Category Archives: Theatre and Entertainment
Broadway Bares 2024
The first Broadway Bares was presented in 1992 by Jerry Mitchell and the company of The Will Rogers Follies at Splash bar. Eight dancers “in rotation” on the bar raised more than $8,000. Since then, the event has continuously performed to sell-out crowds in some of Manhattan’s largest clubs.
June 23rd, 2024 they return for the annual spectacular show and fundraiser !
9:30 pm and midnight on Sunday, June 23
Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City
The seduction and spectacle of Las Vegas touches down in the Big Apple when Broadway Bares: Hit the Strip, this year’s electrifying edition of the annual and highly anticipated striptease spectacular, makes its delightfully debaucherous debut.
All bets are off when more than 150 of NYC’s most dazzling dancers erupt into full-out, larger-than-life burlesque production numbers on Sunday, June 23, at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.
Pleasure seekers who Hit the Strip will be immersed in a Las Vegas-inspired world of luxury, largess and liberation. Amid an out-of-this-world wonderland of captivating characters and sensationally sexy striptease, there’s no better way to launch into NYC Pride Week.
Tickets for BroadwayBares (#BroadwayBares) start at $75. VIP tickets feature unlimited specialty cocktails and reserved seating. The always popular “Stripper Spectacular” package includes a premium reserved table seat at either show and an invitation to a private cocktail party with special guests at the home of Broadway Bares’ Tony Award-winning creator and executive producer Jerry Mitchell. The “Barest Insider Experience” includes a premium reserved table seat at the midnight performance, a pre-show cocktail party and access to the final “undressed” rehearsal the evening of the show.
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).
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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New York City Reopen Plans
From ABC NEWS; After three gloomy months and 21,000 deaths that made it the nation’s most lethal hot spot, New York City slowly began reopening Monday (June 9th, 2020) in the biggest test yet of Americans’ ability to keep the coronavirus in check.
Owners of smaller shops were eager to reopen, even if they didn’t expect much business.
“We are going to be open every day for the sake of showing life,” said eyewear designer Ahlem Manai-Platt, who was reopening a lower Manhattan store.
From TRAVEL PULSE; Phase 1 includes construction and manufacturing, mostly, along with some retail clothing, electronics, jewelry and luggage stores, among others.
Each phase will take two weeks before moving into the next phase, unless confirmed cases of the virus continue to drop more dramatically and then New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo will consider speeding things up.
Fortune magazine estimated that New York City is losing $173 million a day. “The coronavirus crisis is shrinking New York City’s economy on a scale far more vast than the squeeze on any other U.S. metropolis,” Fortune wrote.
The short answer to the question of when one of the world’s great destinations will reopen to tourism is not until the end of June, when Phase 3 kicks in. Phase 3 includes the bulk of the hospitality industry, with restaurants and other food-service businesses allowed to reopen for dine-in service, as well as hotels that are not already open servicing overnight guests.
Phase 4 includes arts, entertainment, museums, theaters and movie theaters.
New York City has more than 40 major theaters hosting first-run plays and musicals, not to mention Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway productions. Now the shows won’t go on again until Tuesday, Sept. 8, at the earliest, and more likely not until after the first of the year. Many people don’t realize how tightly packed a 1,000-seat theater can be, making social distancing difficult. And reduced capacity makes it financially cumbersome for Broadway shows to continue. READ MORE HERE.
STARS in the House for Actors Fund
Have you heard of this show on YouTube?
Music, community, and education to support The Actors Fund and its services.
Live-streamed daily at 2 PM ET and 8 PM ET/ Listen on SiriusXM VOLUME at 9AM ET, M-F
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and theatres across the world closing their curtains indefinitely, SiriusXM host Seth Rudetsky and his husband, producer James Wesley have created Stars in the House, a daily live streamed series to support The Actors Fund and its services.
NEW SHOWS DAILY!
