The trouble with cabaret, as opposed to jazz, is that when stars get really big, they never return to the intimate clubs that birthed them. You’re much more likely to find Wynton Marsalis at the Village Vanguard than you are to see Diana Krall or Peter Cincotti at the Oak Room. Michael Feinstein, however, may have crossed over, but he hasn’t crossed out. Not only does he continue to appear in small, cozy rooms, he has loaned his name to one, Feinstein’s at the Regency, where he will appear for two nights this spring (March 31 to April 1) in addition to a more formal concert at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall on April 19.

Feinstein’s at the Regency has, in the last few years, reserved its spring season for more contemporary pop performers and songwriters. But this April and May the emphasis is on musical theater stars: Linda Eder (April 4 to 8), Diahann Carroll (April 18 to 29) in her first appearance in a New York club that I can remember, and Rebecca Luker (May 9 to 20) and James Naughton (May 30 to June 10), the latter two being just about the best Broadway leading lady and leading man in business today.

There’s more turnover at Feinstein’s than at any other major cab room: At the Carlyle and the Oak Room at the Algonquin, the residences tend to run longer. The brilliant Barbara Cook, who complements Tony Bennett (and succeeds both Rosemary Clooney and Bobby Short) as one of the great living interpreters of the songbook, holds forth for the rest of March. Then, the purr-fectly marvelous Eartha Kitt takes over for April. At the Oak Room, Karen Akers is mounting an ambitious songbook program of the music of Fred Kander and John Ebb, for a longish run of six weeks (April 4 to May 13).

From now until April Fool’s Day, the marvelous duo of KT Sullivan and Mark Nadler are ensconced in the Gonk with “A Swell Party: RSVP Cole Porter.” For those of you who, like me, can’t get enough of a load of Cole, on May 1, the New York Festival of Song is mounting a benefit for itself titled “Let’s Do It! A Gala Evening of Cole Porter Songs.” With such stars as Darius de Haas, Jason Graae, Mary Cleere Haran, Mary Testa, and Karen Ziemba on hand, do it they will indeed.

At the 92nd Street Y, the Lyrics and Lyricists series concludes its 2005-06 run with two shows that are about lyricists. Sheldon Harnick, whose “Fiddler on the Roof” is still going strong on Broadway, collates a show not of his own songs but of his favorite works by others, with artistic and musical director Rob Fisher (April 8 to 10). Even higher on my list is “Johnny Mercer at the Movies,” which scholar Robert Kimball is producing, starring the very funny Jason Graae and the very mellifluous Sylvia McNair, one of the few classical singers who knows what to do with a standard (May 6 to 8).

Other big concerts I’m keeping my eye on: the Broadway star Simone in a tribute to her mother, the late and incredible Nina Simone, at Town Hall on April 21, and Bernadette Peters, presented by Lincoln Center’s American Songbook at Avery Fisher Hall on May 1. City Center Encores isn’t exactly a concert series, but I doubt that you’ll be hearing anything better musically this spring than its full-orchestra re-creation of George Gershwin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Of Thee I Sing” (May 11 to 15), and I also don’t want to miss Kander and Ebb’s never-revived “70, Girls, 70” (March 30 to April 2).

The other most star-driven room in town is Danny’s Skylight Room on West 46th Street, which is now the long-term New York home for two truly legendary divas who once worked together (as well as with different permutations of Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross) and who deserve to be experienced as often as possible: Blossom Dearie on weekends and Annie Ross on Wednesdays. Danny’s is also where the jazz-tinged Jane Scheckter is mounting her tribute to the much-missed Bobby Short (March 27).

There are any number of jazz and cabaret singers in the mainstream jazz rooms as well. Ernestine Anderson., the veteran West Coast singer of jazz, blues, and standards, made her first appearance in New York this millennium at Dizzy’s last year, and is returning there this May in a very promising all-Ellington program with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra (May 16 to 21).

Birdland has been devoting Monday nights to cabaret, with a headliner in a solo show followed by Jim Caruso’s Cast Party. On April 3, the fine singer and comic Christine Pedi (of “The Sopranos” and “Forbidden Broadway” fame) gets the spotlight for an hour, and then it’s open-mic time. The majority of the unknown singers who perform at Cast Party are generally at a karaoke level or worse – you or even I would be allowed to sing – but the two regular pianists, Billy Stritch and Tedd Firth, are more than worth hearing. Mr. Stritch will get his own show of songs associated with the great Mel Torme on April 10. And hey – you never know when you might discover the next John Raitt or Julie Andrews.