Category Archives: Celebrity
Nick Adams talks Broadway and Drag
Nick Adams is an entertainer on many levels. Acting, singing, dancing, film, stage, and more, he’s done it all.
He’s won Audience Choice Awards from Broadway.com, received an Astaire Award nomination for Best Dancer, and has been honored by the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
He is instantly recognizable by his signature smile, powerhouse vocals, and yes, that body that held Mario Lopez to task.
METROSOURCE did a great story and interview with Nick this month! Check it out here!
Britney Spears Musical – Tickets on sale now!
She’s back!
Tony Award winning producers James L. Nederlander and Hunter Arnold are pleased to announce that the new musical Once Upon A One More Time, powered by the music of Grammy Award-winning pop icon Britney Spears, will open on Broadway this summer at the Marquis Theatre in New York City. Helmed by internally acclaimed, Drama Desk-nominated Director & Choreographers Keone & Mari Madrid (Beyond Babel, Karate Kid), the musical begins previews Saturday, May 13, 2023, and celebrates its opening night on Thursday, June 22, 2023. Starting today, Britney Spears fan club members have exclusive access to tickets by a special pre-sale, throughout the weekend. Beginning Monday December 5 at 10:00AM ET, tickets will go on sale to the general public at Ticketmaster.com/877-250-2929.
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Cast will be announced at a later date. Once Upon A One More Time was originally developed and produced by Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington D.C. (Simon Godwin, Artistic Director; Chris Jennings, Executive Director).
URVASHI VAID, ACTIVIST, AUTHOR, ATTORNEY has Passed Away
Legendary attorney, LGBTQ activist, and author Urvashi Vaid, known for her extensive career an advocate for LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, anti-war efforts, immigration justice and many other social causes, died today at age 63 in her home in New York City. She was the Executive Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force from 1989- 1992 and served prior to that as Media Director.
“We are devastated at the loss of one of the most influential progressive activists of our time,” said Kierra Johnson, current Executive Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force. “Urvashi Vaid was a leader, a warrior and a force to be reckoned with,” continued Johnson, “She was also a beloved colleague, friend, partner and someone we all looked up to – a brilliant, outspoken and deeply committed activist who wanted full justice and equality for all people.”
“Her leadership, vision and writing helped shape not only the Task Force’s values and work but our entire queer movement and the larger progressive movement. We will strive every day to live up to her ideals and model the courage she demonstrated every day as an activist and a person. She will be deeply I missed. I miss her already.” concluded Johnson.
At George H.W. Bush’s 1990 address on AIDS, Vaid, then the Executive Director of The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, made a statement with her sign: “Talk Is Cheap, AIDS Funding is Not”. Her critique made waves, disrupting the press conference, and shedding light on the failures of the Bush administration.
“Equality is a fine aspiration. It’s simply not enough”, she wrote in a 2014 piece on liberation. And it is a politics of liberation that shaped her career and informed her vision for the world. Vaid’s vision and passion for defending and promoting civil rights for the LGBTQ+ community led to a lifetime of changemaking.
Her time at The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, in which she held multiple positions for over ten years, notably Media Director, then Executive Director, saw her bring all aspects of queer life and struggle into the public eye. While at the Task Force, she co-founded the annual Creating Change conference, now in its 33rd year.
In 1995, after resigning from her position at the Task Force three years prior, she published her first book, Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation, in which she criticized the idea of “mainstreaming” what was and is, in fact, a civil rights movement. Rather than tolerance, she argued, the objective for the movement should be fundamental, actionable change. It was not an immediately popular notion, as media representation for queer people was just beginning to take shape, though it was, for her, of great moral importance. In 1996 Virtual Equality won the Stonewall Book Award.
In her position as President of the Vaid Group, Vaid advised, mentored, and supported the LGBTQ+ movement.
In 2012, Urvashi Vaid launched LPAC, the first lesbian Super PAC, and it has since invested millions of dollars in candidates who are committed to social justice through legislation.
Prior to that, Vaid held positions on the boards at the Ford Foundation, The Arcus Foundation (where she served as Executive Director from 2005 to 2010), and the Gill Foundation.
She was a leader in the development of the currently on-going National LGBTQ women’s community survey.
Vaid was the aunt of activist and performance artist Alok Vaid-Menon. She is survived by Alok Vaid-Menon as well as her longtime partner, political humorist Kate Clinton.
The National LGBTQ Task Force advances full freedom, justice and equality for LGBTQ people. We are building a future where everyone can be free to be their entire selves in every aspect of their lives. Today, despite all the progress we’ve made to end discrimination, millions of LGBTQ people face barriers in every aspect of their lives: in housing, employment, healthcare, retirement, and basic human rights.
