Gay Theatre NYC Review

Tonight at Industry-Bar - Marty Thomas Presents: Diva

2012-01-16T14:14:00.003-05:00

Grammy nominated recording artist and Broadway performer, Marty Thomas (Xanadu, Secret Garden, Wicked) prepares to redefine the nightclub scene with his new act Marty Thomas Presents: Diva at the hottest spot in Hell's Kitchen. With Industry-Bar dominating every happy hour crowd of the week in the heart of the Theatre District, it only seemed fitting that the neighborhood destination finally brings the cabaret-style spotlight back center stage. Industry-Bar and Thomas are breathing life back into the doldrums and monotony of a Music-less Monday night.

Bob Pontarelli the proprietor of Industry-Bar describes the event: "The Divas night is a weekly salute to all the divas we know and love from film, recordings and video...from Madonna, Tina, and Aretha, to Gaga and Beyoncé...the list is endless! The centerpiece each week is a live tribute featuring the biggest, belting, show-stopping voices on Broadway. What's not to love?"

"Diva will hit home with the theatre crowd," Thomas explains. "It'll be a brand new show every week, featuring diva material - all the songs that fans like to hear, but in a new light. This is really a way to feature and celebrate some wonderful female talent."

Diva promises a return to glamour and the theatrics lost onto a culture starved for original performers, who sing live and regaled their adoring audiences in fabulous fashions. "It'll be more burlesque/cabaret/concert and less karaoke," elaborated Marty, who is not only the MC of the weekly Monday night event, but will be musically arranging and conceptualizing the varying themes. The girls, emerging starlets in their own rites are pop-songstresses Kelly King (Michael Bolton and Babyface), singer-actress Marissa Rosen (My Big Gay italian Wedding), and Anne Fraser Thomas (How the Grinch Stole Christmas).

"The girls will be working as a group, providing three-part harmonies," continued Thomas, "they will also be featured as solo artists." They will be performing some favorite popular standards, hits made famous by Whitney, Celine, Barbra, Mariah, Aretha and other divas throughout history.

Each week, the divas are joined by a guest act from the Broadway stage, recording or dance industry. Past guests have included Orfeh, Ramona Keller, Leslie Kritzer, Sabra Johnson, Felicia Finley, Alysha Umphress, Carly Jibson, Rachel Potter, Celina Carvajal, Christine Pedi, Emma Hunton and many more.

Monday Jan. 16, Rachelle Rak will grace the diva stage as special guest. DIVA will be celebrating the release of her new video, "Snapshots", just one week before her new one woman show "I'm in" opens at Le Poisson Rouge. The video will be debuted and Rachelle will perform some of her hits live.

Nicknamed “Sas”, Rachelle began her dance training at the age of 2 under the direction of her mother, Rosalene, at the Rosalene Kenneth Professional Dance Studio in Pittsburgh. Rachelle is very involved with the studio and teaches class on occasion, as well as serving as the school’s Executive Director. She has been labeled as a Triple Threat on Broadway for her immeasurable talent in dance, singing, and acting. Rachelle was presented with the award for outstanding achievement in the world of dance from Dance Educators of America. She has made a huge impact on the Broadway and Musical Theatre community. A few of her impressive credits include leading roles in:

Catch Me If You Can, Cats, Starlight Express, West Side Story, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Fosse, Thou Shalt Not, Oklahoma!, The Look of Love, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Sessions, and An Evening at the Carlyle

She has performed in countless concerts and productions at New York City’s Town Hall, and has been a crowd favorite time and again in many Encores Productions. Her talent doesn’t cease at the stage. She can be found on screen in commercials for eBay, and played a reoccurring role on the soap opera series “Another World” as well as a feuture in the documentry "Every Little Step". You can find her performing on the 1999 seasons of the Rosie O’Donnell Show and the Jay Leno Show. She is also the spoke’s person for Pittsburgh Brewing Co’s I C Light, and has had the honor of singing the National Anthem at an Orlando Magic NBA Basketball Game. Rachelle has the pleasure of serving as a teacher and judge for the L.A. Dance Explosion, the National Finals of Access Broadway, and DEA competitions.

Rachelle has also lent her talents to many jobs behind the scenes, including the position of Dance Captain for Starlight Express America, Assistant Choreographer to critically acclaimed On The Twentieth Century, choreographing the Fringe Festival show, "VOTE" , "Evening at the Carlyle", and Additional Choreography for "Sessions". In 1993, she was voted 2nd best performer in a musical in Europe. She has had a substantial contribution to the worlds of musical theatre and dance and is revered as one of Broadway’s most talented performers.

Rak can be seen in her new one woman show I'M IN, an intimate look at the path of a Broadway starlet. Shows are Sunday, January 22nd at 7:00 PM, and Monday, January 23rd at 10:30 PM at Le Poisson Rouge, 165 Bleecker Street. Tickets are $40 for premium seating (limited availability) $30 for reserved seating and $25 for general admission. Please visit the Le Poisson Rouge website to purchase tickets lepoissonrouge.com. Reservations recommended, running time is 55 minutes.

It's Back! Shocks & Ccks 3: Cold Ccked - All Nude All Dude Review

2011-12-27T22:54:00.001-05:00

Santa's got six more packages just for you at burlesque impresario Jonny Porkpie's latest all male burlesque, Shocks & Cocks 3: Cold C*cked. The outrageous all-nude, all-dude revue returns with a brand-new holiday tale that will warm the cockles of your heart. The cast of the original Shocks & C*cks -- including international boylesque superstar Tigger!, Mat "Sealboy" Fraser, Hard Cory, Ferro, Albert Cadabra and host Jonny Porkpie -- return for a night of seasonal cheer.Chances are stockings aren't going to be the only thing that get stuffed at this show.

Jonny Porkpie presents SHOCKS & C*CKS 3: COLD C*CKED
Starring: Jonny Porkpie, Albert Cadabra, Ferro, Hard Cory, Mat "Sealboy" Fraser, Tigger
Thursday, December 29 at 10:00pm
The Kraine, 85 East 4th Street New York, NY 10003
Price: $20
For more information, visit jonnyporkpie.com or horsetrade.info

Photo by Beau Allulli

TONIGHT: A Very Tawny Christmas!

2011-12-23T15:56:00.001-05:00

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.

Colton Ford Gives Us the Naked Truth About "A Molly Jolly Christmas"

2011-12-20T21:06:00.000-05:00

By Byrne Harrison

Maybe you know this Peace Bisquit / Woop Woop recording star from his albums, Tug of War and Under the Covers. Perhaps you saw the documentary about his music career, "Naked Fame." Then again, maybe you're familiar with some of his more adult endeavors. But however you know him, chances are Colton Ford made an impression.

Now you have a chance to see Colton in a new light, as a participant in the must-see Christmas cabaret of the season, Molly "Equality" Dykeman's A Molly Jolly Christmas. I had a chance to catch up with Colton (and Molly, as you'll see) and ask him about Molly, his career and what 2012 holds for him.

Colton, you're known as, well, a man's man. Molly is a fan of the lovely ladies. Other than both being unbelievably butch, you don't seem to have too much in common. How did you wind up being part of A Molly Jolly Christmas?

Well the fact that I came out of a vagina I think spoke to her. You know Molly. Any vagina reference and it's on!!

Yes, Molly can be a little Pavlovian that way. Now anyone who knows Molly knows that this show will feature lovely ladies, humor, poetry, and as you mentioned, vagina references. What can we expect to see from you at the show?

True testosterone. I'll show you the man Molly really wants to be. And you can expect to hear some hot music too!

Who'll be in the show with you and Molly?

(At this point, Molly "Equality" Dykeman, who has been sitting nearby eating Cheetos--no nachos on the menu apparently, perks up and joins the interview)

I'll field this question, Colton. Why don't you just sit there and look pretty? My friend Michael Musto of The Village Voice is going to stop by. He graduated from an Ivy League school and I've slept with a lot of Ivy League ladies so I think we'll have a lot to talk about. The sexy and talented Victoria Libertore will be performing one of the most twisted Liza's to hit the stage in a long time, and then I usually invite someone I met on the subway to come and do the show. There's so much great talent on the F train. I tried to get the Mariachi band to come play but they turned me down. Thankfully,Colton said yes.

(Molly started to say more, but was distracted by a leggy Latina and wandered away.)

Wow, okay then. So Colton, you've had a... remarkably varied career. Looking back on all of it, what would you say was the highest point so far?

There have been several memorable moments over my career. When I was signed to acclaimed songwriter, Denise Rich, got a major label deal, and was paired up with Frankie Knuckles all in the same year. That was really cool! Performing in Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour two years ago was brilliant. Singing with Chaka Khan was amazing. Also, just having all the music that I have out there is a great accomplishment.

Given all that you've done in 2011, I imagine 2012 is going to be an even busier year for you. What do you have coming up? Will we see you back onstage soon?

Well, I've been back on two Off-Broadway stages just this month, and hope to continue in 2012. I've got a new album coming out, "The Way I Am," which includes collaborations with Nervo, Chris Willis, Wawa, Redtop, Razor N Guido to name a few. I also have a stripped down, more acoustic EP coming out around fall of 2012. Other things are brewing for the New Year, but I ain't gonna share just yet!

Well, that's a bit of a tease, but I suppose I can wait. So let's do a hypothetical. If I could grant you any performance wish, what would be your dream gig?

Being able to gig at Madison Square Garden would be one!!

And if you could collaborate with anyone on your next album, who would it be?

Well, I've been really fortunate to work with some amazing people throughout my career. It would be cool to collaborate with Darkchild. Missy Elliott. Gaga.

Well, let's hope they see this. Since it's the holidays, what are your Christmas plans?

Chillin' at home.

What's your dream date for the perfect New Year's Eve?

Bringing in the New Year with my partner, and just enjoying where the evening takes us!

Since Molly hasn't come back, how about a little question about her? I can only imagine what Molly is like in rehearsals and backstage. Any good gossip to share?

None. Molly is a pleasure. Vagina-focused for sure, but a sweetie!

Molly, Colton, Michael Musto and Victoria Libertore can be seen in the final performance of A Molly Jolly Christmas at the Laurie Beechman Theatre at 42nd St. and 9th Ave. (inside the West Bank Cafe) on Thursday, December 22nd at 7:30 PM.

Mama Rose Through the Years

2011-12-16T21:14:00.001-05:00

Thank you for being a friend...

2011-12-14T11:08:00.000-05:00

By Byrne Harrison

On December 17th, Hunter Auction Galleries will be holding an auction made of the items from various estates. Included in the auction are items from Rue McClanahan's New York apartment. Among them are the expected "Golden Girls" items, but also a Wicked package, and a personal letter from Rue describing her work as an understudy to Marian Seldes and Brenda Vacarro in Father's Day, and another personal letter from 1957 written backstage at a theatre.

Visit Live Auctioneers to see (and bid on) the items.

I've a Feeling We're Not in Kansas Anymore

2011-12-13T20:15:00.000-05:00

By Byrne Harrison

Last week I had a unique opportunity to see a pair of ruby slippers from "The Wizard of Oz." Not just any pair, mind you, but the pair that were used during the close-up when Dorothy clicked her heels together and said, "There's no place like home."

The shoes are expected to sell for more than $3 million this week at auction. Visit the website for more information about the auction (and check out some of the other items up for bid - Bert Lahr's Cowardly Lion costume, Marilyn Monroe's wedding ring).

While seeing the ruby slippers was a bit of a thrill, it was only one part of an amazing afternoon. The viewing was held in conjunction with the Hotel Plaza Athénée's afternoon tea service. The afternoon tea, with its plates full of tiny sandwiches and tiered serving trays piled with delectable sweets, was charming. As was "The Wizard of Oz"-themed music, featuring a keyboard player and violinist performing songs from the film. There was even a strolling magician performing sleight of hand.

The afternoon tea, held in the stylish, yet comfortable Arabelle restaurant in the hotel, was the perfect event to complement the ruby slippers display. And that's not just the ruby-tinted champagne talking.

Dorothy was right, there is no place like home. But considering that my home is a cramped one-bedroom in Queens, I'm more than happy to spend an afternoon enjoying the elegence of some place not at all like home. My next trip to the Plaza Athénée will probably not involve "The Wizard of Oz" or ruby slippers, but I know it will be just as much of a treat.

About The Plaza Athénée: One of the most well-respected hotels in the world, New York City’s Hôtel Plaza Athénée provides European grandeur with the intimacy of a boutique hotel. Located on the fashionable Upper East Side of Manhattan on a quiet tree lined street, the hotel offers a unique relaxing atmosphere surrounded by refined townhouses. One short block from Central Park and steps from Madison Avenue, the Plaza Athenee is the perfect getaway from Midtown Manhattan and a welcoming retreat after a long day of seeing the sights.

"A Molly Jolly Christmas" - A Comic Christmas Treat

2011-12-13T08:58:00.004-05:00

Review by Byrne Harrison
Dancing Molly photo by Laura Turley
Molly and presents photo by Ron Lasko
Cross-posted from StageBuzz.com

Molly "Equality" Dykeman is a slightly bewildered, pill-popping, mullet-sporting, Cheetos-munching, lesbian security guard/poet, who wants nothing more than to put on a Christmas show to remember, full of leggy, stacked dancers and hot, downtown performers. The results are a cringe-inducing train wreck.

While that could be the kiss of death for most shows, it is exactly what A Molly Jolly Christmas is supposed to be. Molly is the wacky and delightful creation of Andrea Alton, the talented actress and comic, who has been performing as her alter-ego for several years now and most recently kicked some downtown ass in The F*cking World According to Molly at FringeNYC. She also performs as Molly throughout the city at events as diverse as Butch Burlesque and Will Clark's Porno Bingo.

A Molly Jolly Christmas is an absolute riot. Molly is in rare form as she performs her poetry (a good deal of her poetic style can be inferred from just the title of her first poem: "I Wanna Fuck Meredith Baxter Birney," which is, amazingly, the least offensive of her poems), dances with her leggy dancers, the Mollettes (Victoria Smalc and Meliza Fernandez), and introduces her guest stars. And, oh my, the guest stars. While the line-up changes for each performance, her show on Friday, December 9th, included a flamenco dancer/comedian (Inma Heredia), a Lady Gaga impersonator (Athena Reich), a twitchy monologist (Allen Warnock) who performed a dramatic reading from "Gremlins," and The World Famous *BOB*, the amazing burlesque star whose take on "Hard Candy Christmas" from Best Little Whorehouse left the crowd speechless. Upcoming shows will feature performance artist Shelly Mars, singer/actor/former porn god Colton Ford, burlesque star Vicky Sin, actress Victoria Libertore, and Village Voice columnist and man-about-town, Michael Musto.

In between acts, Molly reminisces about her childhood, reads her Christmas letter to Jesus (she's a little unclear on the whole concept), and dances. That's right, dances. Watching Molly and her Mollettes perform "Xanadu" (choreographed by the terrific John Paolillo) is worth the price of admission.

If you're tired of the sugar-plum, treacly Christmas shows that abound this time of year, but you still want something with a good heart and plenty of Christmas spirit, A Molly Jolly Christmas is the show to see.

A Molly Jolly Christmas

Written and performed by Andrea Alton

Directed by Mark Finley

Choreography by John Paolillo

December 6, 9, 13 and 22 at 7:30 PM

The Laurie Beechman Theatre

407 W. 42nd St (at 9th Avenue) in the West Bank Cafe

Tickets: $18 (plus a $15 food/drink minimum)

http://www.spincyclenyc.com/

Someone's Been Taking Liberties With a Mamma Mia Sign

2011-12-10T23:40:00.002-05:00

There's No Place Like Home

2011-12-04T21:01:00.000-05:00

THE ORIGINAL WIZARD OF OZ RUBY SLIPPERS ON DISPLAY AT PLAZA ATHENEE – DECEMBER 5, 2011

The Wizard of Oz’s Ruby Slippers will be the stars of an exclusive Afternoon Tea at the Plaza Athénée in New York on December 5, 2011 from 4-6pm.

This private viewing of the original screen used Ruby Slippers worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz” will be a onetime special event at the Hotel Plaza Athénée before they go to auction on December 16th in California presented by Profiles in History. The pair on display was used when Dorothy clicks her heels three times to return to Kansas, stating “There’s no place like home.” The slippers are appraised in excess of $3 million. Additional information can be found on the website http://www.profilesinhistory.com/

“We are extremely proud to organize this magical afternoon which is a perfect way to celebrate the holiday season,” said Bernard Lackner, General Manager of the Plaza Athénée. “Our hotel has had a long history of welcoming some of the greatest movie stars from Hollywood. Hosting the Ruby Slippers is nothing short of hosting a moment of American movie history,” he added. “There is no place like home” will be the Plaza Athénée for one day only.”

All attendees of this special event will have a unique opportunity to have an up close and personal look at the iconic pair of shoes. Ever since the movie was released, the Ruby Slippers have become one of the most iconic artifacts of American culture. Generation after generation, mothers and daughters have grown with the magic of Dorothy.

“I am thrilled to be working with the Plaza Athénée to bring the fabled Ruby Slippers to NYC for a once in a lifetime private viewing of the most iconic film artifact in the world," said Joe Maddalena, owner of Profiles in History.

To reserve your table, please contact: Cheryl Plonski, Director of Sales and Marketing at 212-606-4635.

Full afternoon tea served. Price: $75 per person. Taxes and gratuities are not included.

Space is limited.

About The Plaza Athénée:One of the most well-respected hotels in the world, New York City’s Hôtel Plaza Athénée provides European grandeur with the intimacy of a boutique hotel. Located on the fashionable Upper East Side of Manhattan on a quiet tree lined street, the hotel offers a unique relaxing atmosphere surrounded by refined townhouses. Located one short block from Central Park and steps from Madison Avenue, the Plaza Athenee is the perfect getaway from Midtown Manhattan and a welcoming retreat after a long day of seeing the sights. There’s plenty to see and do from this wonderfully central location.

Oh, Mary… "Little House on the Ferry"

2011-11-30T07:29:00.000-05:00

Review by Nic Dris

Photos by Iannelli Photography & Peter Lau Photography

It’s a tale as old as Falcon Studios time. A group of gay friends go on vacation somewhere with hidden dunes, alcohol, and men. Drama happens when a sexy boy gets added into the mix. Said group of friends sleep with each other and knockdown brawls reach intense peaks. However, there’s always a happy ending on the horizon (…after the after-party).

Set on a present-day early summer weekend, a band of friends travel to Fire Island --- a gay man’s Pleasure Island. Leading man Randall (Seph Stanek) is determined to take his relationship to “the next level” with his uptight sophisticated boyfriend Timothy (Sean Loftus). Newbie Antonio (Kit Balcuns) wants to get the entire Fire Island experience and when he spots their housemate, Max (beloved Colton Ford), love strikes a merry threesome tune. All the while, annoyingly acerbic House Mother Donnie (Matt Rodriquez) lives his youth vicariously through this young clan. What good gay farce isn’t complete without the ex-boyfriend coming out of nowhere though? When Randall’s charming ex-boyfriend Key West Jake (Chris Van Kirk) unexpectedly drops in, Randall must decide which of the two is his true heart’s desire! What’s a boy to do when he’s caught between two boyfriends and their hard place(s)?

Little House on the Ferry shares much in common with your typical night out in Hell’s Kitchen. It always seems like a good idea at first until a little while after it’s started. You may even have some fun and find yourself laughing at the silliest things. A dirty gay joke is funny the first few times, but after twenty of them, you start tuning them out. And there’s always the long, painful regret of the inevitable hangover the next morning and you rethink why you went in the first place. As much fun as this little musical wants you to believe the cast is having, Little House on the Ferry is one doomed sinking ship.

Seph Stanek’s quirky and sweetly mixed-up Randall doesn’t know whether to play the faithful, dedicated boyfriend or the passionate, DJing lovesick puppy to Chris Van Kirk’s endearingly sweet Key West Jake. It’s not that hard when Loftus plays Randall’s boyfriend, Timothy, as vain and self-involved as he does. Speaking of lovesick puppies, gay porn’s critically acclaimed Colton Ford plays the usual part he was born to play – a heartthrob hunk of muscular man flesh. Colton Ford’s huge talents are underutilized except when his character Max hums an addictive risqué tune, “After Hours,” where tableaus of various sexual positions are illustrated downstage (to their fullest). After all, what’s a good Colton Ford project without a little group sex?

The hard working ensemble does their best to act beyond their rock hard abs and pop-infused voices while playing their campy stereotypically Adonis roles with stand-out numbers such as the deer-led “Jump That Fence.” A boy band of deer serenade the drugged out Randall to make a decision about the two men in his Fire Island life.

Little House on the Ferry carries club-hoppin' show tunes that you’ll find a hard time thump-a-thumpin’ out of your mind. Their title anthem, “We’re on Fire Island,” showed the ensemble’s own exuberant spirit that was a treat to watch. There were some clunkers that the musical could do without and besides, who needs a song about a “Steroid Queen?” Homage to cult fan favorites like “Grease” is paid with songs such as the silly-school-girl “Did You Score?” This camp piece of work tiptoes on the line of being too earnest with lithe songs like the saccharine sweet “With a Friend Like Me” where House Mother Donnie tries to cheer up Randall. When the musical doesn’t try so hard to be funny and embraces the natural camp of it all, it works at its best.