With new shows airing daily at 2 PM ET and 8 PM ET, Stars in the House is a combination of music, community, and education (from CBS Chief Medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook) located on the Actors Fund YouTube Channel. With musical performances by stars remotely from their home and conversations with Seth and James between each tune, viewers can also donate to the charity and interact with the guests in real time.
RAISING MONEY!
Stars in the House raised over $50,000 in the first four days of airing. Guests include Andrew Lloyd Webber, John Lithgow, Jason Alexander, Kristen Chenoweth as well as couples confined together like Audra McDonald and Will Swenson, Frozen composers Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, writers Tina Fey and Jeff Richmond, and many more. Stars in the House plans to stream daily until Broadway re-opens.
LOTS of upcoming shows PLUS 3 months of Archives!
The Actors Fund is a national human services organization that fosters stability and resiliency, and provides a safety net for performing arts and entertainment professionals over their lifespan. Through offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, The Fund serves everyone in film, theater, television, music, opera, radio and dance with programs including social services and emergency financial assistance, health care and insurance counseling, housing, and secondary employment and training services.
Stonewall Gives Back Fundraiser
April 23rd, 2020, Troye Sivan, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Petras, Rufus Wainwright and many more got together to raise funds for those in the LGBTQ nightlife industry in need during the COVID-19 crisis.
Hosted by
Michelle Visage and Tyler Oakley
Performances and Appearances by
Alan Cumming, Allie X, Betty Who, Carlie Hanson, Cyndi Lauper, Darren Hayes, Dave Mizzoni, Greyson Chance, Issac Dunbar, John Cameron Mitchell, Kim Petras, Kristin Chenoweth, Leland, Lorna Luft, Matt Rogers, MUNA, Nina West, Our Lady J, Pabllo Vittar, Peppermint, Rufus Wainwright, Shoshana Bean, Todrick Hall, Troye Sivan, TUCKER, VINCINT.
The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative (SIGBI). We are a non-profit charitable organization inspired by the struggles and ideals of the LGBTQ rights movement born from the Stonewall Inn Uprising of 1969. We are committed to eliminating the social intolerance that is profoundly impacting the lives of LGBTQ citizens throughout America and abroad. Through awareness campaigns, educational programming, fundraising and candid public dialogue,we support grassroots organizations scattered across the country and especially those in communities where progress toward equality has been slow and the negative impact of ongoing acts of discrimination and harassment can no longer be tolerated.
LIVESTREAM PREMIERE OF PARAMODERNITIES
Photo: Maria Baranova, Courtesy of New York Live Arts, March 2019.
NETTA YERUSHALMY PRESENTS THE LIVESTREAM PREMIERE OF HER
EPIC WORK PARAMODERNITIES.
THE SIX-PART ENCYCLOPEDIC SERIES DECONSTRUCTS HISTORIC DANCE WORKS BY ALVIN AILEY, GEORGE BALANCHINE, MERCE CUNNINGHAM, BOB FOSSE, MARTHA GRAHAM, AND VASLAV NIJINSKY.
EACH PERFORMANCE IS FOLLOWED BY A LIVE DISCUSSION WITH SPECIAL GUESTS AND AN INTERACTIVE CHAT WITH THE AUDIENCE.
MAY 4-9, 2020 @ 3-4PM DAILY
*Closed-Captioning provided for all performances.*
Trailer linked here.
“Take six classic dances. Chop them up. Then tear open the modern canon, with equal parts love and fury.” – Gia Kourlas, The New York Times
Netta Yerusalmy to present the week-long livestream event of Paramodernities Live, May 4-9, 2020, featuring 2019 performances at New York Live Arts with live “post-show” discussions with special guests and a chat feature for the audience. This event is directed by Jeremy Jacob and produced by Marc Crousillat, Jacob, and Yerushalmy.