Pamela Anderson to star in Chicago April and May
The name on everybody’s lips is gonna be Pamela! The Broadway company of the Tony Award-winning, record-breaking hit musical Chicago will welcome actress and activist Pamela Anderson making her Broadway debut in the role of Roxie Hart beginning Tuesday, April 12, 2022.
She will play an 8-week limited engagement at the Ambassador Theatre (219 W. 49th St., NYC) through Sunday, June 5, 2022.
“I have always been a huge fan of Bob Fosse‘s & Gwen Verdon‘s work. Ann Reinking, too,” said Pamela Anderson. “Playing Roxie Hart is a dream fulfilled. Performing Fosse, you don’t have time to get in your head. You can’t dance, sing and think at the same time. There is a freedom, a unique joy in knowing it’s all about the work. Playing Roxie Hart is a sweet escape for me.”
Broadway is Coming Back Baby!
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Lady Bunny and Bianca Del Rio Team up for Hateful Hags
Hateful, sassy and sometimes lewd and crude! Lady Bunny and Bianca Del Rio team up for a Vimeo event called HATEFUL HATES NETWORK.
(From INSTINCT Magazine)- For drag performers, performing during these challenging times has proven to cause performers to be beyond inventive. From shows direct from their living rooms to Brandon Voss’ Drive ‘N Drag nationwide series, queens have managed to keep their art alive and thriving during this time. Sherry Vine & Jackie Beat for example, have continued their famed Battle of the Bitches shows live online, (the most recent was the Halloween themed Battle of the Witches) and another famed duo is about to hit our small screens with their own patented brand of twisted comedy.
Legendary Wigstock creator/DJ/drag legend Lady Bunny and RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 6 winner turned stand up drag sensation Bianca Del Rio are co-anchoring HHN: Hateful Hags Network, a roast/cable news channel hybrid, where they will be delivering everything from filthy jokes to a a musical number, in only the way this duo can. They promise equal opportunity hate for RuPaul’s Drag Race queens from all seasons, tossing in some costume changes and…a surprise guest?
Lady Bunny exclusively tells EW “Enough with COVID and politics. It’s time for something really important… back-stabbing drag queens!” while Bianca Del Rio adds: “Due to COVID, some ‘Drag Race’ queens have opened OnlyFans accounts. Bunny and I would never do that. Not because of any moral objections — because we’re ugly!”
Tune in to ‘HHH: Hateful Hags Network’ on Thursday, November 12th at 8PM EST. Tickets are $9.99 at Vimeo.
NYC Pride June 25th 2020 Live Stream
NYC Pride and our partners at WABC Channel 7 are proud to announce a special broadcast event on Sunday, June 28, 2020, from 12:00 to 2:00 pm to mark the 50th anniversary of the first Pride March held in 1970.
In this unique year, NYC Pride is committed to saluting front-line workers alongside several leaders in the community being honored as Grand Marshals: Dan Levy, The Ali Forney Center, Yanzi Peng, and Victoria Cruz.
While it may be a different type of celebration, the tradition of commemorating the LGBTQIA+ movement will continue!
The special will feature performances by Janelle Monáe, Deborah Cox, Billy Porter, Luísa Sonza and more.
Expect to see appearances by Wilson Cruz, Miss Richfield 1981, Margaret Cho and others. WABC’s very own Ken Rosato and Lauren Glassberg will be joined by special guest co-host Carson Kressley, along with correspondents Sam Champion and Kemberly Richardson.
James Bidgood at Museum of Sex
James Bidgood was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1933, at the height of the Depression. From the time of his arrival in New York at 18 years old, he immersed himself in the underground worlds of drag, hustling, and pornography. In the 1950s, Bidgood was a drag queen and set and lighting designer at the legendary New York nightclub Club 82. He attended Parsons School of Design, and went on to design elaborate costumes for society balls, among other jobs that would come to inform his art.
In the 1960s, he turned his attention to “physique photography,” the highly-coded gay pornography of the time, where he found creative freedom, an eager audience, and his own groundbreaking artistic voice. Bidgood was proudly and uncompromisingly “out” during a pre-Stonewall moment when rapid social change around gender roles and sexuality coexisted with widespread hostility and discrimination against homosexuality. His work stands as a crucial link in the history of queer art and cinema, as historically important as it is visually ravishing.
Extraordinarily, almost the entirety of Bidgood’s work was shot in his tiny Hell’s Kitchen tenement. Bidgood literally lived in his sets, and used colored lighting, homemade props, and a variety of clever illusions—from the ingenious use of forced perspective to complex, Rube Goldberg like mechanisms that operated moving sets, fans, or lights—to create impressionistic wonderlands.