These men could carry a conversation, but like their meek cosmos --- not very strong. Gould & Wechter’s dialogue carried far too many jokes fueled by endless cheap sexual innuendoes. In the program, there was a Fire Island vocabulary provided in case you couldn’t figure out what really complex terms such as “Bottom,” “Top,” or “Grindr” were. But who needs a vocabulary list? Gould & Wechter’s book stopped mid-action where one character would explain to the other the rules and terminology of Fire Island living. “What’s a ½ Share? Let me tell you!” became the running, tiresome diatribe and dynamic exchanged between these Love! Valour! Compassion! misfit wannabes.

While Wetcher struggled with providing the voices of these men, he even struggled more with providing them a sense of direction. Wechter’s direction left the actors traipsing around the stage with nothing to do (but pat the occasional bottom or four). The pacing for the set changes in between scenes was so awkwardly large that you could carry a full five minute cocktail conversation in between them. Much of the ballads were wrongly played out on the second floor as the ensemble stole the audience’s attention with ballet dance or suggestive sexual staging on the first floor. I’ll admit though --- it’s hard to keep your eyes off an ensemble of chorus boys in speedos.

Considering most of this musical takes place in either a brothel, a townhouse, or a club – the versatile and suggestive set fulfilled its duty to give off a brotherly Fire Island vibe. Leuck’s costume design must have been the simplest job since the boys wore either their underwear or their everyday preppy wear. The clichéd and stereotypically Broadway-styled choreography and musical staging gestures do nothing new to add for the camp factor, except the continual reminder that yes, this IS a gay musical.

Does this musical know what it wants to be? Not quite yet, but it’s getting there. Clocking in at almost three hours, this musical can’t decide whether it wants to be an earnest classic romantic comedy or a campy, farcical work of fluff. Like its leading man Randall who’s too confused with emotions to make a decision about men --- this musical carries that confusion in its tone. It should learn a lesson or two from its doe-stopping number and jump that fence. Little House on the Ferry is one boat ride you can afford to miss catching.

Little House on the Ferry

Featuring: Seph Stanek (Randall), Kit Balcuns (Antonio), Chris Van Kirk (Jake), Sean Loftus (Timothy), Matt Rodriquez (Donnie), Colton Ford (Max)

Conceived by Robert Gould

Co-Authors: Robert Gould & Jeremy Wechter

Music, Lyric, & Composition: Robert Gould & Robert Arbelo

Directed by Jeremy Wechter

Scenic Design by Courtney Smith

Lighting Design by Kate Febles

Costume Design by Vanessa Leuck

Sound Design by Sean Brennan

Choreography by Sean Roschman

Production Stage Manager: Nicole Gross

Presented at the American Theatre of Actors

314 W. 54^th Street

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE FERRY ran through Nov. 20 at ATA.

For more information, see www.littlehouseontheferry.com

Closed: November 20, 2011

Four More Chances to see "Shadow Boxing," Part of the 2011 Brits Off Broadway festival at 59E59 Theaters

2011-11-17T20:08:00.004-05:00

Produced by Cross Cut, SHADOW BOXING is part of THREE BRITISH SOLOS, three solo shows performed in rep. Single tickets are $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 Members). A three-show package is available for $50; a two show package is $35. To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to www.59e59.org. For more information, visit www.britsoffbroadway.com.

Through Sunday, November 20th
Thur at 8:30 PM, Sat at 2:30 PM & 9:30 PM, Sun at 7:30 PM

The son of a boxer who couldn't win, Flynn becomes a successful fighter through utter dedication. But is his gruelling training merely an avoidance tactic? A crisis builds as he moves to the title fight and the drama hurtles to a shattering conclusion.

Jonny Collis-Scurll delivers an emotionally intense and highly physical performance hailed for “effortless precision” (The Scotsman) and called "one of the most intense and hypnotic solo performances of the year" (Broadwaybaby.com).

James Gaddas (playwright) is a British stage and television actor of long experience. He had a continuing role in the iconic television series, Coronation Street. More recently, he played Captain Hook in the British classic, Peter Pan, and was in the West End production of Billy Elliot. In 2005, he was a parliamentary candidate.

Donald Pulford (director) is an Australian director and academic now living in the UK. His Australian production of Weepie won the Members’ Choice Award for Best Production at the Blue Room and the English production won Best Production at the international Absolut Gay Theatre Festival in Dublin. Shadow Boxing achieved five 5-star reviews and a ‘MUST SEE!’ from the British theatre trade paper, The Stage. He is currently rehearsing a play inspired by the music of British cult band, The Smiths.

Jonny Collis-Scurll’s (actor) recent credits include lead roles in two award-winning British productions in international festivals in Dublin and Poland amongst other internationally touring productions and pieces of new writing in the North of England.

"Divine Madness," a Tribute to Bette Midler and Lady Gaga, to Benefit the Trevor Project on Halloween

2011-10-29T18:34:00.000-04:00

An Evening of DIVINE MADNESS

The Divine MISS B. JEN BROOKS & SPECIAL GUESTS

Dance Party & Cash bar follow the show!

Monday, Oct 31st, 2011
9:30 PM - 11:45 PM

An Evening of DIVINE MADNESS

Starring:
The Divine Miss B: Jen Brooks
The Bathhouse Bettie's: Landen Jones as Chelsea Piers & Jared Ross as Velvytte Winters
The Haus of Mimosa's:
Travis Barr as Anita M Buffem
Steven Incammicia as Gina Marie Rittale
Plus Special Guests!

Reservations highly recommended
Dance party and Cash bar to follow show!

All proceeds will go to Trevor Project. http://www.thetrevorproject.org/

Tickets: $20 general admission/ 2-drink minimum
-----------------------------------------------

Three easy ways to get your tickets!
* Purchase your Tickets securely online by credit card
* Or make a Reservation online at no charge and pay cash at the door
* Or call the 24/7 ticket hotline at 1-800-838-3006.

Earl Dax Presents "Pussy Faggot!" Tonight at The Delancey

2011-10-27T08:24:00.001-04:00

Earl Dax Presents
PUSSY FAGGOT!
Guest Co-curated by Edwin Ramora
Resident hosts Penny Arcade & Jordan Fox
Photo booth by Liz Liguori
Door by La China Loca

Thursday, October 27 | 8pm-4am
The Delancey
168 Delancey St. (at Clinton), New York, NY
THREE Floors! 5 DJs! Over 20 Performers! Rooftop Installations! Video Art!
$10 cover / $6 with RSVP to rsvp@pussyfaggot.net

Queer Comedy Showcase at 8p | Open Vodka Bar 9-10p | $3 Well Drinks Midnight-12:30a

It's that time again... PUSSY FAGGOT! returns home to The Delancey for the first time since April. For this edition they have instituted a new "guest co-curator" role, and Edwin Ramoran has exceeded all expectations. Building on his background as a curator for fine art institutions, he has brought a stronger visual arts element to the event with video screenings (including the premiere of a new video by Ivan Monforte, New Sound Karaoke and Robert Melee's "Home Movie Montage"), mixed-media installastions by Jeffrey Owen Ralston, Paulo Rojas, it/EQ (Carol Quispe + Ethan Shoshan) and Jordan Eagles and the roaming performance installation that is Jacolby Satterwhite. Together he and Earl have gone a long way toward making the event more diverse, more inclusive and more surprising -- exactly what was hoped for when the guest co-curator position was conceived.

Things kick off at 8 pm with another PUSSY FAGGOT! first -- a Queer Comedy Showcase hosted by Sirius Radio personality Keith Price and featuring Obie-nominated playwright, performance and comic Marga Gomez. You'll also the exceptional comic talents of Janine Brito, Jessica Halem, Ben Lerman and Greg Walloch.

The open vodka bar happy hour (9-10p) is hosted by This is FYF. Join them at the main bar (street level) for the Monforte and Melee videos as well as music provided by DJ Cody Critcheloe. Cody recently relocated to NYC from Kansas City, and his band Ssion has quickly become one of the most exciting musical acts in town. Street level performances throughout the night by David Antonio Cruz, Raul de Nieves, Lotus Eater Machine and Coco Chizzle.

Downstairs the evening shifts into high gear as Penny Arcade takes the reins as host of a performance set beginning around 10p featuring Warhol poet Taylor Mead, Tomashi Jackson, Machine Dazzle, Nicholas Gorham, and Gio Black Peter. Later in the evening, our late night host, Jordan Fox, is sure to regale you with tales of his adventurous road trip for PUSSY FAGGOT! NOLA. Performances by Lawrence Graham-Brown, Shane Shane, Clifton, Sick Cell, Nana Nazario, Z Collective and Neko (with the House of Old Navy).

DJs throughout the evening include Designer Impostor, Austin Downey, Chauncey Dandridge and Michael Paul, so you know that this is set to turn into a serious late night dance party!

Paige Turner Talks About "So You Think You Can Drag" -- Finale Will Be October 26th

2011-10-20T07:00:00.006-04:00

By Byrne Harrison

Showbiz Spitfire Paige Turner has been working the NYC scene for the past few years - with a little retro flair and a whole lot of showstopping theatrics. She is everybody’s girl, not to mention the ultimate Barbie!

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.”

Paige is also the host of “So You Think You Can Drag” at New World Stages, showcasing the hottest new queens on the scene.

"So You Think You Can Drag" is coming up on its finale (Wednesday, October 26th at 10:30 PM). How has the competition been this year?

Incredible, we've had to turn contestants away. The response has been overwhelming, and everyone who has competed has come to win this thing! I'm very proud of everyone involved both onstage and behind the scenes.

Any highlights that particularly stand out in your memory?

I have to say what stands out is the dedication and the spirit. You know sometimes you forget why you do drag or maybe why you should be doing it. There has been a lot of joy and celebration this year in watching people not only improve each time, but consistently give it their best! It has really been about the performing and entertaining aspects this year.

Who will be judging the finale?

Cast members from Priscilla Queen of the Desert! How perfect right? Emily Mcnamara is our resident judge and my partner in crime throughout the season, and they will join her.

What can the audience expect for the finale?

They can expect a group number with me and the girls, lots of outfits and quick changes, not to mention show stopping performances from last season's winner and other special guests!

I think the audience won't know who to vote for because the final five will be in it to win it! There have been about a dozen girls competing weekly since the start, but we narrow it down to five for the finale.

How did SYTYCD get started?

The producers of New World Stages had an idea for a drag competition -- they have a very successful karaoke competition every year. I judged that and they started talking to me about hosting the drag competition. They brought in promoter Austin Helms from 21st Century Life and we started meeting and discussing how we can make something fresh and different and still celebrate the spirit of drag. Doing it in a theater venue really helps that.

What else is coming up for you this year?

Sleep hopefully! I was just nominated for a GLAMMY Award for Best Comedy Performer! These next few months will be crazy. I have several weddings I'm doing, my 1-year anniversary show for SLURP! at Vlada. Many Halloween shows, then I will be back at New World Stages December 10th for A Paige Turner Christmas with lots of guest stars and special performances. Very much like a retro Xmas TV special! You can find me at www.paigeturnernyc.com or sit on my facebook and watch my demo!

So You Think You Can Drag - Finale
Wednesday, October 26th at 10:30 PM
Lower Theater Lobby of New World Stages
340 W. 50th Street
$5 COVER at the door

"Southern Comfort" - A Polished and Nuanced Production

2011-10-17T11:13:00.000-04:00

Review by Rob Hartmann
Cross-posted from StageBuzz.com

Southern Comfort (playing through October 29^th at CAP 21 Theatre Company) is a new musical adaption of Kate Davis’ award-winning 2001 documentary about the life and death of Robert Eads, a transgender man living in rural Georgia. This polished and nuanced production has the relaxed and comfortable feel of an off-Broadway hit enjoying a long run; the ensemble cast, lead by Annette O’Toole in a striking performance as Eads, creates a world that feels authentic, lived-in and familiar.

The musical (like the documentary) follows Eads in the last year of his life, from Easter through the following winter. Eads, diagnosed with ovarian cancer, found it difficult to find proper medical treatment, as doctors and hospitals claimed their other patients would be made uncomfortable by his presence.

Although the gradual progress of Eads’ illness provides the underlying tension, the musical does not wallow in sentimentality or anger. Instead, the smart and understated book and lyrics by Dan Collins chronicle the close-knit community of individuals surrounding Eads, detailing their family rituals and traditions in tiny Toccoa, Georgia. Robert sings in the opening sequence of a backyard Easter celebration:

Family’s an iceberg we ride into the sea

The parts that break away we gotta lose.

But it could melt entirely and I know I’ll still be

Kept above the water by the family I choose.

Jeff McCarthy (as Lola Cola, left)
and Annette O'Toole (as Robert Eads)
Photo by Matthew Murphy

At the Easter gathering, Robert has invited his new girlfriend, Lola Cola, to meet his “chosen family”, who gather every Sunday: transman Cas and his wife, Stephanie (Todd Cerveris and Robin Skye); and Maxwell, a young transman (the impish Jeffrey Kuhn) who has a sometimes-testy father-and-son relationship with Robert. Lola (played by Urinetown’s Jeff McCarthy, in a sharp performance which evokes a mixture of Allison Janney and Anjelica Huston with a basso Kathleen Turner voice), is less comfortable in her own skin than the others. In one of the standout songs of the evening, “Bird”, Lola sings of her desire to escape her masculine frame and deep voice, as she strips away her women’s attire to resume her everyday male identity, John, proprietor of a heating-and-cooling repair shop.

In the song, McCarthy duets with a member of the band, Lizzie Hagstedt (also playing bass), whose pure soprano is what Lola wishes her own voice could be. Hagstedt and three other actor-musicians (Allison Briner on percussion, David M. Lutken on guitar and Joel Waggoner on violin) function as singing storytellers, occasionally stepping into the story in the roles of outsiders (primarily medical personnel and estranged parents – including standout work from Briner and Lutken as Eads’ mother and father, who stubbornly call him by his birth name, Barbara.) Astonishingly, they all play the score from memory (led by music director and pianist Emily Otto.)

As time passes, Lola becomes part of the circle, while Maxwell finds a girlfriend of his own, transwoman Cori. As the group prepares to attend Southern Comfort, the annual Atlanta transgender conference, conflict arises between Robert and Maxwell over the younger man’s decision to pursue phalloplasty – what the characters refer to as “the bottom surgery.” The script delves into the conflicting opinions surrounding the procedure without becoming didactic.

ROBERT: This is crazy. We always agreed that man or woman was about what’s in your heart and your head, not between your legs.

MAXWELL: Then why’d we start takin’ testosterone? Why’d we get the top surgery?

ROBERT: That’s just about bein’ able to function out in the open as who we are without gettin’ ourselves killed. We gotta pass.

MAXWELL: Well, I want to pass more.

ROBERT: So what does that make me?

MAXWELL: Ain’t about you, it’s about me.

ROBERT: Like Hell it ain’t about me. You think what’s happenin’ to me – my cancer – is just Barbara eatin’ me up inside cuz I ain’t real.

Being ‘real’ and what that means is one of the central themes of the story: in the CAP21 space, the audience surrounds the stage – throughout the evening, you are aware of watching the audience watch the performers. This awareness adds an extra layer of tension to the performance – underlining the constant stress the characters are under to “pass.” Unlike some film-to-stage adaptations, the piece reveals itself to be innately theatrical because it is so much about the actors’ performance of gender, in every variation. This aspect of the show is distilled in the joyous and energetic second act song “Walk the Walk”, when Cori (a luminous Natalie Joy Johnson) leads a seminar on ‘Sensual Feminine Movement’ at Southern Comfort:

Cuz a girl ain’t what she’s wearin’

And a boy ain’t how he’s born.

You’re the moves you make n’ they gotta take you

Past the things you’ve worn

Cuz what a body is or not

Is just a whole lot a’ talk

You gotta walk the walk.

Annette O'Toole (as Robert Eads)
Photo by Matthew Murphy

The cast’s work is subtle, detailed and completely believable. Annette O’Toole, perhaps most widely known for her role as Martha Kent on Smallville, throws herself into the role of Robert Eads in a fearless and full-bodied performance. Her voice, throaty and clear, is well-suited to composer Julianne Wick Davis’ folk and bluegrass score. Davis, also responsible for orchestration, builds interesting instrumental textures, and sensuous, layered vocal harmonies. The music is at times restrained, at times soaring, finding rhythmic complexity in the folk idiom. Occasionally the density of the text setting makes lyrics difficult to catch on first hearing, but the joy of hearing natural, unforced and unmiked voices in the intimate space is worth losing a word or two here and there. Davis makes clever use of vocal ranges, often placing male and female voices in unison.

Robin Skye (as Stephanie, left)
and Todd Cerveris (as Cass)
Photo by Matthew Murphy

The costumes, by Patricia E. Doherty, instantly define character in their bulls-eye specificity, from Robert’s western-cut leather jacket with bolo tie to Lola’s Talbot’s-pantsuit ensembles; the warmly humorous Robin Skye as Stephanie wears Wal-mart pharmacy eyeglass frames exactly right for a particular type of Southern trailer-park gal whose culinary specialty is Snickers salad (“Snickers, green apples, cool whip and vanilla puddin’. Secrets in the puddin’. It’s gotta be instant!”) The hair and wig design by David Brian Brown, along with April Schuller’s makeup design, bring the characters to fully realized life, while never veering into Southern-eccentric caricature. The hair and makeup work comes into play in one small but moving moment when Cas (the low-key and affecting Todd Cerveris) shaves off his beard, as he prepares to visit the family who only know him as their daughter Debbie.

The set, by James J. Fenton, transforms the small CAP21 black box into Robert’s weathered porch and backyard. Shelves illuminated by small sconces filled with curios and bric-a-brac line the walls: closer inspection reveals that the objects are totems of masculinity and femininity (a toy truck, a ‘Skipper’ doll carrying case, a tobacco can.) In one subtle effect, the sconces light up during Robert’s song about his childhood, “Barbara”, illuminating actual photos of Robert Eads as a young girl. (Careful observers will also spot a small photo of Eads as you enter the theater.)

The beautifully textured lighting design, by Ed McCarthy, manages to depict not only the Georgia sun in every seasonal variation from summer to winter, but also the unforgiving harshness of blue-white hospital lights for several crucial sequences.

Thomas Caruso’s fluid direction nimbly handles the script’s shifts from naturalistic scenes to documentary-style direct address, to the more abstract moments when the musicians enter the story as peripheral characters. The pace is leisurely at times, but does not drag: Caruso trusts that the small, nuanced moments of the story will hold our interest (which they do), and does not try to rush the story unduly.

Southern Comfort is also very funny: bookwriter Collins deftly punctuates the script with sly humor that feels true to the characters. The script handles the more emotional moments skillfully, never descending into oversentimentality or cliché. The show stealthily builds to an emotional climax: a substantial percentage of the audience was reaching for tissues to dab at suddenly-moist eyes. The message of Southern Comfort is universal and simple:

Down with living your life under there.

Up with spring.

Oh, spring up everywhere.

With Southern Comfort, CAP21 continues their tradition of presenting intelligent and moving new musicals. One hopes that this production will find the backing it needs to make the transition to an open-ended run. This is a powerful evening.

Southern Comfort runs through October 29 at the CAP21 Black Box Theater, 18 West 18th Street. Show times are Wednesday-Saturday at 7 PM.

Tickets are $18 and are available through OvationTix or online at http://www.cap21.org/.

Matt Alber Hides Nothing For His Provincetown Debut

2011-10-06T23:26:00.002-04:00

Interview by Greg Waagner
Photo by Rob Davidson

On Saturday, October 8th, the Crown and Anchor welcomes Matt Alber to the Paramount for his Provincetown singing debut. Alber released his solo album, "Hide Nothing," in November of 2008, an autobiographical and sentimental collection of love songs reminiscent of singers like Ben Folds, Iron & Wine and Imogen Heap, all of whom Alber counts as influences. Matt enjoyed five years, seven albums and two Grammy awards as a soprano in America's premier classical a cappella ensemble, Chanticleer.

As Matt prepared in Seattle for his first weekend in Provincetown, GT-NYC's Greg Waagner called from the Cape to catch up with the singer about music and life and the upcoming release of Matt’s as-of-yet untitled second album.

Greg Waagner: I won’t be coy, Matt. I think "Hide Nothing" is a beautiful collection of music, and I have no sense that I’m alone in this estimation.

Matt Alber: Aww, thanks Greg.

GW: Have you been surprised by responses to your album?

MA: Yes, all the time.

GW: How so?

MA: I’m surprised every time people show up for the concert, even after three years. I keep thinking this time it’ll be all over and no one will be there. But they do. They keep showing up…and it’s great, and you all really seem to like what I’m doing.

GW: Matt, thank you. I heard “End of the World” for the first time at exactly the ideal moment for me to do so. I already had the breaking heart, but your song - and delightful video - made it okay to feel all the pain and complicated emotions while still shining that ray of sunlight on the hope for what would come after. The power of the song is that it comes from your own real experience. What’s it been like sharing something so personal?

MA: I wrote that on a bus in San Francisco, remember scribbling on a bank statement as it all came to me, notes, chords… and started to feel like it wanted to be a song. Maybe a good one. It’s been cool how this one song has introduced me to so many people.

GW: Did singing him the song get your guy back up in that giant balloon?

MA: What? Oh, it did not. It didn’t work very well in that regard.

GW: But what a song. Your music resonates with honesty and hope and seems to go hand-in-hand with so many great things we’ve seen recently: advances in marriage equality, the It Gets Better campaign, the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. How does it feel to be some part of that, to be making the sort of music that you must have longed to hear as a gay kid growing up in Missouri?