The six-part encyclopedic series is a multidisciplinary work that weaves theory and performance into a marathon-style hybrid event. Yerushalmy and a cast of 20 dancers and scholars, ranging in age from 20 to 68, perform deconstructed installments of Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (1913), Martha Graham’s Night Journey (1947), Alvin Ailey’s Revelations (1960), a mix of Merce Cunningham works Rainforest, Sounddance, Points in Space, Beach Birds, and Ocean (1968-1990), dance numbers from the Bob Fosse’s 1969 film Sweet Charity, and a response to George Balanchine’s Agon (1957) that includes none of the original choreography.
Paramodernities boasts a radical and undefinable rethinking of the canon, involving virtually no music. Each section was created as an independent unit with a distinct creative process that features text, read live, by scholars and writers from various fields who place the dances within a larger context. The cast joins Yerushalmy in generating questions about the different paths taken by the modern tradition in dance and beyond. Within each installment, fundamental tenets of modernism are explored, such as sovereignty, spectacle, race, feminism and ableism.
The performances at New York Live Arts theater feature dancers Michael Blake, Gerald Casel, Marc Crousillat, Brittany Engel-Adams, Joyce Edwards, Stanley Gambucci, Taryn Griggs, Magdalena Jarkowiec, Nicholas Leichter, Jeremy Jae Neal, Hsiao-Jou Tang, Megan Williams, Netta Yerushalmy; and scholars/writers Thomas F. DeFrantz, Julia Foulkes, Georgina Kleege, David Kishik, Carol Ockman, Mara Mills, Claudia La Rocco, with lighting by Tim Cryan and costumes by Jarkowiec.
Each livestream performance will feature closed-captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing community.
Livestream events of Paramodernities take place at nettay.com from May 4th to May 9th at 3pm. This event will be live and free. The running time is approximately 1 hour.
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
PARAMODERNITIES #2: Trauma, Interdiction, and Agency in ‘The House of Pelvic Truth’
A response to Martha Graham’s Night Journey (1947)
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
PARAMODERNITIES #3: Revelations: The Afterlives of Slavery
A response to Alvin Ailey’s Revelations (1960)
Thursday, May 7, 2020
PARAMODERNITIES #4: An Inter-Body Event
with material from Merce Cunningham’s Rainforest, Sounddance, Points In Space, Beach Birds, and Ocean (1968-1990)
Friday, May 8, 2020
PARAMODERNITIES #5: All that Spectacle: Dance on Stage and Screens
A response to Bob Fosse’s Sweet Charity (1969 film)
Saturday, May 9, 2020
PARAMODERNITIES #6: The Choreography of Rehabilitation: Disability and Race in Balanchine’s Agon
A response to George Balanchine’s Agon (1957)
PARAMODERNITIES is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. PARAMODERNITIES is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project, commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow in partnership with New York Live Arts, HMD’s Bridge Project, and NPN. The Creation Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency).
For more information: www.npnweb.org.
Broadway’s Carols for a Cure 21!
Down to Eartha One Woman Show in August
Actress, singer, author, and activist Eartha Kitt might be best known as the singer behind “Santa Baby” and “C’est si bon,” or as the third Catwoman on the sixties Batman TV series.
However, a government-led blacklisting in the late sixties halted her career for an entire decade. The infamous blacklisting forms the basis for Down To Eartha, a one-woman show which will begin its 10-show run at the Gene Frankel Theater (24 Bond Street) in August.
“I simply loved her as a young girl growing up in the theater,” said Down To Eartha producer and director Marishka Phillips. “After seeing her comeback performance in Timbuktu! I knew I wanted to be a part of this business.”
The play, which premiered earlier this year at the WOW Cafe in Manhattan, was written by Deirdra McDowell, who also stars as Kitt.
“I was first inspired to play Eartha Kitt by acting coach Susan Batson, in 2010,” said McDowell. “After performing an animal exercise in class, she simply stated, ‘I see Eartha.’ From there, I felt the need to tell Kitt’s story.”
