cabaret

"It seems impossible to believe that it's been a year since her passing," says 1812 Productions' spokesman Tyler Melchior of the company's dear departed friend, Jilline Ringle, the big mamma mia of Philly's caba-theater scene. "But there's a comfort that comes, though, knowing that the work to which she devoted her life will continue." Melchior's talking about 1812's new vocal showcase Perfectly Marvelous, as well as the Jilline Ringle Solo Performance Program, an initiative Ringle spoke about before her death with 1812 artistic director Jennifer Childs and meant to foster new voices in new performing media.

With a style weaving deeply personal stories with chunks of musical theater, Ringle can be considered an inspiration to the likes of Kimberly Rehfuss, Amorika Amoroso and Sarah Bolt (pictured), the cabaret artists spotlit by Marvelous director Deborah Seif and host Todd "Harriett Levy" Waddington. Though Bolt has proved her pipes in Bat Boy the Musical and her one-woman I Am Not the Girl Next Door at the Tin Angel, and Rehfuss in Schoolhouse Rock Live! and Box Office of the Damned, it's Amoroso—an 1812 virgin—I'm most familiar with. Not because we damn-near share last names, but rather we both had vocal stints in the rhythm nation that was E-Tribe. (She went on to appear in The New York Musical Theater Festival. I became a writer. Does that tell you something?)

"This program is not just a memorial but a commitment, a promise, to keeping Jilline's artistic and personal contributions to the American theater community alive," says Melchior. "I believe that she would be proud of the work we're doing to honor her wishes."

Perfectly Marvelous, Fri.-Sat. and Mon.-Tue., Feb. 24-25 and Feb 27-28, 8 p.m.; Sun., Feb. 26, 2 p.m.; Wed., March 1, 6:30 p.m., $15-$32, through March 26, Adrienne Theatre, 2030 Sansom St., 215-592-9560, www.1812productions.org.