MA: I’m grateful to have survived life as gay kid, to have grown up to be where we are now. I remember, as a little kid, watching a Superman movie and imagining what it would be like to be Lois, to be there in the Fortress and lay my head on a strong man’s chest, to fly with him. You’re right, there is this wave of momentum and it does feel good to be some part of it. It’s good to let young people know that they’re okay, that they have every right love someone, to hold hands. But it’s a little bittersweet, too. It’s exciting to be in the cities of change – New York, San Francisco, Seattle and so on – but in places not at all far away from those cities are other places where there’s nothing for the same kids, except maybe the Internet, with no protections or safety.

There’s a church not far from here that has a program called The Tower of Light, which is essentially teaching young homosexuals that they should “find their holiness” by rejecting what they feel, who they are. It’s outrageous. And I try to figure out why it works and I see how they can suck these kids in and prey on their fears and shame and such that comes of the dark places a young queer kid is still forced to go to find answers, which is usually some cruising spot or Internet sex hook-up website. And all the while they have to sneak around, because ‘it’s wrong.’ They’re told it’s wrong and shameful. And I’m not saying get rid of Manhunt or Craigslist or whatever, those things are fine for adults, but its too easy to click a button and say ‘sure, I’m eighteen’ and find yourself into something more than you were ready for.

GW: I seem to recall at a younger age I really just wanted to talk to someone who felt the same way about things as I did, somebody I could ask all kinds of questions of. Perhaps that’s one of the coolest things about “It Gets Better”, that it is – I hope – something that queer kids can easily find on the Internet that gives them some reason to believe.

MA: Yes, exactly. Dan and Terry hit the nail on the head with this. It Gets Better is so amazing, so positive. We need to keep creating more positive and visible, accessible safe places for young gay kids. We need to keep asking the question, how to make it better. Answering those questions and being part of the change, that makes better futures.

I guess we should be talking about the music more.

[It’s at this point the interviewer wishes he’d had the presence of mind to point out that we were, still, talking about Matt’s music, that he is already creating safe friendly spaces for queers young and old, with his songs about romance and love and heartache and holding hands, songs in which pronouns don’t need to be changed. Songs about self-discovery, like "Monarch," or gay history like "Beotia," in which he pays tribute to the Sacred Band of Thebes and in so doing reminds us there was once a strong and brave army of male lovers who can’t be erased from history.]

GW: Matt, I think we’re all lucky you’ve decided to explore a solo career, but you’ve spent so much of your life involved with chorale groups one way or another. Chorale singing is the sort of powerful experience that sticks with a person. Do you miss it? Are you singing with a chorus these days?

MA: Yes. Yes! I’m blessed to be able to sing with the chorale ensemble Conspirare - which means “to breath together” in Latin - in Austin, Texas. The group was started by Craig Hella Johnson, who brought me into Chanticleer back in San Francisco. In early December there’s a sort of non-Christmas Christmas concert: there’s so very much to celebrate in the season beyond Christ and we have a great time.

GW: Your show at the Crown and Anchor this Saturday is, I believe, your singing debut in Provincetown, but is this also your first trip to the Cape of Cods?

MA: Yes, finally! Ever since I saw the movie “Splash” I’ve wanted to visit the Cape. It’s where he meets Daryl Hannah. So often I’ve wanted to dive into the sea and the arms of a beautiful mer-man.

GW: So Matt, are you traveling with a Field Trip Buddy to Provincetown this weekend?

MA: Yes, my boyfriend’s coming along on the trip and we’re looking forward to it.

GW: What’s on your Must See/Must Do list for the weekend?

MA: We don’t really have a list. We’ll be on the red-eye Wednesday, so at first just a lot of recovery from that, but we’re looking forward to walking around and taking it all in, exploring the town. Saturday is the concert, so most of that day I’ll be rehearsing, getting ready for that. You might find us out dancing at some point.

What about you, Greg? Are you bringing a Field Trip buddy to the show?

GW: Oh, no. Not really. I guess I’m sort of comfortably single these days. But it has been about three years now since the End of the World, so I keep an open mind. For now I’m content to be in love with our whole tribe.

MA: Three’s a magic number, you know. Better bring that open mind on Saturday. Sometimes things happen at my shows, between the people who show up. I’m just saying.

GW: And are there still Field Trip Buddy t-shirts available through your marketing people (or suitcase)?

MA: There are only about ten left, sadly all Mediums. I promise we’ll do another run once we get the new album out.

GW: "Hide Nothing" holds such delightful diversity. What can we expect from the new album in November? Is there a working title?

MA: I have a couple ideas I’m considering. Maybe “These Tall Tales”…o r “Taller Tales.”

GW: T-a-l-e-s?

MA: Ha, yes. Or maybe “Atoms”.

GW: Like molecules? That’s kinda catchy… and there’s the whole homophone thing. Adams.

MA: …like Atom and Steve…

GW: Yah, like that. Can you tell us about some of the new tunes you’re most excited about, or are you all about building suspense for the show on Saturday?

MA: I do wanna try out some new stuff. I haven’t decided yet. If I’m feeling really brave, you might hear “Old Ghosts”. You may hear “Wallingford.” It’s a neighborhood in Seattle, where Dave Matthews is from. But it’s not about that, but an incredible date I went on there once…

GW: I can’t wait for the concert. What else would you like us to know, Matt?

MA: Whatever I call the new album, I’ll be releasing it on November 15th. Watch my website at http://www.mattalber.com/ for all the details. And come join us at the show in Provincetown Saturday night!

The Crown and Anchor presents Matt Alber: One Night Only.

Saturday, October 8th, 2011.

8:30 p.m.

Paramount.

Tickets are $35/$25 and available online at http://www.onlyatthecrown.com/.

Preferred seating for Central House Dinner Patrons.

The Crown and Anchor, 247 Commercial Street, Provincetown MA.

(508) 487-1430

Noċtú

2011-10-02T12:04:00.000-04:00

Looking for something to do today? Check out Noċtú, the dance performance that Judd Hollander of StageBuzz.com calls, "one of the best shows of the 2011-2012 season and one that should definitely be seen by all - and as many times as possible."

Check out some amazing photos from the show (Photos by Carol Rosegg).

Noċtú

Dancers: Jack Anderson, Peta Anderson, Ellen Bonner, Orlagh Carty, Joseph Comerford, Niamh Darcy, Gyula Glaser, James Greenan, Kyla Marsh, Megan McElhatton, Ashlene McFadden, Kienan Melino, Nick O'Connell, Katrina O'Donnell, Aislinn Ryan, Callum Spencer

Conceived and directed by Breandán de Gallaí
Lighting Design: Michael O'Connor
Costume Design: Nikki Connor
Original Music: Joe Csibi
Script Consultant Seán De Gallaí

Irish Repertory Theatre
132 West 22nd Street
Tickets: 212-727-2737 or http://www.irishrep.org/
Running Time: 75 Minutes

Closes: October 2, 2011

Tonight - "8" by Dustin Lance Black

2011-09-19T15:38:00.002-04:00

This Month's Title Photo

2011-09-17T15:43:00.000-04:00

This month's title photo comes from Redd Tale Theatre Company's production of Will Le Vasseur's Gabriel. It features Michael Wetherbee and Will Le Vasseur.

Hurricane Irene Can't Beat At Hand's The Big "A"

2011-08-29T23:40:00.000-04:00

It looked like The Big "A" had been bested by Hurricane Irene when the Fringe Festival's final weekend was cancelled, but Dan Horrigan won't be stopped that easily. The Big "A" is getting one more performance on September 1st as part of the FringeNYC Make-Up Series.

AT HAND THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS

THE BIG "A"

Written by Dan Horrigan
Directed by Matthew DiCarlo

The Laurie Beechman Theatre

407 West 42 Street
...

Armed with only his wit, Dan Horrigan does battle with evil bosses, giant hairy nipples, sassy nurses, and living with HIV... all while searching for the perfect set of kitchenware. Come and find out if laughter really is the best (anti-retroviral) medicine!

From NY Daily News: "People have told me I'm funny," he says. "But what if I could make people laugh and challenge them by talking about something that's difficult. Being positive is a very different situation than in the '80s. But there's still shame and stigma. The story is about a person who is growing up and confronting things."

"Run, don't walk to see The Big "A"... Dan shares his story with passion, razor sharp comedic timing and gentleness." - nytheatre.com

"Dan knows how to hold your attention for 70 minutes with his amazing mixture of humor and heart!" - adamubellesquest.com
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1st @ 7:00PM

Tickets $15 plus food and drink! https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/871005

Writer / Performer: Dan Horrigan
Director: Matthew DiCarlo
Stage Manager: Shelley Miles
Lighting Design: Josh Bradford
Producer: Justin Scribner
Associate Producer: Nick Catania
Company Manager: Laura Wright

Redd Tale Theatre Company Presents Its Take on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in Two One-Acts

2011-08-29T09:27:00.000-04:00

By Byrne Harrison
Reposted from StageBuzz.com

As part of their "Summer of Creation," Redd Tale Theatre Company breathes life into a pair of one-act plays inspired by Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein."

The first, Frankenstein With Mary Shelley, is an adaptation of Shelley's work by Virginia Bartholomew, who also performs the piece. This outstanding one-person play has Bartholomew at turns playing Shelley, Victor Frankenstein and his Creation, as Shelley recounts how the story came to be and brings it to life for her audience. Bartholomew is a versatile actor and seamlessly moves from character to character, bringing a remarkable depth to her performance. Her tormented Creation is particularly moving and effective.

Ably directed by Redd Tale Artistic Director Will Le Vasseur, Frankenstein With Mary Shelley is a wonderfully atmospheric piece, dark and somewhat creepy. Le Vasseur's set and Jason Richard's lighting for the show successfully recreates the feel of a dark drawing room where supernatural things are bound to occur.

Across the board an excellent play, Frankenstein With Mary Shelley will no doubt be brought back for future productions (and if that isn't already in the works, it should be).

The second play of the evening is Gabriel, Will Le Vasseur's take on the Frankenstein story. In it Le Vasseur plays Henry, an exceedingly wealthy man with a scientific bent, who discovers an astounding secret in human DNA. With the unwitting help of his colleagues Susan and Pierce (Cameran Hebb and James Stewart), he is able to leapfrog human evolution by 2 million years. The result is Gabriel - not a monster, but like Shelley's original, something unique, out of place and lonely. To add to the sense of otherworldliness, Gabriel is played by two actors; Michael Wetherbee, who performs Gabriel onstage and Michael Komala, who voices the telepathic Gabriel from offstage. It takes some getting used to, but it is an effective portrayal.

Le Vasseur's Gabriel is intriguing and does a good job of bringing the Frankenstein story out of the age of electricity and reanimated corpses and into the modern era of molecular biology and space travel. The exploration of the ethical implications of creating something so different and strange is fascinating and well thought out by Le Vasseur, not to mention his exploration of the bonding that occurs between creator and creation, between a lonely man and the lost soul that he has brought to life.

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.

My only issues with Gabriel have to do with its length and the juxtaposition of this play and Frankenstein With Mary Shelley. Frankenstein With Mary Shelley draws much of its atmosphere from Gothic horror. Gabriel is a much lighter piece, with dry humor and even some moments of farce (there is a wonderful bit of comedy between Hebb and Stewart after Hebb's Susan is accidentally put into sexual overdrive by Gabriel's telepathy). This is a stark contrast to the creepy and intimate Frankenstein With Mary Shelley, and it is a bit jarring, even with the intermission between the two pieces.

But more to the point, Gabriel is a bit overstuffed. Le Vasseur has a lot that he wants to explore in the play, and as a result some of the show, especially the love story between Henry and Gabriel, feels rushed. This is not to say that Gabriel needs to be cut, rather that Gabriel deserves to be explored and nurtured into something larger. I, for one, would like to see a full-length version of this play where Le Vasseur has time to fully explore his characters and themes.

With the loss of Nicu's Spoon Theatre, this will be the last full performance from Redd Tale this year (though I hold out hope that they will continue their one-off sci-fi movie festivals, radio shows, etc., until they find a new performance space), but they will be back with full productions in 2012.

Frankenstein With Mary Shelley
Adapted by Virginia Bartholomew
Directed and Edited by Will Le Vasseur
Featuring: Viriginia Bartholomew (Mary Shelley/Victor/Creation)

Gabriel
Written by Will Le Vasseur
Directed by Lynn Kenny
Featuring: Will Le Vasseur (Henry), Cameran Hebb (Susan), James Stewart (Pierce), Michael Komala (Gabriel's Voice) and Michael Wetherbee (Gabriel)

Set/Lighting/Website Design - Will Le Vasseur
Stage Manager - Brittany Ray
Assistant Stage Manager - Michael Komala
Poster Design - Graeme Offord
Ligting Design/Production Photos - Jason Richards

Del Shores: More Sordid Confessions To Play This Friday at The Laurie Beechman

2011-08-25T18:36:00.001-04:00

Del Shores, creator of the cult favorite TV series Sordid Lives (starring Olivia Newton-John, Rue McClanahan, Leslie Jordan and Caroline Rhea), brings his hilarious standup back to New York City. On August 26, The Laurie Beechman Theater presents DEL SHORES: MORE SORDID CONFESSIONS for one night only.

Whether he's recalling details of his "slut" years or calling out the assholes and bitches he's worked with, there is no subject off-limits in DEL SHORES: MORE SORDID CONFESSIONS. "Del says what most people think. He has no censor -- on or offstage. Audiences love him because of his ‘bless-their-hearts’ Texas charm," explains Caroline Rhea. "Look, I'm on Paxil and I don't give a shit anymore," Shores warns.

Del Shores is a writer, director, producer, activist and comic. His career took off with the 1987 play Daddy’s Dyin’ (Who’s Got The Will?) and the subsequent 1990 film. He is best known for his 1996 play Sordid Lives which became a film in 1999 and later gave birth to an acclaimed 2008 TV series for Logo. His other plays include Southern Baptist Sissies, The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife and mostly recently Yellow, which was just nominated for three Ovation Awards, including one for Shores for Best World Premiere. His work has garnered countless other awards including GLAAD Media Award, NAACP Award, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, Back Stage West Garland Award, Ovation Award, Drama-Logue Award and LA Weekly Award (including their 2006 Career Achievement Award). Shores has also written for TV shows including Queer As Folk, Dharma and Greg and Ned and Stacey. In 2006 he was given a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars. He is married to actor/Billboard Top 20 recording artist Jason Dottley and is the father of two daughters.

DEL SHORES: MORE SORDID CONFESSIONS will be presented Friday, August 26 at 7:30pm. The Laurie Beechman Theatre (inside West Bank Cafe at 407 West 42nd Street -- at Ninth Avenue, accessible from the A,C,E,N,R,V,F,1,2,3 trains at 42nd Street). Tickets are $18 with a $15 food/drink minimum per person, available at 212-352-3101 or http://www.spincyclenyc.com/. Or click here for tickets.

NYC: Broadway Stands Up for Freedom

2011-07-21T12:22:00.001-04:00

Save the date for Broadway Stands Up for Freedom, the annual star-studded concert to support the youth programs of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

7:30 p.m. Monday, July 25, 2011
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
566 LaGuardia Pl. at Washington Square South
Performers Include...

• Tony Winner Beth Leavel (Baby it’s You!, The Drowsy Chaperone)
• Tony Winner Nikki M. James (The Book of Mormon)
• Tony Nominee Andrew Rannells (The Book of Mormon)
• Tony Nominee Moisés Kaufman (The Laramie Project, Bengal Tiger)
• Tony Nominee Celia Keenan-Bolger
• Tony Nominee Gavin Creel (Hair)
• Tony Nominee Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent)
• Tony Nominee De'Adre Aziza (Passing Strange)
• Tony Nominee John Tartaglia (Avenue Q, Shrek)
• Gbenga Akinnagbe (The Wire, Nurse Jackie)
• Nellie McKay (Get Away From Me)
• Krysta Rodriguez (Addams Family)
• Lindsay Mendez (Everyday Rapture, Grease)
• Carly Rose Sonenclar
• Erich Bergen (Jersey Boys)
• Kyra Da Costa (Baby It's You!)
• Crystal Starr Knighton (Baby It's You!)
• Christina Sajous (Baby It's You!)
• Liana Stampur
• Clinton Curtis
• The Bengsons
• Gray Reindhard
• Kate Ferber
• Marcelo Arias
• Justin Goldner

To purchase tickets, click here.

Interview with Jeff Key of "The Eyes of Babylon"

2011-07-01T22:00:00.001-04:00

By Byrne Harrison

Jeff Key (playwright/actor) is a former Marine, Iraq war veteran, peace activist and queer civil rights activist. He sits on the Board of Directors for Iraq Veterans Against the War and is the founding board member of The Mehadi Foundation, which provides support for returning veterans and develops philanthropic projects; specifically, clean water supplies and other basic necessities in Iraq and Afghanistan. Key is an award-winning playwright, performer and author of The Eyes of Babylon and two other plays in development. He is also the subject of the Showtime documentary Semper Fi. Key lives in Salt Lake City with his husband, Adam, a second-year medical student at the University of Utah.

Tell me a little bit about Eyes of Babylon.

Never heard of it. THE Eyes of Babylon is my solo show. That’s a little writers’ joke there. Tennessee Williams often lamented the constant lopping off of the “the” in front of The Night of the Iguana. He was quoted as saying that a writer spends hours of anguish debating over the placement of a single article or preposition only to have it severed completely in a hastily written press release. I take no offense. I only mention it in hopes that Cousin Tom is somewhere up there enjoying a mint julep and smiling down at me as I struggle along a path he knew all too well.

The play is based on my Iraq War journals. In fact, more than simply based on them, the monologues that appear on stage are pretty much straight out of those sandy pages. I wrote in my journals in present tense while I was in Iraq so the entries lend themselves easily to the sort of Southern storytelling format of the play. With the exceptions of excerpts of three letters, The Eyes of Babylon takes those journal entries in order and allows the audience member to take the journey I took. The three letters in the play are one to my fellow artists and actors back in Hollywood, one to the family of a guy in my unit who died and my coming out letter to my commanding officer. Upon returning from Iraq, because of my growing fury over the Bush Administration’s injurious foreign and domestic policies and because of my unwillingness to continue to serve under the ludicrous “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, I wrote to my CO and admitted that I was gay thereby forcing the military to discharge me. I then began to speak very publically about my opposition to the occupation of Iraq, about veterans’ issues and about Queer Civil Rights in America. Although I miss the Marine Corps every single day, I have never regretted that decision. At the same time that I sent the letter, I went on CNN’s Paula Zahn, Now and came out of the closet in an interview, thereby saying to five million people what I at one time would not have said to one other person.

The first incarnation of the play was actually my reading it to my fellow Marines in the desert. One day, quite by “accident,” I ended up reading one of the entries I had written about this stray dog to a Marine who had sort of “adopted” the dog. He was very taken with what I had written so he began to ask me each day what I had written. Word spread and soon I was reading to several Marines each day about the things that we were all experiencing together. I think humans naturally use humor to get through hard times so in the journals, as in the play, there is a lot of laughter. I think it helped us all to weather what could be at times a very difficult experience.

The title comes from one of the journal entries. It’s part of an admonition to my fellow Americans back in the states. While at war, as my concerns about the way the war was begin orchestrated grew, I began to question the entire direction in which our nation had begun to travel. I wrote, “ We stand at a crossroads. The choice? To hold true to the principles for which we say we stand, or to go the way of every other military empire in the history of the world. Choose wisely, the eyes of Babylon are upon you.”

What made you decide to adapt your war journals and letters into play?

I felt that I had to speak out. I don’t really like it when people congratulate me on my decision to do so, because I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice. I was pretty sure that keeping quiet about the war and about “don’t ask, don’t tell” was a path to self-destruction. But I wasn’t really interested in debating the war. I was pretty depressed when I got back and the depression only grew as I came to realize that I would have to leave the Marine Corps that I loved if I was to be true to my own conscience. A big part of that was my straight Marine buddy’s unqualified support of me. In so many ways, by becoming a Marine, I had entered the brotherhood that I had always felt eluded me. For the first time in my life, I was accepted among the pack—my sexuality notwithstanding. The commitment of blood that is shared among that Band of Brothers trumps any silly, trite prejudices continually parroted by right-wingers to keep the poor voting against their best interest.

So when people asked about my time in Iraq, I was always say the same thing. “I’ll read to you from my journals.” They all said the same thing: “You have to do something with these. Publish them!” I wasn’t opposed to the idea but the depression kept me paralyzed. I had lost about twenty pounds while I was at war. When I came back, I just lived off coffee, cheeseburgers and cigarettes. The depression was exacerbated by my extreme lack of physical fitness and my extreme lack of physical fitness exacerbated the depression. It was a vicious cycle which I’m sure would sound familiar to many post-deployment servicemembers. I was in a downward spiral and I feared the worse. I was several years sober at the time (and continue to be to this day). If I had thought that taking a drink would have given me some relief, even for a few minutes, I would have done it. But it had been proven to me over and over that drinking simply doesn’t work for me. So I put other things into the hole in my spirit that I once tried to fill with alcohol. Even though I wasn’t drinking, the addictive pattern was still alive and well in my life and was destined to destroy me. I pretty much lived in the sex clubs of Los Angeles or on on-line hook up sights. I ate the unhealthiest foods I could get my hands on. I smoked like a fiend and drank so much coffee it’s a wonder I didn’t have a heart attack. I also would spend any little bit of money I got my hands on on stupid and useless shit just for the few minutes of relief the purchase seemed to bring. I knew I had to do something or I was going to be sucked all the way down. I prayed for help as I had done when I had hit my alcoholic bottom years earlier. I decided that I had to reach out even more to other alcoholics who were living sober lives. Also, getting back into physical shape was a good next step. I went back to the gym.

