along — and we do.”
That sense of camaraderie is one reason the festival has endured and grown. Another is its reputation for eclectic programming. As critic Mark Dundas Wood wrote, “Next to the Cabaret Convention, December’s annual Winter Rhythms Festival is considered arguably the most important yearly collection of cabaret performances in the city.” Matsuki, who has produced the festival since 2021, approaches the task with equal parts curatorial vision and maternal hospitality.
Each year’s festival begins with a gala and ends with uplift — a shape Matsuki has come to see as an important tradition. This year opens with a tribute to Tony Bennett, headlined by vocalist Eddie Bruce, and closes with “Songs of Hope,” the annual finale curated by Tom Toce, Urban Stages’ board president.
“Opening with a Champagne Toast Gala and ending literally on a ‘note of hope’ is our arc every year,” Matsuki said. “The whole celebration is a tribute to Urban Stages’ support and love of the arts. What wells me up is seeing our community support another community, all in the name of perpetuating the arts.”
Performers donate their time, and only the musicians are paid. The model invites the kind of generosity that makes Winter Rhythms feel distinct from any other event of its size. It has also allowed Urban Stages to expand its outreach, presenting more than 1,000 free arts events across New York in the past season.
Matsuki’s programming begins with what she calls her “residency acts” — staples that regular audiences expect each year. Toce’s Songs of Hope is one. The globe-spanning Holiday Survival Kit from Ritt Henn and Beth Falcone, now in its tenth anniversary year, is another. And the ever-popular work of Michael Colby, which reliably sells out, remains an anchor.
“I diversify the acts and rotate talent so it’s not the same show every year,” Matsuki said. “Life, talent, the arts — they’re always changing, so my casts always reflect that.”
Newcomers are welcomed with the same warmth given to stalwarts. One breakout act last season, Magritte & Rosen, a young, harmony-rich musical theatre duo, returns this year with an expanded show, “Snowed In with the Abominable Magritte & Rosen.”
“When I’m watching a show and it makes me sit up and take note, they go on my list for next year,” Matsuki said. “Word of mouth has put us on the map with new performers.”
Urban Stages has long championed new and diverse voices — its production of Eisa Davis’s Bulrusher was a Pulitzer Prize finalist — and Winter Rhythms extends that mission into the musical realm.
“Urban Stages prides itself on diversity across the board,” Matsuki said. “We want a festival that celebrates all of our communities: cabaret, American Songbook, jazz, blues, pop, funk, classical, folk, musical theatre — and this year, comedy.”
She is also delighted to bring back drag legend Ruby Rims with Christmas Is a Drag!, a holiday show featuring both glamour and irreverence. “Let the boa feathers fly,” she said, laughing.
Behind the performers, an elite roster of musicians — among them Tracy Stark, Alex Rybeck, Gregory Toroian, Ian Herman, Ritt Henn, and Joe Baker — gives Winter Rhythms its musical backbone. “None of us is anything without our musicians,” Matsuki said. “We’re lucky they keep saying yes.”
Despite the festival’s artistic breadth, Matsuki insists her guiding metric is simple.
“No matter what level or name recognition, it’s all about entertainment value,” she said. “All my acts are booked to do one thing: knock ’em alive — because knocking them dead makes for a very quiet house.”
Audiences often describe Winter Rhythms as one of the most joyful festivals in the city — a comment that Matsuki takes as the highest praise. “Raising money is the goal, but making people happy — laugh, escape, feel — that’s the mission,” she said. “If people walk out feeling better than when they walked in, we did our job.”
The green room of Winter Rhythms is legendary — not for its glamour, but for its warmth. Matsuki sets out snacks, keeps the mood light, introduces performers to one another, and eliminates the hierarchies that often accompany multi-artist festivals.
People who say yes to these conditions, she says, “already have the right attitude.” Her own experience as an award-winning cabaret and jazz singer helps her manage the human side of the operation. “Being a performer makes me more sensitive to my casts,” she said. “I truly understand things from their perspective.”
Winter Rhythms has survived changing tastes, audiences, and even the pandemic, when Matsuki pivoted to a virtual festival of original music to sidestep licensing issues. “When handed lemons, we make lemonade,” she said. “Whatever comes our way, I’m confident we can handle it.”
She credits the Urban Stages staff — founder Frances Hill, producer Antoinette Mullins, and house manager Leigh Selting — with sustaining the spirit of the festival.
“At this time of year, when we all note gratitude, my heart is full,” she said. “With as tiring as this can be, it’s balanced with love and art.”
In a city overflowing with holiday programming, Winter Rhythms occupies a special place — not the flashiest, not the biggest, but perhaps the most human. Each December, artists return, audiences return, and a small theatre becomes, for 11 days, something that feels an awful lot like home.
For a list of shows, times, and to purchase tickets, please visit www.UrbanStages.org.