Many will be shocked to discover the measures the CIA took to silence Kitt following an incident at a White House luncheon in January 1968. Kitt’s anti-war statements on that day personally insulted First Lady Lady Bird Johnson so much that she urged President Lyndon Johnson to blacklist Kitt from working in the United States. The government succeeded in doing so for the following ten years.
Down to Eartha explores Kitt´s personal re-encounter of that fateful day in detail, while also delving into her personal journey of power and freedom. Stemming from a life ridden with years of child abuse, Eartha´s personal journey proves to be at times a nightmare of a hurdle. It is one that could only be conquered by the power of love.
“In today’s political climate, the right to be heard continues to resonate,” said Phillips. “Kitt’s outspoken views are just as relevant and inspiring today as they were in 1968.”
Kitt, who for decades has endured a large LGBTQ following, stated in a 1992 interview, “We’re all rejected people, we know what it is to be refused, we know what it is to be oppressed, depressed, and then, accused, and I am very much cognizant of that feeling. Nothing in the world is more painful than rejection. I am a rejected, oppressed person, and so I understand them, as best as I can, even though I am a heterosexual.”
Give Dierdra a listen! Can’t wait for this!!
Down to Eartha will begin its run at the Gene Frankel Theater on August 7 at 8pm. Shows will run August 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 at 8pm. There will also be a matinee performance on Sunday, August 11 at 4pm. Tickets for all performances are available now.
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
Paige Turner, Sutton Lee Seymor and Jackie Cox June 27-28
WORLD PRIDE WEEKEND! Get your tickets now – THIS WILL SELL OUT!
See what happens when three fierce drag divas all vie for the spotlight in this hilarious evening of sisterhood and friendship told through the music of Stephen Sondheim, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, The First Wives Club , La La Land and More!
Performances are WORLD PRIDE WEEKEND Friday June 28th and Saturday June 29th at 7pm Tickets are $22 ($35 VIP with meet & greet, preferred seating and photo), and may be purchased online at
http://spincyclenyc.com/index.php/pride/479-own-me-pride
The Laurie Beechman Theatre is located inside the West Bank Cafe at 407 West 42nd Street. There is also a $20 food/beverage minimum at all performances.
Showbiz Spitfire” PAIGE TURNER, Known as the Carol Burnett of Drag, is one the original creators, producers and host of NYC’s live drag reality show “So You Think You Can Drag?” She is a 2 time Glam Award winner and is known for her over the top parodies and comedy. Paige is a regular at the Beechman and has previously been seen in ”Drag me To the Top,” “Confessions of An Un-Natural Blonde,” Make America Gay Again,” “This Show is Gay!” and her annual Christmas and Easter Shows. You Don’t Own Me marks her 10th original show at the Beechman. She tours internationally with Atlantis Cruises and coined the phrase Slurp! She is currently part of the cast of Shade: Queens of NYC, on the Fusion Network.
Known as the “Robin Williams of Drag,” SUTTON LEE SEYMOUR is New York City’s campiest live singing queen of stage and screen, now touring her best selling shows from coast to coast in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Europe, and also the seven seas with Atlantis Events! She is a Glam Award winner as well as Season 4’s winner of So You Think You Can Drag? She has been previously seen at the Beechman in her solo shows Fameish and Camp Queen and as well as Make America Gay Again and She Came Upon a Midnight Clear with Paige and Jackie.
JACKIE COX burst onto the NYC drag scene in 2010 in So You Think You Can Drag and went on to the win coveted role of All Star in 2017. She has headlined her own shows “I Dream of Jackie Part 1 and 2 at the Beechman and is part of the Hells Kitchenette trio. She has also appeared in shows at the Laurie Beechman Theater “Make America Gay Again” and “She Came Upon a Midnight Clear” with Sutton and Paige. and The Crown & Anchor of Provincetown (“Gypsies”). Recently, Jackie appeared on TV in Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live”, winning the title of “Real Queen of Beverly Hills” for her impersonation of TV personality and Depends undergarment spokeswoman, Lisa Rinna and has appeared on ABC’s What Would You Do? As a drag queen coming out to her family.