One day, after a particularly grueling workout, I spotted this smoking-hot guy toweling off in the locker room. In keeping with my “always on the make” lifestyle at that time, I approached him and said hello. When he spoke, I noticed he had a Middle Eastern accent, I asked him where he grew up (a Southerner’s version of “where are you from?”). He said that he lived in New York but had grown up in Tel Aviv. “Oh, I just got back from the Middle East.” I told him. “I went to Iraq as a Marine.” An IDF veteran of the 1982 Israel/Lebanon war and also a gay man himself, he was curious about my experience at war. I said to him what I always said to people when they asked me that, “I don’t really want to talk about it, but I’ll read to you from my journals.” We got dressed and went to a nearby coffee house. This man, Yuval Hadadi, is the prototype for typical Israeli male; brooding, serious, doesn’t wear his feelings on his sleeve. But when I read to him from my journals, he couldn’t conceal his passion for my writing. Even though we had those other experiences in common; war, serving in the military as gay men, it was really his connection to my writing that began the relationship.

I had a degree in Theatre before I ever joined the Marine Corps (I might have been the only Theatre major in the whole USMC!)

Yuval was about to wrap up a film that he had been directing in LA. He said that he would stay on his own dime if I would consent to let him direct me in a solo performance piece using the journals as the script. His belief in me and in my writing helped to start the long process of pulling out of my PTSD paralysis and depression and into action. He kicked my ass. We flirted and fought our way through a six-week rehearsal process until, on a warm October evening in a small theatre in Hollywood, The Eyes of Babylon opened.

Clearly this is a timely topic both with the continuing war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the recent developments with Don't Ask Don't Tell. I'm interested in your thoughts about the possible repeal of DADT.

Mostly I’m furious. That sounds awful to say and I am forever grateful to the other people who have worked for so long to end this very un-American policy but at the same time I am absolutely astounded that it has taken this long. I certainly don’t think that’s the fault of the good people working so hard to lift the ban. With all the very serious issues facing our nation; multiple wars, a disastrous economy, how the hell can we continue to justify spending so much time and money on something so asinine as forcing people who are willing to give their lives for this ungrateful country to lie about who they are? It is unforgivable and history will look very dimly on those who have fought so hard on the wrong side, just in the ways it looks back unkindly on those who fought so hard against other forms of Civil Rights. America is for all of us. Otherwise, we might as well close up shop.

I have a straight buddy who’s currently deployed to Afghanistan, and yes he really is straight. On opening night when I got to my dressing room, he had sent flowers from a combat zone! Another man who’s deployed there, whom I’ve never met but saw the Showtime documentary about the play (Semper Fi: One Marine’s Journey) found me on Facebook and sent me a message. “I won’t get home from Afghanistan until August but I want to buy my mom a ticket so she can come.” Can you believe that?! What a great son. What a great man. I’ll bet he’s a great Marine as well. Of course I wrote back to him and told him there was no way in hell I was going to let him buy his mother a ticket. She will come as my guest. My own mom is flying from Alabama to see her baby on stage in New York and that’s Marine’s mom will come with her to see it. What an honor it will be to perform to those two women.

As you mentioned, you came out very publicly on CNN. What was that like and what sort of reaction did you get?

You know what? When I walked out of the CNN bureau in Los Angles that day, I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders. And as difficult as it was, I knew that I would never, could never lie about who I was ever again. No one should ever have to hide who he or she is because of the stupidity of other people. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being gay and the viciousness toward young kids who are LGBTQ and have to live day after day in self-loathing and secrecy is unconscionable. On that day, I just kept thinking that maybe there was some twelve year-old version of myself out there watching that interview who could see me and say, “Well he seems to be okay with who he is. Maybe there’s hope for me.”

These kids are our kids and it’s up to us to protect them. I’m all for being (somewhat) patient as Americans continue to gain education around LGBTQ issues but we must never allow that process to take precedence over looking out for the well-being of our precious queer kids. The ignorance of the masses is not the fault of the kids. They deserve an equal chance at life and all the joy it can bring.

If you could offer any advice to someone who is struggling with the decision to come out, what would you say?

I would say that sometimes the feared repercussions of coming out are real. Unfortunately some people based on their lack of understanding will withdraw from us. But the ones that matter don’t mind and the ones that mind don’t matter. Even some who have a rough time with our becoming honest will ultimately come around. When I came out to my parents, my mother said, “You can’t expect us to accept this” and my dad said, “You know what the bible says about that.” But over time they grew in understanding, and ultimately they were in my wedding along with my straight Marine buddies who performed the famed “arch of swords” as Joan Baez sang “Gracias a la Vida.” It really does get better.

My ongoing recovery from alcoholism has taught me the great value in reaching out to others who have gone down that path before me. The same goes for when people decide to live their lives honestly regarding their sexuality. Seek out people who’ve gone through the experience themselves and let their wisdom and love carry you through.

We care about you! Your other family is waiting for you.

You're active with Iraq Veterans Against the War and are the founding board member of The Mehadi Foundation. Tell me a little bit about these organizations and your involvement with them.

I was one of the early members of Iraq Veterans Against the War. I love those people with all my heart and have been on the front lines of the peace movement with them for years. It takes great courage to speak out, especially when it is unpopular to do so. IVAW has three “points of unity,” 1) To bring the troops home now, 2) take care of them when they get here and 3) make reparations to the innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan who have suffered because of the US invasions and occupations. I still very much support these points of unity. I do have a concern for the organization as well as for the “left-wing” in America in general. I came to the anti-war movement because I believed (and still do believe) that America’s war policy in Iraq was dangerous, illegal under the Geneva Conventions and immoral. I care very deeply for our troops and to me, their lives were being squandered for monetary gain. But as soon as I went public on this issue, I noticed that I was being “pulled” toward some platforms that do not reflect my point of view. I can see the injury that unrestricted capitalism causes, but I am also not a communist. I don’t trust the government with the money and power we give them now. (They’ve proven they cannot me trusted.) Why in the hell would I want to afford them more money and power? Also, when I was a little boy, I can remember coming up on roadblocks set up to raise money for the Ku Klux Klan. I mean there were literally men standing there in their white sheet costumes taking up money to help spread their message of hate! I just sat there in the back seat and shook and hoped they couldn’t see my homosexuality. A lot of their hatred was directed toward blacks but they also had a blanket contempt for gays and Jews. In the 90s the anti-Semitic/homophobic voice found its home in the neo-Nazi/skinhead movement. In 2011, I have to question where that voice is now. I know that vicious anti-gay rhetoric floods continuously from the pulpits of right-wing Christian fundamentalist churches but where is that voice that wants the destruction of Israel and calls for the killing of Jews? I believe it has found a comfortable home hidden away in the comfortable guise of advocating for the Palestinians. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m an advocate for the Palestinians as well and would love to see an end to their suffering. I also know that Israel (like my own nation) has committed horrible atrocities, mostly out of fear (again, like my own nation.) But I do not want to see the nation of Israel destroyed. In fact, as a gay man who’s people died alongside the Jews in the camps in Europe during the Holocaust, I’ll be damned if I’m going to start fighting on the wrong side. Compare life for gays in Tel Aviv to life for gays in Tehran. There is no comparison. The way to helping the Palestinians is definitely not by granting legitimacy to organizations who advocate for the execution of gay people. Hamas, Fatah, the Hezbollah and The Palestinian Authority all do. When they come for me and my Jewish friends this time to disappear us away to death camps, they will meet me at the end of my 2nd Amendment. I know that makes me a bad “peace activist” but that’s the way it is. And I don’t care who in the American left gets pissed off to hear me say so.

There is a resolution which will come to a vote at the Iraq Veterans Against the War convention in August which calls for Israel to return to 1948 borders. If it passes, I will resign from the Board of Directors and leave the organization. (http://www.ivaw.org/)

The Mehadi Foundation is named for a young Iraq boy I met while deployed there. His spirit of hope in great adversity to me symbolized all that I wanted my charity foundation to stand for. We have two missions. 1) To support veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and 2) to support philanthropic/humanitarian efforts to help the innocent civilians in those two countries who have suffered so immeasurably over the last ten years. The main way we aspire to help the veterans (especially those who have begun to self-medicate PTSD with drug, alcohol and process addiction) is to teach creativity as a healing practice. In other words, I want to help them to learn to do what I have done; tell their own story through some creative outlet. It has been my salvation. We also want to get the vets involved in fulfilling the second part of our mission. Helping those who’ve suffered seems to provide solace for those who were involved in causing that suffering. That coupled with the “simple” benefit of helping others makes for a wonderful experience. We have gotten badly needed water filter into schools and provided wheelchairs for those who would otherwise have no access to them. Our dream is to continue to grow in our ability to help with regard to both sides of our mission. We are an IRS recognized 501(c)3 and survive by the donations of those who believe in what we stand for. http://www.mehadifoundation.org/

You have the play and your nonprofit work. What else is going on in your life?
About seven years ago, I decided to stop looking for the man of my dreams and become him instead. I came to a place where I was tired of looking for someone to “complete” me. I am complete person on my own and I think any person who brings “part of a person” to a relationship in hopes that it will complete him, dooms the relationship from the start. I began to love who I was. It wasn’t long after that that I meant Adam Nelson. (The story of our meeting could make for an entire interview so I won’t go into it here.) He is the kind of man that, every single day I look at him and say, “Really?! He’s really mine?” He is my best friend, my biggest fan, he welcomes my support as he pursues his goals and dreams of becoming a physician. He’s a third-year medical student at the University of Utah in Salt Lake where we live with our four-legged, furry babies. I basically commute to New York as I pursue my goals and dreams as a writer, actor and travel the nation as an activist. We’re hoping that he will be able to do his residency in New York so we can be together all the time again. It’s hard, but our marriage is forged in fire so I think we’ll make out just fine. Incidentally, I think he is the sexiest man alive and I’m getting turned on just writing about him.

If you could say anything to your potential audience, what would it be?

I would say stop being a “potential” audience member and become and audience member. This play is my love letter to the world. It’s what I learned as I walked through war. Please don’t let that be wasted. I’m a man of meager means but I care about humanity. I care about what happens to my country and to all people. We go up against big budget productions who have millions for advertising and we depend on word-of-mouth and the press to fill the seats. If you care about peace, if you care about what’s happening to our troops and if you care at all about “don’t ask, don’t tell” and LGBTQ Civil Rights in general, please take the time to stop in and hear what I have to say. I can promise you a lot of laughs along the way and hopefully you’ll leave feeling inspired to keep marching forward with the rest of us who knew that the brightest days are still ahead.

Tonight - CABARETION 2.0! Honoring Charles Busch

2011-06-27T14:30:00.000-04:00

The New York Innovative Theatre Foundation, the organization dedicated to celebrating Off-Off-Broadway,

will Charles Busch with the 2011 Innovative Theatre Luminary Award
at CABARETION 2.0!

[KA-ba-'RAY-sh-un !], noun - The fusion of contribution, performance, and celebration of the Off-Off-Broadway community.

Monday, June 27, 2011
6 - 9 pm

Therapy's upstairs lounge
348 West 52nd Street

Tickets begin at $40 per guest and can be purchased at www.nyitawards.com/shop.

Host: Harrison Greenbaum

Performers:
Internet sensation Drew Droege
Three Tenors in Search of an Act
Tracie Franklin
Christopher Weikel

Special Guests:
Charles Busch
Julie Halston
Carl Andress

In a special presentation by Julie Halston, the 2011 Innovative Theatre Luminary Award will be presented to Charles Busch. A luminary is someone who is an inspiration to others and has achieved eminence in their field.

As an Off-Off-Broadway alumnus, Busch knows the challenges that face artists in this sector. Busch was one of the founders of the legendary OOB company Theatre in Limbo in the 1980's, where he honed his skills on such plays as Sleeping Beauty or Coma and Psycho Beach Party. It was the Theatre in Limbo's production of Vampire Lesbians of Sodom that first propelled Busch into the lime light. While he has reached great success, he continues to be a part of the OOB community. He was the first host for the Innovative Theatre Awards in 2006, celebrating the Off-Off-Broadway community and his roots. His productions of Shanghai Moon (1999) and The Divine Sister (2010) both premiered at the OOB house, Theatre for a New City. His dedication, generosity and numerous talents continue to be an inspiration to his fellow artists.

"I'm enormously touched to be recognized by the Innovative Theatre Awards," says Mr. Busch. "From the beginning, my career has taken me on a twisted and frequently fascinating back road. I'm delighted if my experience has in some way illuminated that path for young artists to travel."

The $40 ticket includes:

The special award presentation

Cabaret performance

1 hour of passed hors d'oeuvres

3 hours of open beer and wine bar

CABARETION 2.0!
Monday, June 27, 2011
6pm to 9pm
At Therapy - The Upstairs Lounge
348 West 52nd Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues)
Tickets begin at $40 per guest and can be purchased at www.nyitawards.com/shop.

New York Neo-Futurists to Present 5th Anniversary Edition of LGBT-Themed "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind" This Weekend

2011-06-24T15:45:00.000-04:00

Recipients of the 2010 New York Innovative Theatre Awards Cafe Cino Fellowship

“Best Performance Artists in New York”-Village Voice

“2009 Artists of the Year”-Artists Forum Magazine

“2009 People of the Year”-nytheatre.com

Recipients of The 2009 NY Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Ensemble NEW YORK NEO-FUTURISTS are pleased to present their 5th anniversary special edition of Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind, benefiting LGBTQ advocacy and activism in Uganda for the second year in a row. TOO MUCH PRIDE MAKES THE BABY GO GAY: 30 GAY PLAYS IN 60 STRAIGHT MINUTES will be presented at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003) on Friday, June 24th and Saturday, June 25th at 10:30pm.

30 short plays, curated from the past five years of LGBTQ-themed Neo-Futurist plays (with several newly commissioned works written exclusively for this Pride Show), reveal the struggle, the joy, the power of being out and proud in New York City in support of acceptance and freedom for all the world's citizens.

Too Much Pride Makes the Baby Go Gay: 30 Gay Plays in 60 Straight Minutes, will be raising money to benefit LGBTQ advocacy in Uganda through the Fund for Global Human Rights, in an effort to combat the continued push for legislation that could make it a criminal offense to be gay, with punishment by imprisonment and even execution, and to reverse the hatred and violence which led to recent murder of gay Ugandan activist David Kato.

The cast will include current New York Neo-Futurists Christopher Borg, Roberta Colindrez, Cara Francis, Ryan Good, Nicole Hill, Jacquelyn Landgraf, Dan McCoy, Joey Rizzolo, brand new Neo-Futurists Cecil Baldwin and Kate Jones, and Neo-Futurists alums Yeauxlanda Kay and Sarah Levy. Founding New York Neo-Futurist and award-winning slam poet Regie Cabico is scheduled to open both shows with a spoken word performance.

Tickets are $20.00. Advance tickets can be purchased online at http://www.nyneofuturists.org/ or by calling 212-352-3101.

For more information visit http://www.nyneofuturists.org/

THE NEW YORK NEO-FUTURISTS are an ensemble of dynamic writer/performer/directors who present the critically acclaimed, energetic show of original short plays, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind--a non-illusory collage of the comic and tragic, the political and personal, the visceral and experimental, while embracing chance, change, and chaos. Developing out of the format that has been a success in Chicago since 1988, the New York NeoFuturists have roots in NYC from the mid 90’s. Since opening TML in New York, they have created over 2,300 plays and continue to present new and vital work every weekend in the East Village. For more info: http://www.nynf.org/

FUND FOR GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS Securing basic dignity and freedom for people worldwide requires that front-line organizations challenge abuse wherever it occurs. The Fund finds and funds local human rights heroes who often work at great personal risk to strengthen and bring global attention to their struggles. For more info: http://www.globalhumanrights.org/

Interview with Mark Jason Williams of "The Other Day"

2011-06-21T14:53:00.000-04:00

Name: Mark Jason Williams
Play: The Other Day
Relationship to production: Playwright
Website: http://www.markjasonwilliams.com/

Tell me a little about your play.

The Other Day is a funny, poignant and authentic look at the complexities of intimate relationships, both gay and straight. It follows the story of Mark and Santo, who fall in love after a chance meeting, and do their best to make things work over the years, until Mark’s friend Dina rips away the shiny veneer covering the men's fragile relationship. With the hope of moving on, Mark takes Santo and Dina on a vacation to Amsterdam, where each faces an emotional journey that redefines their relationships in surprising ways.

When it comes to relationships, do you think gay couples face the same issues as straight couples?

Relationships, whether they are between gay or straight couples, are universally complicated. I think we all face the same issues relating to insecurities, doubts, jealously, compromise, and making sure the person you are with is the right person. I think gay couples often have the “what now?” challenge that straight couples don’t, meaning that society has a set a standard for men and women to fall in love, get married, have children, and though we’ve made some progress, it’s still not the easy for gay people. I’m not suggesting a couple needs to follow society’s pattern in order to love another, but it would be nice to have the option. I also see a lot more open relationships within the gay community, which is something that fascinates me. I can understand and appreciate the notion of wanting sexual freedom, but then couples have all of these rules. Don’t kiss. Don’t have sex on a Tuesday. And I think, if you need all of these rules, then you’re not really free.

Tell me a little about the cast and crew of The Other Day.

They are some of the most talented people you will ever experience. Lars D. Drew, who plays the character of Mark, captures the nuances and insecurities of a gay man in his 30’s with raw honesty and humor. Amadeo Fusca, who plays Santo, is like a young Marlon Brando--a real dramatic powerhouse, yet charming and easy to relate to. Zach Wegner, who comes to us following The Deep Throat Sex Scandal, charms the pants off the audience, and makes them laugh and cry with one shot. And Elena Zazanis, winner of the 2010 Planet Connections Award for Best Actress in a Play, keeps the men in check! Seriously, her portrayal of Dina, a woman trying to help her best friend move on while struggling to come to terms with her own failing relationship, is so natural and so moving, you feel like you’ve known her for 10 years! Of course, last but not least is director Valentina Fratti, who is beyond brilliant. She got the humor, tenderness and themes of the play in about seven seconds, and has been an utter joy to work with. Her direction, in my opinion, is flawless and really keeps the show moving.

I understand that this production benefits the Hetrick-Martin Institute. How did you choose them as your charity?

I admire what Hetrick-Martin does for the LGTBQ youth. I got bullied a lot in high school, and I wish I had a safe place such as the Harvey Milk High School. I think it really does allow LGBTQ teenagers to be themselves and focus on what they’d like to make of their life.

You've written several plays, including "Recovery" which won awards at last year's Planet Connections festival. Do you often focus on LGBT issues or have a gay angle in your plays?

Actually, The Other Day is my first play that has gay characters, and it’s not even so much about them being gay. It’s a love story, and can be very much between a man or a woman, or two women, or even two cats. I’ve just started another play with LGBT themes, because the character told me he wanted to be gay as I was writing him. I’m all about the character! Recovery is a heterosexual love story, but that was never a conscience choice, it just happened. Those characters could easily be gay. I don’t feel like I have a responsibility as a gay playwright to only write gay shows, but I know that when I do write gay characters, I have a responsibility to make them authentic, honest and a non-stereotype. In other words, human.

Speaking of Recovery, it will be part of this year's Fringe Festival. Do you have similar plans to bring The Other Day back for the New York or other regional Fringe Festivals?

Yes! I’m very excited about Recovery returning to the New York stage, and it’s an honor and a thrill to be part of FringeNYC this year. The Other Day will be appearing in this year’s Chicago Fringe, which is also very exciting, and then I would love to bring it back to New York for an extended run, if I can find a producer...

Good luck and thanks for taking the time to talk about your show.

The Other Day plays its final performances at the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity on Tuesday, June 21 at 4:00PM and Wednesday, June 22 at 8:00PM at the Robert Moss Theatre (440 Lafayette Street).

1ST ANNUAL OFF BROADWAY ALLIANCE AWARDS RECEPTION TO BE HELD AT SARDI’S JUNE 21

2011-06-20T12:57:00.000-04:00

The Off Broadway Alliance, the organization of Off Broadway producers, theaters, general managers, press agents and marketing firms, will present the inaugural Off Broadway Alliance Awards Reception on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at Sardi’s. Honorees will be on hand to receive their awards and Romulus Linney, Ellen Stewart and Lanford Wilson will be posthumously inducted into the Off Broadway Hall of Fame.

The announcement was made today by Peter Breger, Chairman of the Off Broadway Alliance.

“Off Broadway’s vibrant contributions to the cultural and economic fiber of New York City are on display from Broadway to the Bowery, from the Upper West Side to the Lower East Side, in theaters, concert halls, places of worship and even a hotel,” said Breger. “What an auspicious time to honor the best of Off Broadway past and present and to celebrate the 2011 theater season.”

Among the attendees will be Legend of Off Broadway honorees Charles Busch, Julie Halston, Tom Jones, Everett Quinton and Blue Man Group. Tanya Berezin, a founder of Circle Repertory Theater, will posthumously honor Off Broadway Hall of Fame inductee Lanford Wilson and Laura Callanan will posthumously honor her husband, Hall of Fame inductee Romulus Linney.

