7 Women Will Headline at Arts Center

If you come to the cabaret at the Orange County Performing Arts Center next season, expect to hear the sisterhood of song, not the brotherhood.

The 2002-2003 cabaret season offers seven female headliners, including a one-night stand by three-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald in the 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall. The only male voices will be heard during an eighth show, a three-week run of the musical spoof, “Forbidden Hollywood,” a spinoff from the successful satiric franchise, “Forbidden Broadway.”

Other than the McDonald concert, the shows will take place in the 300-seat Founders Hall. Maureen McGovern, whose career highlights include singing two Oscar-winning songs, “The Morning After” from “The Poseidon Adventure” and “We May Never Love Like This Again” from “The Towering Inferno,” is the biggest name playing the small room. The others are: veteran singer-actress Polly Bergen; Donna Murphy, twice a Tony winner for roles in “Passion” and “The King and I”; Christine Ebersole, a Tony winner in “42nd Street”; Wesla Whitfield, whose main genre is cabaret rather than musical theater; and Donna McKechnie, who won her Tony as Cassie in “A Chorus Line.”

The schedule: Audra McDonald, June 29; “Forbidden Broadway,” Sept. 4-22; Polly Bergen, Oct. 1-5; Donna Murphy, Nov. 12-16; Maureen McGovern, Dec. 10-14; Christine Ebersole, Jan. 28-Feb. 1, 2003; Wesla Whitfield, Feb. 18-22, 2003; Donna McKechnie, March 25-28, 2003. Subscriptions for the six shows other than McDonald and “Forbidden Hollywood” cost $252. Single ticket prices are $32-$62 for McDonald’s concert and $49 for “Forbidden Hollywood.” (714) 556-2787.