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!).
New Years Eve with Raven O at Pangea
Start the New Year with an intimate night of song and sass from NYC nightlife legend Raven O.
Legendary Downtown trendsetter Raven O raises our throbbing spirits on New Year’s Eve in a shape-shifting, champagne-soaked celebration at Pangea, 178 Second Avenue, the East Village Mecca for cutting-edge cabaret, song and performance.
With the help of the acclaimed bassist Ben Allison, the oh-so-colorful avatar of the downtown performance art scene stirs up his witch’s brew of sultry song and restless commentary, not once but twice, in back-to-back shows at 8pm and 10:30pm.
Both shows are generously priced — $125 for the early show and $165 for the late show. The evening includes, in both cases, a delicious 3-course dinner, and a half-bottle of Cava per person. Tax and gratuity are inclusive.
ADDITIONAL BEVERAGES ARE NOT INCLUDED, AND ARE BILLED SEPARATELY WITH A 20% GRATUITY ADDED.
ALL SALES ARE FINAL.
8:00PM SHOW – DINNER SEATING BEGINS AT 7:00PM.
Please arrive no later than 7:30PM to be seated for the show and dinner.
10:30PM SHOW – DINNER SEATING BEGINS AT 9:45PM
Please arrive no later than 10:00PM to be seated for the show and dinner.
Downtown’s intimate supper-club Pangea is the ultimate in alt, playing home to some of the best in alt cabaret. The New York Times recently called it “a bohemian oasis not unlike the fabled Max’s Kansas City from days gone by.” 178 2nd Ave
Find Raven O on Facebook to stay up to date!
Come Back Once More So I Can Say Goodbye
COME BACK ONCE MORE SO I CAN SAY GOODBYE
Presented by Labyrinth Dance Theater
SAVE-THE-DATE
June 14-17, 2019
In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall and World Pride coming to New York for the first time ever, Come Back Once More So I Can Say Goodbye, is an evening-length theatrical dance performance which tells the story of the gay community from 1965-1995 in New York City.
The piece takes us from the early Gay Rights Movement with the historic Sip-In at the Julius Bar to the uprising at Stonewall and to the enduring, widespread apathy and abject hysteria towards the AIDS epidemic. Through stunning performances, we experience the indomitable resolve of those who defiantly faced the siege against them with humor, bravery and compassion. Each performance will be dedicated to supporting the work of an LGBTQ youth or HIV service-related organization.
Presented by Labyrinth Dance Theater, the show features thirty renowned dancers, singers and musicians representing a multi-generational and diverse cast, which reflects the diversity and energy of the characters in the piece.
For those who lived through this epoch, it is an opportunity to honor and celebrate the memory of loved ones lost. For younger generations, it’s an important and timely reminder that being able to live authentically as an LGBTQ person is historically very recent, not a guaranteed right, and only possible because of the hard-fought battles of those who came before us.
Where: The Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater
405 West 55thStreet
New York City
More details and video online!
Harvey Fierstein’s TORCH SONG Limited Run
I am SO LUCKY, that as a young gay boy about 22 years old, I think it was 1982, I made it to New York city (from small town Michigan) and got into Studio 54 for an amazing evening and also got to see Harvey Fierstein on Broadway in Torch Song Trilogy with Mathew Broderick and Estelle Getty! ( I had read about the show in After Dark magazine, and seeing the show was the primary reason for my trip).
In that eye opening trip to the big apple I saw amazing clubs that are no longer around. I also met Andy Warhol on that trip! All the things I had read about NYC were true! What a trip! My little gay life would never be the same!
Harvey and the story left such an impression on my soul. I followed Harvey’s career over the years and saw his works whenever I could. He is genius to me, and “an icon.”