Other honorees scheduled to appear include producer Tom D’Angora and Christine Pedi accepting the award for Best New Musical for NEWSical the Musical: Full Spin Ahead; Playwright Mark St. Germain and the cast of Freud’s Last Session accepting the award for Best New Play; Lori Fineman, executive director of The Transport Group, accepting the award for Best Musical Revival for Hello Again; Punchdrunk accepting their award for Best Unique Theatrical Event for Sleep No More; and Colin Lewellyn and Danielle Pakradooni accepting the Best Long-Running Show Award for Blue Man Group.

Other distinguished guests include The Book of Mormon’s Andrew Rannells and Lewis Cleale as well as Rita Gardner and Blaire Stauffer – the original Luisa and Mute in the 1960 company of The Fantasticks.

The awards honor outstanding achievement in Off Broadway theater for the 2010-2011 season. Admission to the awards ceremony is by invitation only.

The Off Broadway Alliance is a non-profit corporation organized by theater professionals dedicated to supporting, promoting and encouraging the production of Off Broadway theater and to making live theater increasingly accessible to new and diverse audiences. The Alliance holds monthly meetings and membership is open to everyone in the Off Broadway theater community.

Among its initiatives, The Off Broadway Alliance founded and sponsors 20at20, the biannual event where you can buy $20 tickets to dozens of Off Broadway shows twenty minutes before curtain. It produces a free Seminar Series focusing on the culture, business and history of Off Broadway featuring major players from the Off Broadway scene. It also administers the free "This Day in Off Broadway History" online calendar. The Alliance released the first ever Off Broadway Economic Impact Report, which detailed Off Broadway's $461 million annual impact on the economy of the City of New York.

Drunken! Careening! Writers! - Glitter and Be Gay Edition

2011-06-17T00:28:00.000-04:00

Drunken! Careening! Writers!
"Glitter and Be Gay"

Featuring: Isa Coffey, Joel Derfner, Jenifer Levin and Bob Smith

Thursday, June 23 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm

KGB Bar

85 E. 4th St.
New York, New York

FREE!

Drunken! Careening! Writers! is a reading series based on the proposition that all readings should be by: 1) Good Writers; 2) Who read their work well; 3) Something in it makes people laugh (nervous laughter counts). And 15 minutes tops.

ISA COFFEY was turned down last summer (post hire) for a job teaching high school sexuality after the faculty scanned the web only to discover that she didn't use a pseudonym for writing smut. When not writing work inappropriate for high school students, Isa Coffey can be found teaching tenderly raucous sexuality workshops including how to whip up aphrodisiac liqueurs; puff on erotic smoke; and, once and for all, find that elusive clitoris. Her work has been seen in Best Lesbian Erotica 2008 and the award-winning Sometimes She Lets Me.

JOEL DERFNER is from Charleston, South Carolina, where his great-grandmother had an affair with George Gershwin. Musicals to which he's written the score have played in London, New York, and several cities in between (going counterclockwise). Joel is or has been an aerobics instructor, a knitter, a go-go boy, a math teacher, a cheerleader, and the author of Gay Haiku and Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever and What Happened Instead. He can be found at joelderfner.com.

JENIFER LEVIN is the Author of novels Water Dancer, Snow, Shimoni's Lover, and The Sea of Light; short story collection Love and Death, & Other Disasters. Short fiction and nonfiction widely anthologized. Have written for the New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, Forward, and others. Taught fiction writing at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and at The Writer's Voice in NYC, back when it was a fun place. My new nonfiction and fiction old and new will be available this year through publisher UnTreed Reads...anywhere Ebooks are sold.

Bob Smith's Lambda Literary Award winning collection of essays Openly Bob was published to acclaim by Rob Weisbach Books/William Morrow. Way To Go, Smith! was also nominated for a Lammy. Bob's comic essays have appeared in the anthologies: America's Best Contemporary Humorists: Mirth of A Nation, 101 Damnations and When I Knew edited by Robert Trachtenberg. Bob's first novel, Selfish and Perverse, was published by Carroll & Graf in Sept 2007 and his second, Remembrance of Things I Forgot is available everywhere fine books are sold as of June, 2011.

For more information, email careeningwriters@aol.com, or visit http://www.kathleenwarnock.com/.

Liza Minnelli Tickets On Sale Friday at 10 AM

2011-06-17T00:05:00.001-04:00

LIZA MINNELLI

ON SALE THIS FRIDAY, JUNE 17 AT 10AM

Join Liza as she performs her biggest hits and holiday songs in NJPAC's beautiful Prudential Hall.

Friday, December 16, 8:00PM

NJPAC

Newark, NJ

Tickets: $39 - $125 (plus applicable fees)

**On Sale Friday, June 17 At 10AM**

Buy Tickets

Liza Minnelli is a star who’s truly earned the status of “living legend.” For her work on stage and screen, Minnelli has won all of the entertainment world’s major awards, including the Oscar (for her iconic performance in Cabaret), the Emmy, the Tony, and the Grammy. For this NJPAC engagement, Minnelli will bring a holiday-themed concert that’s sure to light up NJPAC’s Prudential Hall with some major star power.

Planet Connections Second Annual LGBT Date Auction

2011-06-16T23:13:00.000-04:00

Join Planet Connections Theatre Festivity on June 17th at 9PM for an evening of love, glitter and pink punch!

Drag diva Muffy Mailbox hosts this year’s extravaganza, benefitting the LGBT Center of New York. They’re auctioning off members of the Planet Connections community as well as the fabulous LGBT community at large, including a special MYSTERY COUPLE! This is an evening not to missed, complete with glitter tattoos, pink punch, and paddles (to bid with! What were you thinking?).

Each delightful dateable comes complete with a date to go on! Dates include wine tastings and gift cards to some of the city’s hottest spots. Bids start at $5 and everything raised during the auction goes directly to The Center!

Free for Festivity Participants. $5 for all others.

$10 to purchase a bidder’s paddle which will be refunded to the winning bid!

http://www.gaycenter.org/

Friday, June 17 at 9:00PM

The Gene Frankel Theatre
24 Bond Street
New York, NY 10012

The closest subway is the Broadway and Lafayette Station: 6, F, M, B & D train

This Month's Title Photo

2011-06-16T01:01:00.004-04:00

This month's photo comes from The Eyes of Babylon, part of Americas Off Broadway at 59E59 Theaters. Photo courtesy of the Mehadi Foundation and features actor and playwright Jeff Key.

U.S. Marine Jeff Key transforms his Iraq journal into a gritty, humorous and poetic solo performance about going to war as a 34-year-old gay man at the heady start of the Iraq invasion.

Launching with 9/11, traveling through the Iraqi desert and finally “coming out” on CNN, The Eyes of Babylon is a personal, poignant story of one brave marine’s personal battle with the war, his country and himself.

Iraq War and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell explored in "The Eyes of Babylon"

2011-06-15T19:30:00.001-04:00

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) announces the New York City premiere of The Eyes of Babylon, written and performed by Jeff Key and directed by Yuval Hadadi, which is part of Americas Off Broadway. The Eyes of Babylon begins previews on Tuesday, June 14 for a limited engagement through Sunday, July 3. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7:15 PM; Friday at 8:15 PM; Saturday at 2:15 PM and 8:15 PM; and Sunday at 3:15 PM and 7:15 PM. The regular ticket price is $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or visit http://www.59e59.org/.

U.S. Marine Jeff Key transforms his Iraq journal into a gritty, humorous and poetic solo performance about going to war as a 34-year-old gay man at the heady start of the Iraq invasion.

Launching with 9/11, traveling through the Iraqi desert and finally “coming out” on CNN, The Eyes of Babylon is a personal, poignant story of one brave marine’s personal battle with the war, his country and himself.

Jeff Key (playwright/actor) is a former Marine, Iraq war veteran, peace activist and queer civil rights activist. He sits on the Board of Directors for Iraq Veterans Against the War and is the founding board member of The Mehadi Foundation, which provides support for returning veterans and develops philanthropic projects; specifically, clean water supplies and other basic necessities in Iraq and Afghanistan. Key is an award-winning playwright, performer and author of The Eyes of Babylon and two other plays in development. He is also the subject of the Showtime documentary "Semper Fi." Key lives in Salt Lake City with his husband, Adam, a second-year medical student at the University of Utah.

Born and raised in Israel, Yuval Hadadi (director) moved to NYC in 1993 and became Co-Artistic Director for the Absolute Theatre Company. Among his productions are King Lear and The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare and Soil by Charles Drew Jr., which had its world premiere Off Broadway at the Mint Theater. Hadadi also directed for The Habitual Theater Company, The House of Tribes in NYC, The Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT, as well as regional theater. In the '99-'00 season, he was Assistant Director at The Public Theater. His Los Angeles theatre directing credits include Soil at the Lillian Theatre, the long running 21 Stories: A Broadway Tale at the Elephant Theatre, and The Eyes Of Babylon, which is the recipient of an Ovation nomination as well as the subject of a Showtime documentary. Currently, Hadadi serves as the artistic advisor for the new Broadway musical In a Word…Wow! by Kenneth Bonavitacola.

The Eyes of Babylon Teaser Reel from Semaphore Projects on Vimeo.

Tom Judson Returns to Dixon Place in "The Tom Judson Show"

2011-06-15T18:57:00.001-04:00

In the wake of the smash run of his Canned Ham at Dixon Place this past March, Tom Judson returns for a special two-performance preview of his new show, The Tom Judson Show, which will run in Provincetown, MA from the end of June through mid-September. Prepare yourself for a tune-filled evening of songs both familiar and new; including a handful written by Tom himself.

“Since the musical sections of Canned Ham went over so well,” explains Tom, “I thought I’d try to do something along the lines of a more straightforward cabaret evening. Of all the different genres I’ve worked in over the years, cabaret (as opposed to Cabaret) is one form that I’ve missed. I think it’ll be fun.”

This time, though, he’ll stick to just the piano. Of course The Man Who Was Gus Mattox won’t disappoint the fans of his adult work. Skin will most likely be bared. “Y’know, to sell tickets,” says Tom. “I’ve never had a problem with gratuitous nudity.”

“Mostly, though, I have this great trove of terrific, little-known songs that I’d like to share with people. Of course there will be some stories from my crazy life thrown in, and some give-and-take with the audience. Maybe I’ll have a Q&A so they can ask me about things I didn’t cover in Canned Ham. I might even interview them.”

The Tom Judson Show
Written and Performed by Tom Judson
Directed by Michael Schiralli

Friday, June 24th - 7:30PM
Saturday, June 25th - 7:30PM

Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street
(Delancey/Rivington)

Tickets: $15 / $12 (stu/sen) in advance; $18 / $15 (stu/sen) at the door

Broadway Bares XXI: Masterpiece Announces Special Guest Stars

2011-06-15T18:35:00.001-04:00

BROADWAY BARES XXI: MASTERPIECE

ANNOUNCES SPECIAL GUEST STARS

MORE THAN 200 OF BROADWAY’S HOTTEST DANCERS TO BE JOINED BY

BETH LEAVEL, JUDITH LIGHT, PATINA MILLER,

RORY O’MALLEY, JIM PARSONS,

DAVID HYDE PIERCE, ROGER REES,

MICHAEL RIEDEL AND CHRISTOPHER SIEBER

BROADWAY’S HOTTEST NIGHT TO BE HELD

SUNDAY, JUNE 19 (9:30 PM AND MIDNIGHT)

AT ROSELAND BALLROOM

PRODUCED BY AND BENEFITING

BROADWAY CARES/EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER JERRY MITCHELL

PRESENTED BY M·A·C VIVA GLAM

A priceless collection of Tony winners and nominees will be making this year's BROADWAY BARES XXI: MASTERPIECE a truly "starry night" as they join more than 200 of Broadway's sexiest dancers in an auction-themed burlesque show that would make any art critic blush. BROADWAY BARES XXI: MASTERPIECE, which is produced by and benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, will be held Sunday, June 19, with two performances only (9:30 PM and midnight) at Roseland Ballroom (239 West 52nd Street).

This year's BARES will feature Tony Award winner Beth Leavel (Baby It's You) singing an original opening number, "Going, Going, Gone," written by Chad Beguelin and Matthew Sklar. Tony nominee Patina Miller (Sister Act) will perform the finale, “The Final Masterpiece.” Other special guests include Tony nominee and Emmy Award winner Judith Light (Lombardi), Tony nominee Rory O'Malley (The Book of Mormon), Emmy winner Jim Parsons (The Normal Heart), Tony and Emmy winner David Hyde Pierce (La Béte), Tony winner Roger Rees (The Addams Family), Tony nominee Christopher Sieber (La Cage aux Folles) and the always provocative New York Post columnist Michael Riedel.

The opening number is available now for download exclusively at broadwaycares.org/masterpiecesingle. “Going, Going, Gone” carries on a BARES tradition of featuring an original song to start the show. A collection of 13 original BARES opening numbers, recorded by the Broadway stars who debuted them, also is available at http://www.broadwaybares.com/.

It's been said that “all art is erotic” and Broadway's sexiest bodies will prove that to be true as the 21st edition of BROADWAY BARES takes you inside an auction too hot for Sotheby's and Christie's. The most delectable dancers in New York will emulate the art world's seductive nudes and give life to history's sultriest sculptures.

BROADWAY BARES XXI: MASTERPIECE is produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, executive produced by Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell (Catch Me If You Can, Legally Blonde) and directed by Josh Rhodes (Sondheim: The Birthday Concert, The Drowsy Chaperone, Working at the Broadway Playhouse in Chicago).

BROADWAY BARES, the hotly anticipated annual event combining the naughtiness of burlesque and the razzle-dazzle of Broadway, has been a smashing success since its inception in 1992. The event has become one of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS' signature events. The first BROADWAY BARES featured seven dancers performing choreographed stripteases on a bar and raised more than $8,000. In all 20 editions, BROADWAY BARES has collectively raised more than $7.5 million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

TICKETING INFORMATION FOR BROADWAY BARES XXI: MASTERPIECE

Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.broadwaycares.org/ or by calling 212.840.0770, ext 268. For more information and merchandise, visit http://www.broadwaybares.com/.

Ticket packages include:

9:30 PM SHOW: $750 Reserved Table Seating, includes reserved seat on the VIP mezzanine at a cocktail table and open bar before the show; $275 VIP Standing, includes non-reserved standing ticket on the VIP mezzanine or in VIP area closest to stage with open bar before the show; $125 Priority Standing, includes non-reserved standing ticket in priority viewing area near the stage; $60 General Admission, non-reserved standing ticket.

MIDNIGHT SHOW: $750 Reserved Table Seating, includes reserved seat on the VIP mezzanine at a cocktail table and open bar before the show; $275 VIP Standing, includes non-reserved standing ticket on the VIP mezzanine or in VIP area closest to stage with open bar before the show; $60 General Admission, non-reserved standing ticket.

For the first time, BC/EFA also is offering the "Stripper Spectacular" package ($2,500) for either show. It includes a reserved table seat at one of the best center locations on the VIP mezzanine, admission to a private cocktail party at the home of Jerry Mitchell before the performance, a backstage tour, an exclusive gift bag, a poster autographed by the cast, a Broadway Bares: Openings CD and the Broadway Bares: Backstage Pass coffee table book.

About Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 BC/EFA has raised over $195 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.

BC/EFA awards annual grants to more than 400 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide and is the major supporter of seven programs at The Actors Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative, the Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic and more.

BROADWAY BARES XXI: MASTERPIECE is presented by M·A·C VIVA GLAM

and generously sponsored by United Airlines

# # # #

Follow BC/EFA on Twitter: @BCEFAFind BC/EFA on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BCEFA

For more information on BROADWAY BARES, please visit:

http://www.broadwaybares.com/ or http://www.broadwaycares.org/

Broadway Sings for Pride - Monday, June 27th

2011-06-14T22:31:00.002-04:00

Over fifteen Broadway and National Tour performers will join notable personalities on Monday, June 27, 2011 at 7PM to celebrate New York City's Gay Pride at The LGBT Center in Manhattan. Broadway Sings for Pride: A Benefit Concert is being produced by Neal B of NealB.tv and will benefit The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. Attendees will enjoy the vast array of songs from Lady Gaga to The Beatles, along with a plethora of Broadway hits. Musical performances will feature cast members from The Book of Mormon, Wicked, Jersey Boys, Rent, Wonderland, Mamma Mia, Anything Goes and many more! Jim Lahti will serve as the evening’s musical director and Carly Jibson (Broadway’s Hairspray and Cry-Baby) will emcee. Musical accompaniment will be provided Jim Lahti on piano, Sean Harkness on acoustic & electric guitar and David Silliman on percussion. There will also be American Sign Language interpreters signing for the hard of hearing and deaf community.

Audiences will also hear first-hand stories of pride from some of New York's famous: Sonja Morgan ("The Real Housewives of New York City"), Reichen Lehmkuhl (“The Amazing Race”, “The A-List: New York”), Randy Jones (multi-platinum recording artist, founding member of Village People), Darius de Haas (Broadway's Kiss of the Spider Woman, Carousel), Marti Cummings (Broadway Speaks OUT) and Matt Martin (Real Housewives of Twitter) will share their stories of pride.

The show will begin promptly at 7PM and will consist of speeches, and musical performances.

100% of the event’s proceeds will be given to The LGBT Community Center of New York City

FOR TICKETS AND INFO: http://gaycenter.org/node/6779

Musical guests currently scheduled to perform are: Rory O'Malley (Broadway's "The Book of Mormon"), Raymond J. Lee (Broadway’s “Anything Goes”, “Mama Mia!”), Athena Reich (Singer/TV Personality, Outmusic Awards’s Best Outstanding Pop Song of 2009), Russell Fischer (Broadway's "Jersey Boys" ), Tracy McDowell (Broadway's Final Cast of "Rent"), Rebecca Larkin (Broadway's "Avenue Q" & "South Pacific"), Matt Leisy (Off Broadway's "The Fantasticks"), King Aswad ("Rent" Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles, "Rent" National Tour), Renee Marino (Broadway’s “West Side Story” “Wonderland”), Antoine L. Smith ("Cats" National Tour, Regional Tour of "Rent"), Luis Villabon (Associate Choreographer "A Chorus Line" National Tour, Off Broadway's "Naked Boys Singing"), Moeisha Mcgill (Broadway's "Rent" and "Mamma Mia"), Heather Parcells (Broadway's "Wonderland" "A Chorus Line", "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"), Anthony Lee Medina (National Tour of "Spring Awakening"), Jenn Furman (National Tour of "Wicked"), Erica Ash (Broadway’s “Baby It’s You”), Derek St. Pierre (Broadway’s “Rock of Ages”), Will Sheridan (Villanova basketball player, musician), Cristy Candler ("Wicked"), Cedric Leiba Jr. ("Miss Saigon" National Tour, "Rent" National Tour), Joshua Min (Singer/Songwriter), Tonya Thompson (Regional Tours of Little Shop of Horrors, Drowsy Chaperone)

"It's Not Just For Gays Anymore"

2011-06-13T12:52:00.000-04:00

You don't have to be gay to like Broadway (but it helps).

Tony Awards at Splash's Musical Mondays

2011-06-10T16:40:00.000-04:00

Splash's Musical Mondays is proud to present a special TONY Awards edition of "Curtain Call" featuring singer Anna Harrington. On June 13th, weigh in on your Tony award opinions during our post mortem Tony wrap up and then sit tight while Anna belts her heart out!

Singer/Songwriter Anna Harrington made her National TV Debut on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2009 after being handpicked by Oprah from hundreds of thousands of entrants in a national singing contest. She also recently appeared on NBC's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Anna is currently writing and in production for her first solo EP.

Make sure to get to Splash early to grab a seat. Watch the legendary musical numbers on the big screens and then prepare for a festive set of showtunes from Anna and a gossip fest about the Tonys! It all kicks off at 11:30pm.

Admission is free until 10pm, $5 after.

Must be 21 w/ id. Splash - 50 west 17th st (b/w 5th and 6th)

http://www.splashbar.com/

Tonight - Meet the Broadway Bares Dancers

2011-06-08T10:51:00.000-04:00

Interview with Molly "Equality" Dykeman

2011-05-26T08:05:00.003-04:00

By Byrne Harrison
First Molly Photo by Anya Garrett
Final Molly Photo by Jeep Wheat

Molly "Equality" Dykeman is a comic, poet and mullet enthusiast who likes chicken fingers, people who aren't douchebags, and all types of ladies. She's also the creation of Andrea Alton, a New York-based actor, comedian, and award-winning playwright.

I recently had a chance to talk to Molly as she was preparing for her performance in the SoloNOVA Festival's Ones at Eleven comedy showcase on Friday the 27th.

In Terrance McNally's Master Class, Maria Callas tells one of the students, "You must have 'a look'." You definitely have 'a look.' How would you describe your sartorial style?

I had to look up the word “sartorial” and I still don’t know what it means. However, my look is functional, comfortable, sexy, stain resistant and safe.

I have to say, nobody wears a reflective vest like you. You rock that look.

Thank you Byrne. I do appreciate it. All I can say is that some people are born to wear couture while others are meant to wear tube tops and daisy dukes. I was born to wear reflective vests and neon shin guards on special occasions.

So let's get down to business, I understand you're performing as part of a comedy showcase at the SoloNOVA festival. How did that come about?

