Following up on the popularity of her appearances at “Fag Bash,” “Showgirls,” and other festive events in P’town last summer, Tawny Heatherton will arrive this yuletide season to debut her own blonde-swept brand of sunny, funny cheer with the holiday show
A Very Tawny Christmas! for one-night-only at the Crown & Anchor in Provincetown, MA. With onstage musical direction by John Thomas, and a special guest appearance by Bulgarian diva Elena Mancheva,
A Very Tawny Christmas! will perform on Friday, December 23rd at 8PM in The Crown Cabaret at the Crown & Anchor, 247 Commercial Street in Provincetown, MA. All tickets are $15, and can be obtained in-person at the box office, or by calling 508-487-1430, or online at
www.onlyatthecrown.com.
WHO IS TAWNY HEATHERTON?
Purportedly the niece of Serta Mattress superstar Joey Heatherton, Tawny is the newest theatrical creation of Obie Award winner David Drake (
The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me). Not one to stay in the shadow of her famous and talented aunt, Tawny is also a showbiz survivor of the ‘80s European disco zeitgeist -- with her breakout hit, “Run Crazy Man!”. Underneath the glitz and glamour (and hardscrabble life of being a “one-hit-wonder”), Tawny still retains the hopeful, happy nature of her childhood upbringing with the People of the Rainbow tribe.
In
A Very Tawny Christmas!, Tawny will sing songs of the season while telling stories of wandering the world as a “Rainbow Warrior!” These include Tawny’s stint as a USO dancer with Bob Hope (“Christmas in Nicaragua... now there’s a memory!”), her escapades as a disco queen, her starlet days (as a bit player on Knot’s Landing), and her wash-a-shore journey to Provincetown -- by getting on the wrong bus after a night of partying at Mohegan Sun. Naturally, Tawny will do a some dancing.**
BIOS:
DAVID DRAKE is an actor-writer-director who washed ashore in Provincetown from NYC in 2008. Best-known as the Obie Award-winning playwright/performer of
The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, one of the longest-running solo shows in NY theater history, David has also starred off-Broadway in
Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (succeeding Charles Busch for 856 performances), originated the role of “Miss Deep South” in the musical smash
Pageant, as well as co-starring with Jim J. Bullock in
End of the World Party at the 47th St. Theater, and with B.D. Wong in
A Language of Their Own at The Public. His TV credits: LAW & ORDER, THE BEAT, NY UNDERCOVER, and LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT. Feature films: Jonathan Demme’s Academy Award-winning Philadelphia, as well as It’s Pat, Naked in New York, David Searching, Bear City, Longtime Companion, and starring in his own adaptation of The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me. As a stage director, David has twice been a Directing Fellow at the Sundance Theater Lab, and has directed new works in New York at The Public’s “Under the Radar” Festival, Joe’s Pub, Rattlestick, Theater for the New City, and the NYC International Fringe Festival. Regionally, David has directed productions in San Francisco, Baltimore, Anchorage, and this past fall returned to the Provincetown Theater Company on Cape Cod to direct the critically acclaimed world premiere of Myra Slotnick’s drama
The Weight of Water. Previously in P’town, David directed the premiere of David Parr’s
Slap & Tickle, the New England premiere of Brad Faser’s
Poor Super Man, and the acclaimed revival of Thornton Wilder’s classic
Our Town. Most recently in New York, David was a director of the 2009 world premiere of Taylor Mac’s
The Lily’s Revenge at Here, which made the “10 Best Lists” in The New Yorker, The NY Post, The Advocate, Paper Magazine, and won a 2010 Village Voice Obie Award.
JOHN THOMAS is a Provincetown-based composer, pianist, music director, actor, photographer, writer and event producer. A man of many talents, his long list of credits includes composing
Pure PolyESTHER: a biblical burlesque (with Abe Rybeck) and music for theater productions from Provincetown to Cape Cod Community College. He wrote and performed the solo show
Spontaneous Me: A Night with Walt Whitman. He has been music director for
Hair,
Cabaret,
The Wild Party,
Naked Boys Singing,
Working,
Candide, and other shows. He portrayed Cosme McMoon, Florence Foster Jenkin’s flamboyant pianist, in
Souvenir, Mashkan, the Viennese vocal coach, in
Old Wicked Songs and Tevye in
Fiddler on the Roof. He has performed at Boston Symphony Hall, in California, New Hampshire and Connecticut, and on the Greek island of Mykonos. His music is featured in films and his photographs have been exhibited in Provincetown’s museums and Berta Walker Gallery. His compact disc of original music is titled Composing Myself.
johnwthomas.com.
ELENA MANCHEVA was born in the small town of Sandansky in Bulgaria, fifteen miles north of the border of Greece. She grew up listening to and performing Bulgarian traditional music with her father (who is a professional musician). Elena received her bachelor’s degree in music teaching at the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. During the past year, she has performed Bulgarian and American music in Provincetown at the Monday Night Coffeehouse at The Mews, the Waterford, the Celebration of Life annual concert, and at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater.
Her trademark phrase “Slurp!” has become an epidemic, and she currently headlines at Vlada, Stonewall and Splash. Her hosting skills have landed her with Logo, the Grammercy Club, Gotham Comedy Club, Pride, Fire Island and corporate events for Rite-Aid and Microsoft. Michael Musto of the Village Voice says “Paige is the Holly Golightly of drag,” and the NY Times says “Paige ALWAYS gets everyone to sing along.”
The acting in the piece is strong, with particular praise going to Wetherbee for his child-like Gabriel, and Hebb for her comic timing. Michael Komala does an excellent job with a potentially difficult part (playing a disembodied voice is no doubt challenging). Stewart and Le Vasseur acquit themselves well, as usual, with Le Vasseur doing particularly effective work with Henry's longing - whether it be for love or to create a legacy.