So I was THRILLED beyond belief to see Torch Song, a compact version of Torch Song Trilogy, make it to the stage in New York!
And with Michael Urie no less! Who I met in Chicago when he performed “Buyer & Cellar”. He is so wonderfully talented.
It’s magical that Torch Song is at the Hayes Theater, on it’s 35th anniversary, on the same Broadway stage where the Tony Award-winning premiere forever changed the face of popular entertainment. Along with the talented Drama Desk Award Winner Michael Urie, Academy Award winner Mercedes Ruehl shines are Arnold’s mother.
Torch Song Trilogy won Tonys for Best Play and Best Actor in a Play for Fierstein. 3 years on Broadway, it was truly a landmark show!
I am sure most of you know the story, but there may be some younger people reading who do not know the story; This show is fiercely funny and heart-wrenching. Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song follows Arnold
Beckoff’s (Mr. Urie) odyssey to find happiness in New York. All he wants is a husband, a child, and a pair of bunny slippers that fit, but a visit from his overbearing mother (Ms. Ruehl) reminds him that he needs one thing more: respect.
This story was of Arnold’s struggle to be accepted as a young Jewish gay man living in New York City in the late 1970s and ’80s. What’s amazing, in some ways, is that it was powerful then to me; this is pre AIDS, pre gay marriage, PRE EVERYTHING and today the story is still just as powerful.
“Forty years after writing Torch Song, it still speaks to audiences making them laugh and weep and happy,” says Fierstein in a statement. “Unbelievable. And to now return to the theater where it played all those years ago… Beyond wishes… Beyond dreams.. Beyond the most outrageous fantasy.”
“A great play makes you think, and what’s going on in the White House is always in the back of our minds,” Urie told NewNowNext about the timeliness of the revival. “We’re all confused, terrified, and clinging to each other, so Arnold, the ultimate caretaker, is the kind of friend we need right now. Yes, he’s flawed, but he has so much heart and compassion.”
I urge you to see this brilliant show, if you haven’t already! LIMITED RUN!!
Join Arnold on this all too human journey about the families we’re born into, the families we choose, and the battles to bring them all home.
Torch Song is playing at the Hayes Theater at 240 West 44th Street.
Directed by Tony Award nominee Moisés Kaufman
www.torchsongbroadway.com
CHER The new CD and Tour!
SEE THAT GIRL…
WATCH THAT GIRL…
SHE’S THE DANCING QUEEN!
She’s back! At 72 and going strong!
The one and only Cher will released Dancing Queen last week, a new album of all Abba hits by Warner Bros. Records.
The Oscar, Emmy and Grammy Award winning icon was inspired to record the album following her stunning performance in the recently-released mega-hit film, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
Commented Cher: “I’ve always liked Abba and saw the original Mamma Mia musical on Broadway three times. After filming Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, I was reminded again of what great and timeless songs they wrote and started thinking ‘why not do an album of their music?’ The songs were harder to sing than I imagined but I’m so happy with how the music came out. I’m really excited for people to hear it. It’s a perfect time.”
Dancing Queen was recorded and produced in London and Los Angeles with Cher‘s longtime collaborator Mark Taylor, who previously produced Cher‘s global smash “Believe” which was number one in over 50 countries. And it does not disappoint! I truly love the last song on CD I think the best, “One of Us”.
Cher is scheduled to be awarded a Kennedy Center Honor on December 2nd in Washington DC.
She is a co-producer of the The Cher Show, the upcoming Broadway musical opening on December 3rd ( we saw it in Chicago and LOVED IT!) 35 smash hits! Info here.
She is currently performing a residency at MGM Resorts. Get tickets HERE!
NEW TOUR – The Here We Go Again Tour is the seventh solo concert tour by American singer-actress Cher in support of her twenty-sixth studio album Dancing Queen. It is the first time the singer tours Oceania since her Living Proof: The Farewell Tour in 2005. The tour started on September 21, 2018 and will finish on May 18, 2019.