I heard they were having a comedy night, so I submitted some of my poems and jokes 'cause I’m always looking for new ways to meet ladies. When that didn’t work, I started stalking the people in charge. I guess my mullet and I grew on them because Jennifer Conley Darling and James Carter asked me to be a part of the festival.

How would you describe your comedy style?

I’m sort of like a funny lopsided train wreck that doesn’t give a shit. In a perfect world I wish I could be a mixture of some of my favorite comics such as Whoopi Goldberg, Dave Chappelle, David Letterman and Roseanne Barr, but I’m not. At the end of the day, I’m just me.

So you're a poet, too?

Yeah I am. I’m pretty good at it to. Someday I’m gonna eat nachos and write poetry with Maya Angelou.

Can I hear a sample?

Well I spent the day writing and thus far I’ve written poems about bed bugs, this lady I met at Gingers Bar and I also wrote a poem about nachos. I love nachos. As for specific lines, please come to the SoloNOVA Comedy Night on Friday the 27th.

What separates you from the wannabe Sapphos out there?

Probably my mullet and hygiene. After that, my subject matter. Most Sapphos won’t take the time to write about chicken fingers and their lazy eye but I will.

On to the lightning round.

Favorite drink?
Sunny Delight in the morning - Strawberry milkshakes in the afternoon – PBR in the evening.

Favorite actress?
Halle Berry

Mullets on men - yes or no?
No. Men don’t know how to wear mullets.

Best lesbian ever?
Ellen DeGeneres

Worst lesbian ever?
Anne Heche

You can catch Molly (and maybe even see Andrea) at SoloNOVA's Ones at Eleven on Friday, May 27th.

May 27 at 11pm
at 9th Space
(located at Performance Space 122, 150 First Ave. at E. 9th Street)

Jeffrey Solomon Talks About Santa Claus Is Coming Out

2011-05-12T13:16:00.000-04:00

By Byrne Harrison
Photo by Charles S. Reece

Jeffrey Solomon’s play, Santa Claus Is Coming Out, is currently being presented as part of the SoloNOVA Festival. This acclaimed one-man mock-u-mentary explores the secret romantic life of the great holiday icon and the controversy that engulfs the world when the truth is revealed. When a little boy’s gender atypical gift request to the North Pole is denied, a series of heart-felt letters from the child nudge Santa Claus out of the closet and into the culture wars. A theatrical documentarian in the mold of Anna Deveare Smith and the Laramie Project, Mr. Solomon purports to have interviewed, and portrays, all of the key players in the scandal that has come to be known as ‘Santa-Gate’.

Your show, Santa Claus is Coming Out, is described as a theatrical mockumentary. Tell me what you mean by that.

The playwright and solo performer Jeffrey Solomon – do you mind if I refer to myself in the third person here? – insists that every word of text in the play is edited from his interviews at the North Pole and beyond and other documentary sources.

What is the play about?

The secret romantic life of the great holiday icon and the controversy that engulfs the world when the truth is revealed. When a little boy’s gender atypical gift request to the North Pole is denied, a series of heart-felt letters from the child nudge Santa Claus out of the closet and into the culture wars. Characters portrayed in the play include little gay Gary, his confused mom and angry dad, Santa’s fake-actress wife, his Agent, his longtime companion and Mary Ellen Banfield, a conservative activist who is fighting to institute a Santa NO FLY ZONE.

What inspired you to write it?

A decade ago, when voters in Oregon were considering Measure 9 which would have made it illegal for any school to “promote, sanction or encourage homosexuality,” I headed west with recorder in hand to find out why people were so terrified of children being spoken to honestly about the existence of gay people. Measure 9 and numerous other controversies in the last decade inspired this play, including a few elementary school teachers who dared to ‘come out’ to young kids, sparking a reaction from the public and the media bordering on hysteria. I shouldn't really call it ‘coming out’, because these teachers did what straight colleagues have always done, spoken openly of their families in age appropriate ways and answered their students questions. Despite signs of progress, ‘gay’ is still the ‘love that dare not speak its name’ when it comes to kids. Anyone who does so is in danger of being accused of promoting that lifestyle and yet we promote straight love in every form and fashion to our children - sailors can settle down with fish, princesses can get physical with frogs and beauties can live happily ever after with the beasts who abduct them - but the child who may grow up to be gay, has no reflection of himself. There is no happily ever after in sight during his or her formative years. It is this invisibility I am exploring in Santa Claus is Coming Out. I was one of those children, and I can tell you that the fact that subject was unmentionable and invisible when I was a child caused me a lot of unnecessary pain and shame. I have created in the play, the Santa Claus I needed. The one I wish I had known.

The subject matter is especially timely given the recent efforts of some activists and educators to speak to children more openly about LGBT issues in the wake of gay teen suicides, and the accusations from social conservatives that these are just thinly veiled attempts to promote the gay lifestyle to children.

You've written a number of plays with LGBT themes. Tell me a little bit about your body of work.

I have performed my other solo play, Mother/SON, globally, including performances in UK, Ireland, India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. The play is inspired by mother’s coming out journey as the parent of a gay son, and in addition to being presented theatrically has been used widely as an educational tool at schools and corporations. I am also very proud of my ensemble plays, which are currently touring with my theater company. These include Tara’s Crossing (about a transgendered refugee seeking political asylum), Building Houses on the Moon (about the lives of LGBT youth), and DE NOVO (about undocumented kids in US immigration custody.) See http://www.housesonthemoon.org for more info.

What's your background?

I grew up in the 70’s as a middle class Jewish kid largely raised by a television. This may explain the wealth of references in my play from from those ingenious Claymation TV Christmas Specials including "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer," "Santa Claus is Coming To Town," etc….

What do you have planned for the rest of 2011?

A Spanish translation of my play DE NOVO will be performed in El Salvador in June and I will be travelling to see it, so I am working hard now to remember that the Spanish word “embarazada” DOES NOT mean embarrassed! (look it up). I am performing with the acclaimed storytelling org The Moth in Michigan this June as well. In October “Mother/SON” will be travelling to Greece. And in the meantime, I’m writing a new play and not looking at X-TUBE… I swear I am.

For more information about Solomon’s work, visit www.jeffsolo.com

RIP Doric Wilson

2011-05-08T22:44:00.001-04:00

Goodbye to a tireless advocate of gay theatre and gay rights. Playwright Doric Wilson passed away this weekend at the age of 72.

Playbill

GaySocialites.com

Lambda Literary

Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine

2011-05-05T13:00:00.000-04:00

This is not exactly on topic since it doesn't have anything to do with theatre, but Michele Josue, a friend of Matthew Shepard, is raising money to do a documentary about him.

Here is Michele's description of the project.

In 1998, my friend Matthew Shepard was kidnapped, beaten, and tied to a fence on a Wyoming prairie and left to die because he was gay. His tragic murder made countless headlines around the world and Matthew Shepard soon became a hugely public symbol, undoubtedly important, whose story resounded in the hearts of many. But to me, Matt was a dear friend.

This past fall, I have begun work on a feature-length documentary about the Matthew behind those headlines. Through the honest and intimate recollections of his family and those, like myself, who were personally affected by his death, our film seeks to tell the story of the Matthew the world hardly knows and to make sense out of a senseless tragedy.

This past October, we shot extensively in Denver and Wyoming with very limited resources. During this time, we interviewed many amazing people who gave us incredible insight into Matt’s death and his all-too-brief life. Overall, it was a humbling and inspiring experience.

I feel it's so important, especially in this day and age, to share with the world the story of our Matt, as not just a symbol, but as a real person who had the love and respect of his family and his many friends. To be honest, this is a film I've been waiting years to make, and I am honored to have the opportunity to make it now.

You can find out more and invest in the film at Michele's Kickstarter page.

All The Kings Men to Perform in NY This Friday

2011-05-04T19:00:00.038-04:00

Boston-based All The Kings Men (ATKM), the all female, physical theatre ensemble performing original, cabaret style shows, is coming to New York. This award-winning group that has performed throughout the US and internationally continues to push the boundaries and explore stereotypes of gender identity through comedic and dramatic story telling, all set to music. Utilizing character, physical theatre, dance, comedy, lip-synch and character based sketch work in their shows ATKM is a comic and sexy modern day twist on Shakespeare, where women play all the roles.

ATKM will be performing this Friday at the Let's Be Brief launch party @ DROM (85 Avenue A between 5th and 6th Street). Doors open at 10:30 PM; event begins at 11 PM.

Danielle Stanziale presents the Let's Be Brief Launch Party!

Let's Be Brief (Lbb) is the premiere underwear company catering to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Queer (LGBTQ) community and allies! Lbb underwear embody a masculine look with innovative styles, flattering different body types and sizes. A percentage of all sales will be donated to LGBTQ organizations chosen by our customers.

Come join us in celebrating our launch on Friday May 6th, 2011.

10:30pm - Doors open... Come early, grab a drink, check out our undies and be seen and photographed on the red carpet!

11:00pm - All The Kings Men (ATKM) take the stage... Come see this award-winning, all female, character-based performance troupe that creates wholly electrifying cabaret-style and modern vaudevillian productions

12:00pm and on - Dance all night long to DJ Lezzz Van Halen

This event is sponsored by Go Magazine.

Get tickets in advance... or buy a pair of undies and get in for free!!!

Cast of Lucky Guy To Appear at SPLASH

2011-04-29T09:00:00.002-04:00

Leslie Jordan, Varla Jean Merman and the cast of Lucky Guy will be special guests at SPLASH's Musical Mondays on May 9th.

LA - Celebration Theatre's May Day Cabaret This Sunday

2011-04-28T16:42:00.000-04:00

Sad News - Wings Theatre

2011-04-24T20:00:00.001-04:00

Sad news from John Chatterton about Wings Theatre on Christopher Street.

"I'm writing to pass on the sad news that Wings Theatre, 154 Christoper Street NYC, will be closing its doors on April 30th. Thus on Wednesday, April 27 from 2pm - 10pm they're having an open-house where they're making much of their costumes, props, set pieces, etc. available to other theaters, non-profits, etc. who can make good use of the materials. If you know of a deserving arts organization, please pass the info along."

Las Vegas Broadway Bares: The Sequel - Tonight

2011-04-24T17:49:00.002-04:00

TOSOS Presents a Staged Reading of "Insatiable Hunger"

2011-04-23T16:00:00.000-04:00

TOSOS
(Doric Wilson - Mark Finley - Barry Childs)
Robert Chesley / Jane Chambers Playwrights Project
Kathleen Warnock, curator

PRESENT

Lea DeLaria
in a new musical
Insatiable Hunger
conceived and written by Meryl Cohn
music and lyrics by Susan Goldberg and Billy Hough
directed by Mark Finley
Saturday, April 23 - 7:00 PM

Lea Delaria is Max Stein, a washed-up '80s rocker who gets an unasked for shot at redemption in this musical tale that proves that family is where you find it.

Featuring: Andrea Alton, Vance Julian Barber, Andrea Bianchi, Meghan Cary, Wayne Henry, Rick Hinkson, Billy Hough, Elizabeth Stahlmann, Karen Stanion

TADA Theater
15 W. 28th St. (2nd Fl.)
New York, NY

Reservations strongly recommended!
FOR RESERVATIONS, EMAIL:
insatiablehunger2011@gmail.com

Once Upon a Musical Time - Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps

2011-04-20T13:00:00.003-04:00

The Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps Symphonic Band presents

ONCE UPON A MUSICAL TIME

Brian Worsdale, conductor
Nolan Dresden, assistant conductor
Steven Reineke, honoree and guest conductor
Marcus Rojas, tuba soloist
Tituss Burgess, narrator
Raphael Miranda, host

Tickets: $17-$25
Box office: http://www.lgbac.org/ or 212.864.5400

Experience one of the world's first and New York City's own gay band performing music inspired by stories, myths, and legends. Special guests from Broadway and The New York Pops and will help the band bring these stories to life.

The New York Times calls Reineke’s conducting “young and vigorous, with a playful attitude.” See him conduct the band performing his masterwork Casey at the Bat. Broadway star Tituss Burgess and New York Pops Principal Tuba Marcus Rojas will also appear to tell the tale of a tuba searching for his own song.

Join us at 7:15 p.m. for a special pre-concert conversation with Reineke and Worsdale moderated by NY1 Producer Frank DiLella.

Program includes:

Bock, Symphonic Dances from "Fiddler on the Roof"
Gillingham, Council Oak
Kleinsinger, Tubby the Tuba
Mackey, Undertow
De Meij, Gandalf The Wizard from "The Lord of the Rings"
Reineke, Casey at the Bat
Sondheim, Selections from "Sweeney Todd"
Sparke, Sunrise at Angel's Gate

The concert is approximately two hours and there is one 15-minute intermission.

Group tickets are available by calling the Symphony Space Box
Office at 212.864.5400. Groups of 10 or more receive 20% off ticket purchases.

DIRECTIONS: Symphony Space is conveniently located at the corner of Broadway and 95th Street. Please refer to SYMPHONYSPACE.org for detailed travel instructions.

Songs in the Key of Equality Cabaret Coming May 16 and 17

2011-04-18T12:30:00.001-04:00

To find out more visit the Swish website.

Meet the Tales of the City Creative Team

2011-04-18T09:00:00.000-04:00

Broadway Stars Join Annual Earth Day Benefit Concert - Broadway Recycled

2011-04-14T17:44:00.002-04:00

AT HAND THEATRE COMPANY's annual Earth Day concert, BROADWAY RECYCLED, will take place this year on Monday, April 25th at 7pm and 9:30pm at Joe's Pub. The concert of songs cut from musicals – songs that shouldn't go to waste - benefits the Broadway Green Alliance and At Hand Theatre Company.

This year's BROADWAY RECYCLED concert will feature performances by Sean Bradford (The Lion King), Blake Daniel (Spring Awakening), Katrina Rose Dideriksen (Hairspray), Gideon Glick (Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark), Annie Golden (Xanadu), Jessica Lee Goldyn (A Chorus Line), Jeff Hiller (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), Natalie Joy Johnson (Legally Blonde), Adam Kantor (Rent), Andy Karl (Legally Blonde), Andrew Kober (Hair), Liz Larsen (Starmites), MK Lawson (Bloodsong of Love), Tracy McDowell (Rent), Andy Mientus (Spring Awakening), Kevin Michael Murphy (Awesome '80s Prom), Kate Pazakis (South Pacific), Vanessa Ray (Hair), Megan Reinking (People In The Picture), Kate Rockwell (Legally Blonde), Lance Rubin (Things To Ruin), A.J. Shively (La Cage Aux Folles), and Taylor Trensch (Little Miss Sunshine).

Concertgoers at BROADWAY RECYCLED can expect to hear songs cut from Hair, Side Show, Rent, Chicago, Legally Blonde, Spring Awakening, Little Shop of Horrors, The Boy from Oz, Bloodsong of Love, Guys and Dolls, Tick Tick Boom, Subways Are For Sleeping, Betty Boop, and Working!

The concert will be directed by Jennifer Ashley Tepper with musical direction by Julie McBride. Last year's performance featured the original cast of [title of show] singing the now infamous and complete version of “The Tony Award Song," un-recorded Dolly Parton songs cut from 9 to 5, an Altar Boyz number too offensive to make it out of an early workshop, and Anthony Rapp and Annaleigh Ashford singing a song they performed in the NYMF production of Feeling Electric... before it became Next to Normal.

AT HAND THEATRE COMPANY is nonprofit whose mission is to produce original work using environmentally conscious means. Past productions include the world premieres of The Body Politic by Richard Abrons and Margarett Perry at 59E59, Anton Dudley’s Letters to the End of the World, Dan Horrigan’s My AiDS, Lila Cante by Mark Snyder, Cake and Plays…But Without the Cake by Jono Hustis, Brian Dykstra’s Silence!, and One Nation Under by Andrea Lepcio, as well as the NY premiere of Trickster at the Gate by John Patrick Bray. At Hand also produces a free Staged Reading Series throughout the year, a yearly one-act festival called POP! featuring new plays that revolve around pop culture, and an annual benefit concert every Earth Day, entitled Broadway Recycled at Joe’s Pub. For more information, please visit athandtheatre.com.

BROADWAY RECYCLED will be presented Monday, April 25 at 7:00pm and 9:30pm. Joe's Pub is located in The Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Street at Astor Place -- accessible from the N/R trains at 8th Street or the #6 train at Astor Place. Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door (subject to availability); a limited number of $60 tickets, which include preferred table seating and a poster autographed by the cast.

For tickets call 212-967-7555 or visit http://www.joespub.com/.

Interview - Indio Melendez of "Indiosyncracy"

2011-04-14T13:00:00.004-04:00

By Byrne Harrison

Actor and writer Indio Melendez was born and raised in New York City. He was the recipient of the “2008 H.O.L.A. Award” for ensemble cast in Dona Flor Y Sus Dos Marido, which enjoyed a healthy run at the Spanish Repertory Theater. Other notable performances include his portrayal of Miguel in The Vieques at the Spanish Repertory Theater, for which he was recognized with a “2001 Latin Ace Award” Nomination. More recently, his one may show, Manchild Dilemma, was also again recognized for excellence, earning Indio a “2007 Premios Sin Limites Award Nomination”. His play Indiosyncacy will be performed Friday, April 15th as part of the Downtown Urban Theater Festival.

You have a fascinating background - teacher, actor, writer, Gulf War veteran. How long have you been involved in theatre?

Yes, my background is diverse; I am very fortunate. I've been involved with the artistic community for over 15 years. I started acting professionally in 1996, in a play called The Tranny Chase.

Your current show, Indiosyncracy, is part of this year's Downtown Urban Theatre Festival. Tell me a little about it.

Indiosyncrasy is my autobiographical coming out story and my experiences as I tried to define who I am as a man, a father, and a son. Indiosyncrasy is about stereotypes, internalized homophobia, homophobia and heterosexism. And love and faith to ground you.

I'm intrigued by the fact that it incorporates Afro-Cuban song and dance, monologue, verse... a variety of different styles. What made you decide to work these different aspects into your show?

I wanted to tell my story but not in a linear way. Life isn't like that. Its a conglomerate of people and emotional journeys that one has to experience to hopefully find yourself. If you're strong and have positive people around to help guide you. That's the way I wanted to stage my show with the same idiosyncratic tosses and turns life throws at you.

How did you come up with the different characters in your show?

The characters in my show are people I know. My mother, who is homophobic and how she affected my coming out. Cinammon, the very effeminate family friend who I made fun of and ultimately saves me. And "Id" who made me do some of the craziest things ever.

What's next for you in 2011?

I'm currently in rehearsal for Carlos Serrano's new play at Repertorio Espanol titled No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy. I hope that Indiosyncrasy will have a life of its own. I believe there's a powerful message people sometimes have to be reminded of.

Indiosyncrasy
By Indio Melendez

Downtown Urban Theatre Festival
at MMAC Theater
248 West 60th Street

Friday, April 15, 8 PM

Downtown Urban Theater Festival Features LGBT Writers

2011-04-10T17:00:00.017-04:00

Downtown Urban Theater Festival (DUTF) returns for a much anticipated 9th season with four world-premiere theatrical works by LGBT playwrights Dominic Colon, Andreʼ Jermaine Ford, Indio Melendez and Marsha Sheiness, April 13 to April 23 at the new MMAC Theater on West 60th Street in Manhattan. Reg E. Gaines, the Tony and Grammy-nominated writer of Bring in da Noise Bring in da Funk, is returning as the Artistic Director and Nilo Cruz, winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play, Anna in the Tropics, will be the recipient of the first-ever DUTF Playwright Masters Award.

DUTF 2011 will feature 12 theatrical works by a cross-section of playwrights. This yearʼs LGBT works include:

THURSDAY, APRIL 14
8:00pm
Crush
By Dominic Colon
Michael is in for an evening of horror, hilarity and hope at his High School Senior Prom. Inspired by 1980s coming-of-age films, Crush adds a Bronx/Latino/gay twist to the universal themes of unrequited love, loss and the ultimate life lesson of having to face your demons.

FRIDAY, APRIL 15
8:00pm
Indiosyncrasy
By Indio Melendez
Indiosyncrasy is the coming-out story of "Nene" and the emotional journey of leaving his wife and two sons, falling into addiction and finding redemption. The story is told in vignettes using monologue, spoken word and traditional Afro-Cuban song and dance.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20
8:00pm
Lost and Found
By Marsha Sheiness
A comedy-drama. Eight teenagers laugh and cry as they tell their personal stories about growing up gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender in a world largely intolerant of sexual differences.

FRIDAY, APRIL 22
8:00pm
I Scream Out Loud
By Andre' Jermaine Ford
Told in poetry and prose, I Scream Out Loud is the redemptive story of one man's journey to self-revelation and spiritual freedom as set against the backdrop of life in the inner city.

DUTF has been described as “not only prestigious, but a slice of heaven for playwrights who want the chance to express themselves” by Theater Festivals. From an inclusive, multicultural perspective, it presents works that echo the true spirit of urban life and speak to a whole new generation whose lives defy categorizing along conventional lines. DUTF has presented 88 original theatrical works since its inception with 23 of these works by LGBT playwrights. This year. DUTF will reach an important milestone by producing its 100th play on closing night of the festival.

DUTF is made possible with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York Stateʼs 62 counties. DUTFʼs LGBT Media Sponsor is Next Magazine.

Tickets for DUTF 2011 are on sale at http://www.downtownurban.net/ and Ovation Tix at OvationTix.com and (866) 811-4111.