The culmination of this work was Pink Narcissus, a dreamily erotic feature-length film depicting the allegorical fantasies of a gay prostitute, and shot almost entirely in the same apartment. Upon its release in 1971, Pink Narcissus was an immediate underground hit, but due to creative disagreements between Bidgood and the film’s producer, Bidgood took his name off the credits, and the film was released anonymously. While rumors flew that the film had been made by a major, presumably closeted Hollywood celebrity, Bidgood remained in obscurity.
Since his rediscovery in the 1990s, Bidgood’s work, made for the worlds of mail-order pornography and midnight cinema, has been exhibited in such prestigious venues as The National Portrait Gallery, The Brooklyn Museum, and the Musée d’Orsay, and is included in vaunted collections such as the Tate Modern, London and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Alongside Bidgood’s remarkable photographs, this exhibition brings together a variety of ephemera from his extraordinary life, from vintage physique magazines, showing the original context of the work, to vintage photos from Bidgood’s time as drag queen Terry Howe at Club 82—all evidence of an extraordinary, productive, and utterly uncompromising life.
‘James Bidgood: Reveries’will be on view through September 8th, 2019.
All images courtesy of The Museum of Sex. Full color images courtesy of ClampArt New York.
MUSEUM OF SEX
233 Fifth Avenue (@ 27th Street)
New York, NY 10016
(212) 689-6337
MUSEUM HOURS:
Sunday thru Thursday 10:30 am to 11pm.
Last entry is 9pm
Friday & Saturday 10:30 am to 12am.
Last entry is 10pm
Last ticket sold 2 hours before closing
I’m From Driftwood Gala March 27
VISION
I’m From Driftwood envisions a world where every lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer person feels understood and accepted, and every straight person is an ally.
MISSION
I’m From Driftwood aims to help LGBTQ people learn more about their community, straight people learn more about their neighbors and everyone learn more about themselves through the power of storytelling and story sharing.
Increasing empathy and empowering individuals is accomplished by creating an apolitical forum for LGBTQ stories from every age, race, gender, background and culture. The stories deepen our understanding of each other, preserve history, and open hearts and minds.
VALUES
The most personal and meaningful stories are shared when the storyteller is in a trust-worthy, welcoming, judgment-free environment. I’m From Driftwood strives to create that environment on every level, whether you’re a long-time supporter at one of IFD’s events or a first-time visitor to the site. Be yourself, be comfortable and let’s get to know each other.
Grace Jones June 29th @ World Pride NYC
THE AMAZING Grace Jones will take center stage for an unforgettable day of music on Saturday, June 29th at Pier 97. Jones is most famously known for her post-disco dance track “Pull Up to the Bumper,” and an array of features in motion pictures including “Conan the Destroyer,” “Vamp,” and the 1992 classic, “Boomerang.”
In 2017 NYC Pride evolved Dance on the Pier, a 30+ year institution, into a new multi-day LGBTQIA+ cultural experience named Pride Island. After a hugely successful two consecutive years, NYC Pride is excited to bring Pride Island to Hudson River Park’s, Pier 97, in the heart of Hells Kitchen. This event showcases everyone from legendary soul singers to indie pop bands, this new inclusive experience creates a central hub for the LGBTQ community to celebrate Pride. This event has a legendary history of attracting the biggest performers for any Pride event in the world. Previous performers have included Cher, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Demi Lovato, Years & Years, Tegan & Sara, Tove Lo, and the late Whitney Houston.
Don’t miss the biggest live music event in NYC Pride history and help us give back to the broader community! NYC Pride will be selecting nonprofits within the local New York City area to receive grants as part of this community-driven event. Pride Island serves as a fundraiser to help NYC Pride raise crucial funds to help produce a multitude of free events such as our new Youth Pride, Family Movie Night, PrideFest, The March, The Rally and many more!
Tickets are selling fast! Over 3 Million people are expected into NYC that weekend!
GET TICKETS!
Nick Adams Facebook Page
The wonderfully charming and delightful (and sexy) triple threat on Broadway, NICK ADAMS is touring now with the Tony Award Winning FALSETTO’S!!! #cantwait! And recently you are able to see him on Comedy Central’s THE OTHER TWO!
He has over 23,000 fans on Twitter, but only 7000+ on FB – so I am asking my network, to LIKE his page, to help get his numbers up! This guy is so awesome and amazing! And a little bird told me, he has a CD in the works! (Which I have been telling him for 6 years, he needs one!).
World Pride NYC The Gayest Day of the Year!
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The Largest LGBTQIA+ Street Festival in New York City!
All eyes will be on New York City as we commemorate 50 years of the Stonewall Uprising. Our attendees are from all five boroughs and beyond making PrideFest the single best opportunity for businesses to connect directly with the LGBTQIA+ community.