Cities with Ticket links HERE
RuPauls DragCon 2018 NYC!
During the final weekend of September, tens of thousands of people will fill New York’s Javits Center. Many will be dressed in colorful wigs and fierce heels; they’ll flock to panels for over-the-top makeup tutorials and fashion runway shows. Others will wait in line to meet former contestants from hit reality TV show “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” and they’ll buy merchandise such as “Charisma” pins and “Oh, Pit Crew!” underwear. All this for a $40-a-day ticket.
Welcome to DragCon, or more specifically, RuPaul’s Dragcon, the multimillion-dollar extravaganza that’s the drag industry’s answer to comic con.
Debuted on the West Coast in 2015 off the success of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” DragCon now happens twice a year: September in New York — Sept. 28 through 30 this year — and May in Los Angeles, California. And it’s become big business.
“In New York at the Javitz Convention Center, DragCon sold out its first year” in 2017, Fenton Bailey, executive producer of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and co-creator of DragCon with fellow executive producer Randy Barbato, tells CNBC Make It. Andre Charles, better known as RuPaul, is a partner in DragCon, according to the company.
Last September, at the New York and Los Angeles conventions, over $8 million worth of merchandise — particularly wigs, makeup and “Drag Race” merchandise such as T-shirts — sold on the convention floor, he says. That doesn’t include the $40 entrance fee ($70 for the whole weekend) each of the 35,000 attendees had to pay in N.Y.C.
In its near decade on the air, it’s not only entertained, it has also helped introduce much of America to drag and its community. The show features contestants outside of their drag clothes, talking about personal hardships like being unaccepted in society or their family. In addition to Emmys, in 2010 the show won Outstanding Reality Program at the GLAAD Media Awards, for fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBTQ community and surrounding issues.
Read more about the Money Making Sensation HERE
THREE DAYS OF ART, POP CULTURE, AND ALL THINGS DRAG – SEPTEMBER 28, 29, AND 30
JAVITS CENTER
WIGSTOCK Returns to New York City 201
WIGSTOCK, the legendary annual event that dominated drag culture from 1985 until 2003, is being relaunched Saturday, September 1, during Labor Day weekend by feisty festival founder Lady Bunny and Tony Award winner Neil Patrick Harris.
The day-long event will take place at the gorgeous new Pier 17 Rooftop in New York City’s Seaport District starting at 2PM and going until 10PM. This event will occur rain or shine.
Official Wigstock Design By ©Tabboo! 2018, courtesy Gordon Robichaux, NY
TICKETS– (Click image above for tickets!)
GENERAL ADMISSION
$95.00 + Ticketmaster Fees
(*YES, $95. Fee’s explained below)
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THE PYRAMID PASS
$250 +Ticketmaster Fees
BENEFITS:
Exclusive surrounded-by-the-action standing ticket in VIP section (Front of Stage & Runway)
VIP post-show backstage afterparty with Drag Queen performers and other cast members
T-Shirt custom designed especially for WIGSTOCK 2.HO by Tabboo!
Commemorative poster
Two (2) Complimentary Drink Tickets
Portion of each Pyramid Pass ticket benefits GMHC (Gay Men’s Health Crisis)
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THE WIGSTOCK VERY IMPORTANT QUEEN EXPERIENCE
$1000 + Ticketmaster Fees (Limited Quantities)
BENEFITS:
Exclusive premium VVIP Seating in the VVIP Riser, the only seated section at the event
Premium Open Bar and Food
Exclusive access to the dedicated VVIP lounge and service area
T-Shirt custom designed especially for WIGSTOCK 2.HO by Tabboo!
Autographed commemorative poster (principal cast members including Lady Bunny and Neil Patrick Harris)
VVIP lanyard
Exclusive VVIP reception directly after the show with Lady Bunny and Neil Patrick Harris
VIP post-show backstage afterparty with Drag Queen performers and other cast members
Portion of each VIQ Experience ticket benefits GMHC (Gay Men’s Health Crisis)
*fee’s explained. People have no idea, what costs are involved in throwing a huge event of this magnitude!