The festival will run from April 13 to April 23, 2011 at MMAC (Manhattan Movement & Arts Center)
248 West 60th Street, Manhattan (http://www.manhattanmovement.com/).

Visit DUTF online at:
www.facebook.com/pages/Downtown-Urban-Theater-Festival/152194641470752
www.twitter.com/DUTFNYC
http://www.youtube.com/dutfnyc

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS:

MARSHA SHEINESS has been produced on television, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, regional, community, university, and high school theatres across the US as well as in Japan, Canada and England. Mirror Repertory produced her 2009 adaptation of John Coltonʼs Shanghai Gesture at the Julia Miles Theatre. As a playwright-inresidence at Playwrights Horizons in NYC, she participated in eleven productions of her work. Best All ʻRound was produced at the Perry Street in NYC, Professor George and The Spelling Bee were first presented by the Eugene OʼNeill National Playwrights Conference in Connecticut, and her play, Monkey, Monkey Bottle Of Beer, How Many Monkeys Have We Here? (Available on DVD) aired on “Theater in America” produced by PBS. Her musical adaptation of Great Expectations was a 1997 finalist for the Richard Rodgers Award and the Festival of Contemporary Musical Theatre.

DOMINIC COLON is a true native New Yorker, born and raised in the Bronx and began acting at eight years old at The Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club. He went on to receive his BFA in Acting from New York Universityʼs Tisch School of the Arts. Colónʼs recent guest appearances include: Blue Bloods, Running Wilde, and Nurse Jackie. Other TV credits include guest appearances on Ugly Betty, Damages, Law and Order, and Law and Order: SVU. Colon also appeared in the HBO original film Taking Chance and recently wrapped up production on Mr. Popperʼs Penguinʼs opposite Jim Carrey and Angela Lansbury. Currently, Colón is the Theater Director of Teatro El Puente; a youth theater company that tours NYC. As a playwright, his plays have been seen at the Hip Hop Theater Festival, Rebel Verses at Centerstage NY, Nuyorican Poets Café and at schools, hospitals and prisons throughout NYC.

ANDREʼ JERMAINE FORD is a new and emerging playwright who served as an emerging director in residence at Ensemble Studio Theatre in 2006-2007 and as a young emerging artist of color at Tectonic Theatre Project in the summer of 2009. In 2010, his play I Scream Out Loud received a reading at Serenbe Playhouse in Atlanta, GA as well as at the Urban Life Series Play Festival and the Manhattan Theatre Rep One Act Series.

INDIO MELENDEZ is an actor, writer and poet, born and raised in NYC. He is a Desert Storm Veteran, who quickly learned he is not made for war. In 1995, Melendez returned home to NY and discovered theater. His first one-man show Manchild Dilemma had a successful run at the 3rd Annual Hip Hop Theater Festival at PS. 122. Melendez is a member of the legendary “Spanish Repertory Theater Company” in NYC and the Pregones Theater Company. Recipient of the 2008 HOLA Award for “ensemble cast” in “Dona Flor y Sus Dos Maridos.” Melendez was also nominated for a 2001 Latin Ace Award, for supporting actor as “Miguel” in Vieques at Spanish Repertory Theater Company. Indio is committed to writing works that are liberating for the soul.

PF Party Ushers in Its Terrible Twos

2011-04-06T22:00:00.000-04:00

The unabashed and offbeat party, Pussy Faggot, (PF) celebrates its 2nd anniversary in New York, Thursday, April 7 at the Delancey Lounge (168 Delancey St). The brainchild of nightlife impresario Earl Dax, the party that was recently hailed by The New York Times as “a party with serious art chops” was created to celebrate expressions of queer identity through an eclectic mix of live performance, DJs and visual artists. This incarnation will feature performers from Broadway, Off-Broadway and somewhere in between... including:

The divine lesbian Lea Delaira; modern-day Renaissance man Paul Oakley Stovall; Brad Simmons, who recently appeared with Stovall's musical Clear; composer, lyricist and performer Lance Horne; and a reading of Prince/Elizabeth by Paul Iacono of MTV's "The Hard Times of RJ Berger."

Performance artist nonpareil Penny Arcade, tranny-superstar and beauty pageant queen Glenn Marla; Homocore musician Gio Black Peter; Brooklyn-based Indie rockers Little Victory, with appearances by Max Steele and Machine Dazzle.

The international contingent features Berlin’s electro punk band The Nuclear Family.

Visuals include: Liz Liguori’s PUSSY FAGGOT! Portrait Studio, AL Steiner and AK Burns socio-sexual video Community Action Center, and an installation by GAYLETTER.

Pussy Faggot will happen Thursday, April 7th at the Delancey Lounge (168 Delancey St.). Tickets are $10.00 at the door and $6.00 with an advance RSVP to: rsvp@pussyfaggot.net

"Six Silences in Three Movements" Is Poetry in Motion

2011-03-24T14:55:00.000-04:00

By Byrne Harrison
Cross-posted from StageBuzz.com

Duncan Pflaster's Six Silences in Three Movements, currently playing as part of Manhattan Repertory Theatre's WinterFest 2011, is the most experimental of his plays that I have seen to date. In fact, it's easier to think of it as a poem with actors.

The play has a very formal structure. It features six "silences," made up of three "movements" each. Think of each silence as an act and each movement as a scene within the act. Each of the silences features a poem, followed by a traditional scene with dialogue, and ending with a stylized movement/verbal section where the characters (usually nude) talk to (or perhaps it's better to say at or around) each other in a series of non sequiturs, spoken while posing in various positions.

Within this formal structure, Pflaster's play tells the story of two couples who are neighbors and friends: Sean (Mark-Eugene Garcia) and Joanna (Susan Slotoroff), a young married couple, and Ricky (Marc Graiser) and Matt (Adam Samtur), a gay couple. Ricky and Sean are having an affair, though their partners don't know about it.

As far as story goes, that's about as much as Pflaster gives us. His play isn't about going from point A to point B. No exposed affair, no recriminations and tears, no struggle for forgiveness. Instead, he focuses on communication. Why do we have so much trouble knowing the person we are supposed to be closest to? Why do we spend so much time talking around subjects, or talking about trivial things instead of deeper issues? And even if we did talk about the meaningful issues in our lives, would anyone understand? As each of the characters says at some point in the play, "I never know what you think is important."

The play has a certain well-crafted elegance to it. The non sequitur sections are a challenge, but I suspect that's the point. There are no easy answers.

The ensemble does a good job, especially working in a non-realistic form. The poetry comes off the strongest (kudos especially to Mark-Eugene Garcia who handles it like a pro), and the actors commit themselves fully to the very stylized third movements (Adam Samtur in particular does well in these scenes). At times, however, the regular dialogue in the second movements seems a little stilted. I suspect, however, that is an intentional choice on Pflaster's part (he also directs the show) reinforcing the idea that all dialogue (on stage and in life) really just hides the important things that are being left unsaid. I must also mention Pflaster's use of music in this show. Matthew Applebaum, who collaborated with Pflaster in The Thyme of the Season, composed the music and plays during the show. He is a great addition to the play.

Since the play deals with what is left unsaid, it's no surprise that some of the strongest moments are not dialogue driven. A scene where the couples, all nude, slowly dress each other is truly beautiful, and the final moment, the couples embracing while Ricky and Sean surreptitiously hold hands, is very powerful and a perfect image for the play.

If the idea of experimental theatre makes you nervous, this may not be the play for you (chances are you would have balked at the nudity anyway). If, however, you are in the mood for something non-traditional, I suggest checking out Six Silences in Three Movements.

Six Silences in Three Movements
Written and Directed by Duncan Pflaster
Original Music Composed and Performed by Matthew Applebaum
Stage Manager/Board Op: Shawna E. Cathey

Featuring: Mark-Eugene Garcia (Sean), Susan Slotoroff (Joanna), Marc Graiser (Ricky), Adam Samtur (Matt)

New York City Opera Announces Spring Season

2011-03-24T12:19:00.001-04:00

By Byrne Harrison

The New York City Opera has announced its spring season. The lineup includes Donizetti’s classic, The Elixir of Love, reimagined in the 1950s Southwest; Monodramas, an electrifying triple bill of one-acts that unites modern music, dance, visual art, and design; the New York premiere Stephen Schwartz’s new psychological thriller Séance on a Wet Afternoon; and a special concert, John Zorn’s Masada Marathon.

THE ELIXIR OF LOVE
March 22 – April 5

Don’t miss Donizetti’s classic romantic comedy, reimagined in an inventive production, which relocates the action to the 1950s American Southwest to tell the tale of a shy young man’s quest to win the girl of his dreams.

Link to The Elixir of Love

MONODRAMAS
March 25 – April 8

Music, art, design, and dance merge in this triple bill of groundbreaking one-act operas by some of the greatest composers of the 20th century. Directed by theater visionary Michael Counts, this compelling dreamscape is a haunting exploration of the subconscious.

Link to Monodramas

JOHN ZORN’S MASADA MARATHON
March 30

Written in a flash of creativity, the 316 compositions in John Zorn's Book of Angels contain some of his most lyrical and inspiring music. This special marathon concert brings together 12 different groups - jazz, rock, classical, world music, jam band, a cappella vocals and more - for one spectacular evening of music.

Link to John Zorn’s Masada Marathon

SÉANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON
April 19 – May 1

Don’t miss the New York premiere of the first opera by Broadway legend Stephen Schwartz, Oscar and Grammy Award-winning composer of hit show Wicked. This psychological thriller tells the tale of a conniving psychic who orchestrates an elaborate kidnapping scheme to win the fame she so desperately craves.

Link to Séance on a Wet Afternoon

Broadway Bares: Solo Strips At Splash On April 3rd

2011-03-22T23:51:00.000-04:00

BROADWAY CARES/EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS

ANNOUNCES

BROADWAY BARES: SOLO STRIPS

TWO SHOWS ONLY: SUNDAY, APRIL 3 @ 8 PM & 10 PM

AT SPLASH (50 WEST 17TH STREET)

FEATURING STRIPTEASES FROM SOME OF THE SEXIEST MEN

FROM BROADWAY BARES

TO SEE VIDEO OF 2010’S SOLO STRIPS

CLICK HERE

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Jerry Mitchell announce the return of BROADWAY BARES: SOLO STRIPS, a benefit striptease event featuring some of the hottest men on and off Broadway. BROADWAY BARES: SOLO STRIPS will be held Sunday, April 3 at Splash (50 West 17th Street). There will be performances at 8 PM and 10 PM. Tickets are available in advance or a $10 donation will be accepted at the door.

SOLO STRIPS is a return to the origins of BROADWAY BARES when, in 1992, Jerry Mitchell organized a burlesque show featuring himself and six friends performing original strips on the bar at Splash for a $10 donation plus whatever tips the audience gave the dancers. BROADWAY BARES: SOLO STRIPS will, once again, feature dancers performing original strips at Splash for tips and a $10 donation.

The BROADWAY BARES: SOLO STRIPS dancers will feature Dave August (Naked Boys Singing!, Broadway Bares 10-20), Sandor DeGrazia (Broadway Bares 9, 10, 11, 13), Tony Guerrero (West Side Story international tour, Broadway Bares 19, 20), Tyrone Jackson (Memphis, Broadway Bares 19, 20), Andy Mills (Memphis), Brandon Rubendall (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Broadway Bares 20), Kellen Stancil (The Lion King), Charlie Sutton (Catch Me If You Can, Broadway Bares 16, 18, 20), Rickey Tripp (In the Heights, Broadway Bares 17, 18, 20) and Matthew Skrincosky (Broadway Bares 16-20).

Advance tickets are available online through http://www.broadwaybares.com/ and will be available at the door. Doors will open one hour prior to each show.

BROADWAY BARES: SOLO STRIPS is a sexy tease for one of BC/EFA's annual signature events: BROADWAY BARES. This year's edition, BROADWAY BARES XXI: MASTERPIECE, will feature 200 of Broadway's sexiest bodies taking you inside an auction too hot for Sotheby's and Christie's. The most delectable dancers in New York will emulate the art world's seductive nudes and give life to history's sultriest sculptures.

BROADWAY BARES XXI: MASTERPIECE will be held on Sunday, June 19 with two performances only at 9:30 PM & Midnight at Roseland Ballroom (239 West 52nd Street). Tickets and more information are available at http://www.broadwaybares.com/.

BROADWAY BARES XXI: MASTERPIECE is produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, executive produced by Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell (Catch Me If You Can, Legally Blonde) and directed by Josh Rhodes (Sondheim: The Birthday Concert, The Drowsy Chaperone, Working at the Broadway Playhouse in Chicago). Special guests for what is sure to be a “starry night” will be announced at a later date.

BROADWAY CARES/EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS is the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organization. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, BC/EFA raises funds for AIDS-related causes and other critical illnesses across the United States. Since its founding in 1988, BC/EFA has raised over $195 million dollars for critically needed services for people with AIDS and other serious illnesses. BC/EFA is the major supporter of seven programs at The Actors Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative, the Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic, The Dancers’ Resource and three supportive housing residences. BC/EFA also awards annual grants to more than 400 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide. For more information visit http://www.broadwaycares.org/.

Johnathan Cedano Returns In Confessions of a Homo Thug Porn Star

2011-03-19T15:51:00.001-04:00

By Byrne Harrison

Johnathan Cedano returns in James Earl Hardy's Confessions of a Homo Thug Porn Star, based on the life of adult film star Tiger Tyson. After successful performances at the Downtown Urban Theater Festival and the Fire Island Pines, the show will play at the Roy Arias Theater on March 17th-19th and 24th-26th, with the March 24th performance being in Spanish. All performances are at 8 PM.

The 5th Annual Broadway Beauty Pageant Benefitting The Ali Forney Center Is Monday

2011-03-18T17:35:00.000-04:00

By Byrne Harrison
Photos by Mike Ruiz
Cross-posted from StageBuzz.com

Want to see some of the best looking men of Broadway show off their talents while helping out a worthy cause? There are a few tickets left to Monday night's 5th Annual Broadway Beauty Pageant. Join host Tovah Feldshuh and celebrity judges Bruce Vilanch, Rachel Dratch, and Carson Kressley as they encourage this year's contestants Matt Anctil (La Cage aux Folles), Michael Cusumano (Chicago), Raymond J Lee (Anything Goes), Brandon Rubendall (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark), and James Tabeek (Mary Poppins) to strut their stuff in the talent, interview, and swimsuit portions of competition. Featuring a special performance by Lee Roy Reams.

The event benefits The Ali Forney Center, NYC's primary housing resource for homeless LGBT youth.

I had a chance to talk with Matthew Oberstein, one of the producers of the Broadway Beauty Pageant, about this year's event.

This marks the 5th year of the Broadway Beauty Pageant. How did the Pageant first get started?

The Broadway Beauty Pageant was the brainchild of Ryan J. Davis and Jeffery Self, who thought this was the perfect way to feature some of Broadway's very talented chorus boys, to bring the Broadway community together for something different than anything else out there, and to raise money for the great cause that is the Ali Forney Center.

Tell me a little about this year's contestants.

There are five very talented--and very handsome--contestants this year. Matt Anctil is making his Broadway debut in La Cage aux Folles, and previously showed off his legs in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, the Fire Island Dance Festival, and Night of 1000 Gowns. Michael Cusumano currently stars in Chicago, but made history as the youngest company member in the history of American Ballet Theater, before moving on to become a principal dancer Alabama Ballet and then a soloist with Boston Ballet. Raymond J. Lee is featured in the current revival of Anything Goes, but he made his Broadway debut in Mamma Mia. He is the co-creator of the web series Thank You...Next, which has been selected for this year's LA Web Series Festival. Brandon Rubendall is making his Broadway debut in Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark, but comes to Broadway from a versatile career as a model and commercial actor for Nike and Lord & Taylor, and he has danced for Beyonce and Livvi Franc. Mr. Mary Poppins, James Tabeek, covers too many tracks in the show to count. His other Broadway and touring credits include Wicked, Taboo, Beauty and the Beast, and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

You've got some great judges: Bruce Vilanch, Carson Kressley and Rachel Dratch. And Tovah Feldshuh will be hosting, which is great. Tovah and Carson are Ali Forney Center honorary board members, and have been very active in supporting the event in the past. How did Bruce and Rachel get involved?

The Broadway Beauty Pageant is planned, in great part, by a committee of very dedicated volunteers. In both Bruce and Rachel's cases, it was a connection that a committee member had to them, and once they heard about the event, they couldn't say 'no'!

Tell me a little bit about the Ali Forney Center and the work that they do for homeless LGBT youth.

Ali Forney Center is the nation's largest and most comprehensive organization dedicated to homeless LGBT youth. We provide homeless LGBT youths, aged 16-24, with the support and services they need to escape the streets and begin to live healthy and independent lives. We offer an innovative continuum of services that includes a day center, where we provide street outreach, case management, primary medical care, HIV testing, food and showers, and an employment assistance program; an emergency housing program, where LGBT youths are able to reside in save, staff-supervised homelike apartments for up to six months while we assist them in moving on to more permanent housing; and transitional housing, where residents are able to live for up to two years while we assist them in maintaining employment and continuing their education. We place a great deal of emphasis on helping our residents to prepare to live independently, and our goal is that, upon graduation from this program, they will move on to their own apartments.

While I hope that everyone will come to the Broadway Beauty Pageant, what are some other ways that people can support the Ali Forney Center's mission?

Absolutely! We're always in need of non-perishable foods, toiletries, cleaning supplies, bed sheets and towels, and school supplies. We love to welcome volunteers to AFC, particularly people to help with meal preparation, workshop facilitation, event planning committees, and just spreading the word throughout the community about the work that we do, and the work that is necessary to help the many homeless LGBT youths living in New York City.

Duncan Pflaster's "Six Silences in Three Movements" Begins a Limited Run This Weekend

2011-03-18T17:30:00.001-04:00

By Byrne Harrison
Cross-posted from StageBuzz.com

Playwright Duncan Pflaster's Six Silences in Three Movements is being presented as part of Manhattan Repertory Theatre's Winterfest 2011. I was able to discuss the play with Duncan, and he provided the video below.

One of the things I enjoy about your work is your clever and creative use of language. I understand that the language and structure in Six Silences in Three Movements is a bit of a departure for you. Tell me a little bit about it and what inspired you.

I've gone very minimalist with this piece. The "Silences" of the title are essentially scenes where people talk but don't say anything that they really want to talk about, it's all about their subtext. I attempted to allow the audience to infer the story with as little actual content as possible. I was highly inspired by Edward Gorey's work (especially l'Heure Bleu) for this piece. I've always admired how formal and spare with story he dared to be; even while filling the page with wonderful visions, many of them remain enigmatic.

What's the play about?

It's about two couples, one straight and one gay - the straight man is having an affair with one of the gay men, unbeknownst to their partners.

In addition to using poetry and non-sequiturs in the play, there is a whole lot of nudity. Which gave the actors a harder time, the language or the nudity?

The language, really. I've always found that randomness is always the hardest thing to memorize. And of course I strove to make the nudity comfortable for the performers; we rehearsed for nearly a month before any clothes were shed. They also insisted on going out for drinks as a cast just before the first naked rehearsal - I always say that a couple of drinks can do more for cast bonding than any theatre exercise. Sexuality and nudity feature in many of my plays, and I've found many performers really love a chance to let loose and be wild and sexy. If given the proper atmosphere, respect and understanding, it can be freeing and quite exciting. I never want to force anyone to do anything that's uncomfortable for them. Back in my acting days, I appeared naked onstage a few times myself, so I know what it can be like.

Tell me a little about your cast. Have you worked with them before?

I've worked with both Adam Samtur and Susan Slotoroff before on previous projects; they're fantastic. Mark-Eugene Garcia and Marc Graiser have both worked with acquaintances of mine in the past, but this is our first time working together, though it seems now I've known them for ages. And Matthew Applebaum, our wonderful composer, wrote and performed the music for The Thyme of the Season, my award-winning sequel to A Midsummer Night's Dream, which premiered in last year's Planet Connections Theatre Festivity.

What do you want to say to your potential audience?

Come, enjoy.

What's next for you in 2011?

My multimedia play Sweeter Dreams will premiere in the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity this June. It's about an independent filmmaker torn between the two men she loves: her husband and her frequent leading man. I have a few other projects cooking, but nothing I can announce officially yet.

Lambda Literary Foundation Announces This Year's Lammy Finalists

2011-03-17T12:29:00.000-04:00

By Byrne Harrison

The Lambda Literary Foundation has announced the finalists of this year's Lambda Literary Awards (the Lammys). This year featured a record number of nominations, with more than 520 titles represented from about 230 publishers.

The finalists in the category of LGBT drama are:

The Brother/Sister Plays, by Tarell Alvin McCraney (Theatre Communications Group)

Lydia, by Octavio Solis (Samuel French)

Oedipus at Palm Springs: A Five Lesbian Brothers Play, by Maureen Angelos, Dominique Dibbell, Peg Healey, & Lisa Kron (Samuel French)

Slipping, by Daniel Talbott (Dramatists Play Service)

With Bated Breath, by Bryden MacDonald (Talonbooks)

The ceremony will be held Thursday, May 26, 2011 at the School of Visual Arts Theater in New York City (333 W. 23rd St), and will be hosted by Lea DeLaria. Playwright Edward Albee is one of this year's honorees.

