A Can't-Miss Cabaret

By Jill Duff-Hoppes

When Natalie Doliner was growing up, a popular TV commercial featuring Santa riding on an electric razor never failed to grab her attention.

“I remember thinking every year, ‘Oh, it’s Christmas! Oh, but I’m Jewish. Oh, but it’s my birthday!’” quips the 62-year-old Natalie, an Orlando cabaret artist who was born on December 25.

For a proud member of Central Florida’s Jewish community, Natalie’s connection to Christmas is more concrete than most. Pre-pandemic, Natalie was known for throwing festive parties celebrating Hanukkah, Christmas, and her birthday all at once. She is married to Shirley Strader, a Christian minister and hospice chaplain. And, Natalie has been a professional Christmas caroler for more than 20 years.

Natalie is using those blended holiday experiences to entertain and educate audiences with a new cabaret about the Jewish composers who penned many of the country’s most popular Christmas songs.

It’s not Natalie’s first Christmas-themed cabaret. But this year’s show deserves to be a hit based on the title alone: Oy to the World: Your Favorite Christmas Song was Probably Written by a Jew.

When Natalie was doing research for the show, she compiled an extensive list of iconic holiday songs written by fellow Jews. That list includes White Christma by Irving Berlin, The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) by Mel Torme and Robert Wells, and Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, both by Johnny Marks.

“This explains to me why we don’t have a lot of really good Hanukkah songs,” jokes Natalie. “They were too busy writing Christmas songs.”

A Matter of Pride

Cabaret Performer Natalie Doliner of Orlando

Not all of Natalie’s shows are about the holidays, though. She often writes shows with positive LGBT+ messages including the play Sing Out Proud, featuring the music of the Carpenters, and the cabaret Get Out and Stay Out! The latter show was a recent fundraiser for The Center in Orlando – a nonprofit organization that promotes and empowers the LGBT+ community and its allies through advocacy, education, information, and support.

When she isn’t performing on a stage somewhere, Natalie is an acupuncture physician and myofascial release therapist. A native of New Jersey, Natalie studied dance at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and took private voice lessons. She has worked professionally as a dancer, choreographer, director, playwright, singer, and actress. A resident of Central Florida since 1991, Natalie performed in shows at The Roth Family JCC years ago and even taught summer theater camp there.

These days, Natalie’s creative focus is on writing and performing cabarets. In her shows, she shares stories about her life in bite-size bits in between the songs. Some of her personal anecdotes are comical; others are poignant. And all are relatable.

Just Be Yourself

Early on, Natalie was much more comfortable portraying scripted characters in musicals like Evita, Nine, or Chicago than she was performing as herself in a cabaret.

“I loved being on stage as someone else,” she says, “but being on stage as myself was a terrifying thought. I’m a frustrated stand-up comedian, though, so cabarets were a chance for me to write my own jokes.”

Audiences can see Natalie in two shows this winter:

Oy to the World: Your Favorite Christmas Song Was Probably Written by a Jew. The cabaret, written by and starring Natalie, will feature guest stars and Ned Wilkinson as accompanist. The one-night-only show will be at 6:30 p.m. on December 10 at the Savoy in Orlando.

For tickets, go to OyToTheWorld.Eventbrite.com.

Ophelia the Musical.

The original show by Jeremiah Gibbons is being produced by Phoenix Tears Productions. Natalie will portray the role of Polonius, Ophelia’s father. The show will run December 1-17 at Fringe ArtSpace in Orlando.

For tickets, go to OrlandoFringe.org.

This story was originally published in print in Winter 2023.