Lady Bunny explains. “Hey! I was thrilled by the positive response to Wigstock returning. I wasn’t thrilled by the disappointment from some when they learned that the cheapest tickets were $95—apart from a few blocks of $18.95 tickets. If you think that’s too high, then you know I think it is. When I post about DJing Sundays at The Monster, my favorite thing to type is “Free!” at the end. When I performed Trans-Jester! for two years at Stonewall Inn, I loved making tickets affordable to most at $19.99.
I shun VIP anything, so you know that way higher than $95 VIP tickets was not my idea. Some forget that when we moved the event from Tompkins Square Park to the much larger piers, the production costs grew and we had two choices: to charge admission or not put on the show. We felt so guilty about charging at all that we donated 1/2 of our net profits to GMHC. This year’s tickets sales also contribute a portion to GMHC. So if you think I’m gouging, please know that gouging just isn’t in my nature.
I hope you’ll understand that the last outdoor, full-fledged Wigstock was around 17 years ago. And I’m sure you’ve noticed that the city has changed a lot since then, and is far more upscale. Tompkins Square Park’s bandshell is razed and that rusty pier is shut. I used to pay a permit fee of $50 to the Parks Dpt. for the use of Tompkins Square. The new space costs $35,000 to roll in equipment and use for rehearsals the day before, and $75,000 to use the day of the show and then roll the equipment back out. A whopping $66,000 go to union wages. I was never in charge of Wigstock’s finances, but lordy did I gag at the over $15,000 “filing fee” on this year’s budget. I was too defeated to even ask what that filing fee was for. But we lost our first location and then found this brand new, rooftop concert venue Pier 17 where Diana Ross will perform later in September. If it’s good enough for her, it’s good enough for me, I thought. It is gorgeous, and the view of water in the back and a wall of skyscrapers beside the stage is splendid and unique. But not at all cheap.
We’re also paying performers this time around, which only ever happened the two years we did that Wigstock-themed cruise. I’m happy about that, but paying 50+ performers adds up.
Around 13 of them are from out of town and they must be flown in and housed in hotels for two nights because the show starts at 3PM. They can’t arrive the day of the show from LA or SF, and the show needs Lina and Candis and Glamamore and Alaska and Juanita More and Latrice to rule. And if the oldest performing drag queen in the US—Darcelle XV from Portland–needs an assistant along her trip, then I want to provide two tickets for her. Bianca Del Rio will literally wipe off her make-up backstage and hop a flight directly from the festival to Sweden for a gig which pays her more than I ever could. So if her assistant carrying her extra bags of merch needs to accompany her, I want to pay for that. (I never said her plane would actually land, however.)
A bus for the 8 acts coming from Provincetown costs thousands to hire for 24 hours. But these gals have been doing back to back shows all summer and have taken the day off on their last weekend to lose money at Wigstock, departing at 4AM from P’town and back that same night. To me, they are all drag stars who are doing me a huge favor by appearing at all. I can’t repay them with a crappy bus which signals to them that I’m not concerned with their comfort. And have you seen Dina Martina and Ryan Landry? They definitely need to catch up on some beauty rest en route! Desmond Is Amazing needs edits on his track—that comes out of my own pocketbook and I’m happy to pay it. The festival didn’t last for 20+ years because I have a reputation of mistreating talent–or Flotilla. But the costs incurred by talent and the splashy new venue naturally get transferred to ticket buyers.
Most agree that our line-up is a sensational. And while $95 IS pricey, the show is 6 hours long. I totally understand that it may not be affordable for everyone, but that’s what it costs to bring Wigstock back—which is what people all over the world have begged me to do for decades. So we are back on Saturday, September 1st, and I sure hope you can make it!
