When I was a teenager, I seriously worried that the Great American Songbook was evolving into an esoteric and elitist art form — rather like lieder or operetta: at long last taken seriously by the academy but cut off from the general cultural bloodline. That, however, was before the second coming of Tony Bennett, not to mention the arrival of a new generation of gold-standard jazz-inflected singers, and even, to my surprise, an era in which nearly every pop star of my misspent youth feels entitled and even obligated to record an album of standards. Now, the traditional songbook is proliferating, and it seems to have it both ways — it’s commercial and it’s respectable.

The first place one looks for cabaret stars is in the main hotel rooms, starting with the Café Carlyle, where the brilliant Barbara Cook is offering what amounts to an advanced course in lyric interpretation (until April 12), with her new pianist Lee Musiker (who holds the distinction of currently serving with both of the leading exponents of the songbook, Ms. Cook and Tony Bennett). At Feinstein’s, you have four nights left to sample Tovah Feldshuh, Broadway’s dynamically-entertaining actress-comic-yenta, whose show “In A Nutshell” is highlighted by her impression of an Italian opera singer doing rockabilly. (This should also help you prepare for Jerry Lee Lewis at Town Hall.)

In May, Feinstein’s and the Algonquin are home to two long-established cabaret institutions: Michael Feinstein (at the club that bears his name, starting May 6; he’s also doing his next Carnegie Zankel concert on April 23) and Karen Akers (at the Oak Room, starting May 13). In April, the Oak Room is the province of the only performer under 35 to establish herself as a headlining diva on the cabaret circuit, Maude Maggart. Then, Bebe Neuwirth becomes the latest Broadway-TV-dancer/actress (following Rita and Chita) to create a one-woman show at Feinstein’s. Fans of ’80s pop will also flock to the big rooms for Euan Morton (who played Boy George on Broadway) through March 29 at the Oak Room and singer-songwriter Christopher Cross who, apparently, is still caught between the moon and New York City. The best thing you can do is catch him at the Carlyle (opening April 15).

Feinstein’s is also offering an impressive round of one-nighters by Broadway-centric divas, of which the most promising debut looks to be the one-named Orfeh (June 2), whose “Ireland” provides “Legally Blonde” with its wittiest, most brilliant moment. Still, for shorter runs and more popular prices, your two best bets are Mondays at Birdland (where Jim Caruso’s open-mike “Cast Party” continues to reward the infinitely patient), Wednesdays and Fridays at Enzo’s (with its jazz-centric and female-specific bias), and every night at The Metropolitan. The latter continues to provide cultural sustenance for fans of three very different living legends, Annie Ross (starting March 25), Marilyn Maye (April 8) and Julie Wilson (April 24). A fourth, West Coaster Pinky Winters, will do a much-anticipated single show (April 8) with pianist Richard Rodney Bennett (no relation to Tony). The Iridium is also presenting cabaret-style singers and songbook shows, notably Eric Comstock’s marvelous crash course in Ellington and Strayhorn (April 23).

In the concert halls, Town Hall and the 92nd Street Y both race to get there the fastest with the mostest as far as cabaret-Broadway songbook productions are concerned. On 44th Street, there are three more installments this season of the ongoing Broadway By the Years series, 1954 (April 7), 1965 (May 12), and 1979 (June 16); KT Sullivan, Mark Nadler, and Loren Schoenberg are also reviving their swell party of Cole Porter songs in concert format there (June 9). Uptown at the Y, the Lyrics & Lyricists series continues with three more thematic shows, the lyrics of Carolyn Leigh (March 29), Jeff Harnar’s “The 1959 Broadway Songbook” (May 3), and Andrea Marcovicci’s “Did The American Songbook End in 1965?”

Still, the hottest tickets of the season are always the City Center Encores! concert versions of classic musicals, the next being Marc Blitzstein’s rarely heard “Juno” (March 27) and Vincent Youmans’s vintage “No, No Nanette” (May 8), with Rosie O’Donnell. As it is wont to do occasionally, Carnegie Hall gets into the act with a benefit presentation of “Show Boat” (June 10) with Marilyn Horne; on April 4, they warm us up with the New York Pops and Sutton Foster celebrating Oscar Hammerstein. So when, already, is someone going to do a night of Herman Hupfeld?