About the Lambda Literary Foundation
The Foundation nurtures, celebrates, and preserves LGBT literature through programs that honor excellence, promote visibility and encourage development of emerging writers. LLF’s programs include the Lambda Literary Awards, the Writers’ Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices, and their web magazine at www.lambdaliterary.org.

Tom Judson's "Canned Ham" Returns to Dixon Place

2011-03-16T18:15:00.003-04:00

By Byrne Harrison

Tom Judson brings his one-man show, Canned Ham, back to Dixon Place through March 26th. Canned Ham is Tom's theatrical memoir detailing his life in all areas of show business: acting in Broadway musicals (Cabaret, 42nd Street), composing music for film and television (Whit Stillman's Metropolitan, Sesame Street) and the work for which he is probably most widely known, appearing in gay adult films as Gus Mattox. Stories and songs are interwoven with visuals and musical numbers to celebrate a life that is extraordinary yet--because the story is bookended by the tale of his partner's death from AIDS--all too familiar to many. Tom accompanies himself on the piano, the accordion, the trumpet and nine other instruments--sometimes simultaneously.

I had a chance to talk to Tom about the latest incarnation his show.

Tell me a little bit about Canned Ham and how it came to be.

In a nutshell: I went broke when the real estate market collapsed (I was flipping houses--very small scale--in upstate New York) and when I spotted this little, broken-down camper in a barnyard, I hatched the crazy scheme of hitching it up to my Jeep and driving around the country, doing odd jobs here and there to support myself. Then I thought, oh, I have all these great stories from working in porn and the theater and movies, I could string them together and play a couple of tunes on the accordion and find the local gay bar and do the show for drink tickets. When I sat down and wrote the script it ended up being so much more substantial than I had imagined that I realized it was destined for a theater, not for an open mic night on the road somewhere. So in a way, I wrote myself out of what might have been a terrific road trip, but I gained a wonderful new project.

How does it feel bringing Canned Ham back to Dixon Place, the space where it saw some of its earliest performances and your recent birthday show?

Dixon Place has one of the best spaces/tech facilities downtown. The acoustics alone make it a pleasure to perform there. Besides, I've been performing at the various incarnations of DP since the early eighties, when it was in Ellie Covan's living room on East First Street. I've got a real history with the place

How has the play evolved since its earliest Dixon Place performances?

Oh, God, where to start? More of everything, mostly: more music (LOTS more music), more visuals, more choreography, more musical instruments (12, at last count) and the script has been completely take apart and put back together, based on what I've learned doing it for the past year and a half.

I saw Canned Ham in Provincetown and New York, and saw a big difference in the audiences. You've performed Canned Ham in several different cities. Have you noticed much difference, and do you have a favorite?

It's remarkable how audiences differ from town to town. I experienced that with the big Broadway tours I've been on. A favorite? You don't really expect me to answer that, do you? [Editor's note - I'm pretty sure he wanted to say New York.]

As I mentioned, you had a special performance of Canned Ham at Dixon Place on your 50th birthday. What was your birthday wish this year?

Oh, I don't really indulge in wishes and resolutions. Life has been so good to me, throwing things at me willy-nilly, that I don't see any reason to start interfering with it now.

What's coming up next for you?

I'm continuing to play for Varla Jean Merman as much as possible. Canned Ham will be booked around the country wherever we can get a foothold, and I'm planning on doing a new show in Provincetown this summer. I only have a vague idea so far what that will be. Mostly music, I'm thinking. A classy (but sexy) cabaret of some sort.

Dixon Place presents

Tom Judson's

CANNED HAM

Directed by Kevin Malony

Press Representative: Tim Ranney

"Leaves you yelling for more," - Alan Cumming

"Fast, funny and surprisingly moving." - The Huffington Post

Thursdays - Saturdays, March 3-5, 17-19, 24-26 at 7:30pm

Tickets: $15 (advance); $20 (door)

2012 NewBorn Festival Seeking Submissions

2011-03-01T14:56:00.001-05:00

Submissions for The 2012 National NewBorn Festival are now open through June 2011. Now on its sixth year, "NewBorn" is MTWorks flagship program, created to find talented emerging playwrights from across the US, introduce their work to the New York community, and open new doors to regional voices. For the first time MTWorks will be accepting new musicals for consideration.

Submitted plays and musicals must meet the following criteria:

The world of the play/musical must take place in a region outside of New York City.

The play/musical must not have had a prior production in NYC.

MTWorks strongly encourages writers living in any region of the United States to apply.

The selected playwrights will be awarded:

One full reading of their work in a festival environment.

Assigned professional director / musical director and cast to work on their play.

“Playwright Spotlight” Newsletter received by over 3,000 members of the NY Theatre Industry.

Networking "Meet the Playwrights" Event.

Complimentary tickets to MTWorks shows, invited dress rehearsals and other special events.

Artistic and professional support from the MTWorks staff.

Second reading if your play/musical wins The Audience Favorite Award.

Eligibility for the MTWorks Board of Director's Excellence in Playwriting Award.

Consideration for future MTWorks productions.

REQUIREMENTS:

We are only interested in full-length plays and full-length musicals at the moment (at least 90min in length).

Applicants must submit the following:

A Cover Letter (can be in the body of the email).
A ten (10) page excerpt of your play.
A half (1/2) page synopsis.
If you are submitting a musical also include one mp3 that best represents your score.

If you applied for NewBorn before, you must submit a different play.

You can only submit one play per year.

All material must be emailed (all together in one email) to plays@mtworks.org with [title of the play and your name] on the subject line.

If your contact information changes between your submission date and November, you are required to update your information by sending an email to plays@mtworks.org with [updated contact information for-your name] on the subject line.

SELECTION PROCESS

MTWorks will select the strongest candidates based on the plays/musicals overall theme, dialogue and structure.

MTWorks encourages scripts with large casts, different ethnicities and diverse backgrounds. We accept applications from all cities in the United States. Whether the play/musical is a drama or comedy, it must fit within MTWorks mission.

The request for your complete work is determined by David Stallings, Artistic Director. The final selection committee is comprised of David Stallings, Artistic Director and other artistic staff. This process is what we call “The Living Room Series."

Submission Dates:
March 1st - June 1st, 2011
submissions outside of these dates will not be considered)

Selection Announcement:
Around November 1st, 2011

The 2012 NewBorn Festival:
Late January - Early February 2012
Location TBA

Purple Rep To Present "Gay Plays for Straight People (And Also Gay People)" in April

2011-03-01T01:22:00.000-05:00

PURPLE REP PRESENTS

GAY PLAYS FOR STRAIGHT PEOPLE (AND ALSO GAY PEOPLE)

TWO PLAYS IN REP
APRIL 8-30 @ THE PARADISE FACTORY

FEATURING
THE ALL-AMERICAN GENDERF*CK CABARET & THE UN-MARRYING PROJECT

Purple Rep, a new theatre company founded by playwrights Larry Kunofsky (What To Do When You Hate All Your Friends at Theater Row; A Guy Adrift in the Universe) and Mariah MacCarthy (Ampersand: A Romeo & Juliet Story with Looking Glass Theatre; The All-American Genderf*ck Cabaret at UNDER St. Marks), will present their inaugural project Gay Plays for Straight People (and also gay people), April 8-30 at The Paradise Factory (64 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery). The project will feature the world premiere of Kunofsky’s play, The Un-Marrying Project and the revival of Ms. MacCarthy’s play The All-American Genderf*ck Cabaret (sold-out run at UNDER St. Marks in 2009), both of which deal with issues of gender identity and sexual equality

The Un-Marrying Project
Written by Larry Kunofsky
Directed by Rachel Eckerling
Welcome to The Un-Marrying Project, a documentary film where legally (and "happily") married couples will divorce! In the name of gay marriage! And not re-marry until marriage is legal for everyone! An act of civil disobedience that becomes a hard lesson: When you try to change the world, the world changes you.

The All-American Genderf*ck Cabaret
Written by Mariah MacCarthy
Directed by Heidi Handelsman
Eight gender stereotypes, countless dance breaks, one intimately outrageous cabaret, and one androgynous omnipotent emcee to guide them all. A story about back-alley fights, The Pussies of America, sexting, acquaintance rape, infidelity, and the ass-backwards ways we seek affection. Welcome to the Genderf*ck.

“A great artist provokes without malice, evokes feeling and understanding, and perhaps plants the seeds of change. MacCarthy succeeds… one of the best off-off-Broadway productions I've see.”
Le-Ann Garland, Theatre is Easy (Genderf*ck)

“Genderf*ck for the Y Generation is what Reality Bites was for the X Generation”
Grace Moon, Velvet Park

The project, presented by Purple Rep will play at The Paradise Factory (64 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery), April 8-30. Performance schedule and cast TBA.

PURPLE REP was founded by playwrights Larry Kunofsky and Mariah MacCarthy in order to produce their work in rep, so that when their plays are presented together, a larger story can be told. Over time, Purple Rep will expand in order to include other playwrights in our repertory model. We are committed to plays that provoke, plays that crack you up and crack you apart so that you can put yourself together again, plays that make you see red and hear the blues…until it all mixes in your mind’s eye into a purple rush.

LARRY KUNOFSKY (Playwright, The Un-Marrying Project) is a New York-based playwright whose work includes My Therapist, a monologue play for forty-five actors; The Cat Person, a two-hander, with live cats; “Oh, Magic Bag…” about a bag of porn possessed by demons; Vicky Victim, about vicious office friendships among women; So Retarded – A Play For Idiots, a kind of Vagina Monologues-takeoff on the mentally challenged; bender/gender/straight/&neutered, a play-cycle on the ever-changing nature of sexuality; Death and The Pizza Man, a satire on developmental theatre; Thanks For Having Me, about a well-educated homeless guy who couch-surfs a lot; The Lunch Anxieties, which is kind of like the movie Groundhog Day, but with lunch, and without Bill Murray, and much scarier; Social Work (a nightmare), about health care, race, and Internet dating; and The Worst Person In The Whole Entire World Of All Time Ever, which is about everybody’s mom. His current, ongoing project is THE GENESIS TAPESTRIES; a cycle of plays inspired by stories or themes from the Book of Genesis. The three plays completed so far in this project are The Myths We Need – or – How to Begin; ‘think-yer-better-than-me?!; and The Big Ear. He has been a three-time winner of the John Golden Award for Drama and a resident at the Edward Albee Foundation. His work has been excerpted in the 2009 editions of “The Best Men’s and Best Women’s Stage Monologues and Scenes,” published by Smith & Kraus, and his full-length play What To Do When You Hate All Your Friends – an anti-social comedy, will be published by Playscripts in early 2011. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild.

“Kunofsky's voice is original and quirky.” Martin Denton, nytheatre.com

“Friendships, we all know, can be awkward; social lives can be nonexistent. Playwright Larry Kunofsky satirizes these sad truths with deft skill… When we chuckle here, we’re truly laughing at ourselves.”
Amanda Cooper, Time Out NY (What To Do When You Hate All Your Friends)

“Kunofsky has an intensely theatrical gift for comedy, and his cast and crew have risen to the challenge of his smart, heartfelt play.” Sam Theilman, Variety (What to Do When You Hate All Your Friends)

MARIAH MACCARTHY (Playwright, The All-American Genderf*ck Cabaret) is a playwright and sometimes director/dramaturg/producer/blogger. She writes plays about the intersection of sex, gender expression, and the Kinsey scale, among other things. Her plays include A Man of His Word (San Diego Old Globe with Playwrights Project), a neo-noir about sexual obsession; Ampersand: A Romeo & Juliet Story (Looking Glass Theatre, winner of 20 Looking Glass Forum Awards), a modern, cynical Romeo & Juliet with a girl as Romeo; Detained (Left Hip’s “From the Hip” Festival), which is sort of like Deathwatch with lesbians; Bachelor/Bachelorette (a radio play with Co-Op Theatre East), which is about androgyny and bachelorette parties; Dismemberment (Player’s Theatre), about a skeleton marionette’s friendship with a lovestruck actor; The Foreplay Play (FullStop Theatre Collective), about a straight couple and a lesbian couple trying to all have sex with each other; and The All-American Genderf*ck Cabaret (sold-out run with Rapscallion Theatre Collective). She’s also working on a new play, Magic Trick, in which a hot 20-something paraplegic leaves her boyfriend and becomes a burlesque dancer. She has a blog, A Rehearsal Room of One’s Own, and contributes to 2amtheatre.com on occasion. She is also a member of the Dramatists Guild.

"My Scandalous Life" - An intimate, if not always telling, portrait of a cipher

2011-02-21T01:36:00.002-05:00

Review by Judd Hollander
Photo by Carol Rosegg
Cross-posted from StageBuzz.com

How often is a person defined by a single situation? Take the case of one Lord Alfred Douglas (Des Keogh), known as Bosie to his friends. A poet who, more than 40 years after being involved in an affair with Oscar Wilde, (the story is set in 1944 England), finds himself still mainly known for that one period in his life. "It’s all anyone seems to want to talk about," he mutters at the beginning of Thomas Kilroy's My Scandalous Life, which looks at what has become of Bosie after the Wilde days.

On this particular night, when his long-estranged wife Olive is dying upstairs and the sounds of war can be heard overhead, Bosie looks back on his long and litigious history both as plaintiff and defendant in various libel trials, trying to state his case and set the record(s) straight. No matter how hard he tries to steer the conversation elsewhere, however, Wilde’s name keeps coming up, along with Bosie’s own failings, even though he refuses to admit them. Bosie also discusses his marriage and where that went wrong, as well as his former predilection to homosexuality (He’s remained chaste for over 30 years). He also talks about what happened to his son, who was committed to an asylum at age 25.

Bosie, as brilliantly portrayed by Keogh, is a study in contradictions. He despises his wife’s Irish maid Eileen (Fiana Toibin), feeling she acts too much at ease with him for a servant, yet relies on her more and more as time goes on. He is also a proud and aristocratic man, but at the same time, a weakling and a coward. He wants to be a good father to his son, but is unable to make the effort needed to do so. Keogh does a good job at showing both the humility and complexity of Bosie, a man from a fading, bygone era, who is adrift in a changing world.

Not a comedy in any sense of the word, Keogh and Kilroy do manage to toss in various flourishes of humor along the way, giving Bosie a sort of old reprobate status at times. There’s also a terrible loneliness about this man who continually waits for people to visit him, people who will never come and who probably regard him as a sort of embarrassment (there’s one moment, towards the end of act two where Boise realizes the truth about himself and is crushed by what he sees). In Keogh’s hands Bosie is a rather intriguing individual with a lot of stories to tell, though perhaps too colored with his own perceptions for any of what he says to fully ring true.

Toibin is fine as Eileen, a caring women often running around in tears, yet very devoted to her dying mistress. One has the feeling it won’t be long before she also becomes Bosie’s confidante, something he desperately needs. At least before things get too rough, and he reverts to the master-servant relationship to hide behind, along with continually quoting the different poetry he has written over the years.

There are certainly possibilities here, but unfortunately what’s lacking is enough information to make the play really take hold. Bosie as a character is nicely defined, but there are numerous references to historical incidents, such as various libel suits, that could have been explored further. Bosie talks as if everyone knows what’s going on, a dangerous assumption by the playwright, even if one has the program notes (which are incomplete) to follow along with. It would have been nice to know, for example, how Bosie became bankrupt and how well his poetry was publicly and critically received.

Direction by John Going works nicely, with Charlie Corcoran's set filling the venue's downstairs space very well. Costumes by David Toser are fine, and the lighting by Michael O'Connor is good. The sound effects by Zachary Williamson are quite effective.

My Scandalous Life, while not perfect, shines an intriguing light on a sort of overlooked player in theatrical and literary history. (Even in the close of this review, Douglas is still linked with Wilde. Bosie would have probably hated that.)

My Scandalous Life
By Thomas Kilroy
Directed by John Going
Set Design: Charlie Corcoran
Costume Design: David Toser
Lighting Design: Michael O'Connor
Sound Design: Zachary Williamson
Production Stage Manager: Michael Palmer

With: Des Keogh (Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas), Eileen (Fiana Toibin)

Irish Repertory Theatre
W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre (downstairs space)
132 West 22nd Street

Tickets: 212-727-2737 or www.irishrep.org

Running Time: 2 Hours

Closes: March 6, 2011

FRIGID New York Interview - Tania Katan of "Saving Tania's Privates"

2011-02-21T00:21:00.000-05:00

By Byrne Harrison
Photo by Angela Ellsworth
Cross-posted from StageBuzz.com

Name: Tania Katan
Show: Saving Tania’s Privates
Website: www.savingtaniasprivates.com & www.taniakatan.com

How did you first get involved in theatre?

Like most people, I got cancer. Isn’t that how it works? You get sick and you either find religion or art. Thank fucking God I found art!

Who are your biggest influences?

Gilda Radner, Tracey Ullman, Harry Chapin, Holly Hughes, Bob Flanagan, Sandra Bernhard, The Carter Family, Lisa Kron, Joelle Katan, Elliott Richards, and on and on and on.

Tell me a little bit about your show.

Saving Tania’s Privates is like "Run Lola Run" meets "The Singing Detective" and swings by "The L Word" for a cocktail! Lights up, I’m standing onstage being felt up by a male TSA guard. Do I shrink away and comply with his demands, or distract him with a joke and start running? Do I move-in with the brooding dyke who looks like Pony Boy or do I move in with my French mother? Do I opt for chemotherapy and a mastectomy, or radiation and a lumpectomy? Can I race for a cure when I’m not cured? Can my best friend really contract HIV when I still have cancer? Saving Tania’s Privates invites the audience to enter a world where surgeons are ninjas and best friends don’t get AIDS; a world where running topless is legal, disco never dies, and scars are celebrated. It explores whether bad girlfriends can give you cancer and whether good ones can take it away.

What inspired you to write it?

I wrote the book first, a memoir entitled "My One Night Stand With Cancer." Then I realized that this is a story about the body, the sick body, the silly body, the dying body, the living body and yet it was sort of idle inside of a book. Because theatre is such a live and active form of storytelling, it became imperative for me to adapt the book into a play. Although I didn’t have ME in mind to perform the one-woman play — DUH! — I came to realize how important and urgent it is for me to invite an audience to bear witness to my story, to confirm that these events really occurred, and to show them that I am still alive, able to embody this story, visually and textually answering questions that readers of the book continue to ask me.

Who are your collaborators and how long have you been working with them?

I’ve been lucky enough to work with friend/producer: AJ Epstein; friend/Director Carys Kresny, and friend/Co-Producer: Liza Comtois for about three years! My friend/Stage Manager, Emily Reitman is a new addition to STP team and friend/Stage Manager Devorah Spadone handed her the baton. I adore and respect all of the team personally and professionally, which allows for us to go deeper, explore the script and performance more fully, and, honestly, crack each other up A LOT! If we could afford team uniforms, I’m certain we would all wear them, at all times! And, of course, the well-known visual and performance artist, Angela Ellsworth. For some odd reason she has chosen to live with me and be my constant life collaborator. Thank Art!

What's next for you after FRIGID?

Off to Los Angeles to perform a new solo show Thank You and Good Luck, which will explore auditioning for civil rights as I try to become America’s next Lesbian Bachelor on ABC’s reality show "The Bachelor." It will premiere at the 18th Street Art Center as a part of Richard Newton’s project Have You Seen My Privacy through the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time.

Also, I’m working on a second book entitled "A Laugh Riot." It’s about cracking people up while subverting perceptions. Funny activism with serious impact!

And finally, if you could say anything to your potential audience, what would it be?

What you are about to see is a comedy. And like all good comedies, there are many catastrophes within that framework. There are moments when the characters will find themselves in compromised positions, feeling othered and unable to move forward. Sometimes a character will choose to French kiss another character instead of getting a biopsy. Sometimes a character will believe that they are cooler than they are based on alcohol consumption. That is the beauty of humor; humor springs from a place of fear, discomfort, vulnerability, and otherness and yet somehow allows us to feel less fear, discomfort and otherness. My hope is that you will come see Saving Tania’s Privates and witness the acts of falling in love, breaking up, awkward dance moves, hiding in hyper-reality, blown veins, and laughing at inappropriate moments.

Saving Tania's Privates

UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place)

$12

Wed 2/23 @ 7:30pm, Fri 2/25 @ 9pm, Sat 2/26 @ 1pm, Tue 3/1 @ 6pm, Wed 3/2 @ 7:30pm, & Sat 3/5 @ 10pm

MTWorks' Antonio Miniño to Perform in "All About Valentines" Event

2011-02-16T10:43:00.001-05:00

MTWorks' company member Antonio Miniño will be singing at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (236 East 3rd St. between B and C, Manhattan) on Sunday, February 20th at 7 PM as part of The Fresh Fruit Playhouse and their "All About Valentines" event hosted by Frank F. Calo and Rita Petite.

The line-up also includes performances by Amada Anderson (reading Empress of Sex - 2011 NewBorn Festival), David Vincent Brooks, Knox Bundy, Teresa Fischer, Lady Clover Honey, It's A Little Stormy, Phil Kadet, Evan Laurence, Jed Ryan, Drew Sotomayor, Francisco White and many more.

There will also be a Bachelor/Bachelorette auction and "The Love Game."

Tickets are $10.00

For more information contact artisticdirector@freshfruitfestival.com
To place your reservaton (highly suggested) visit www.nuyorican.org (and select Feb 20th on the calendar).

2011 Newborn Festival Starts Today

2011-02-03T11:44:00.001-05:00

Maieutic Theatre Works

presents

The 2011 National
NewBorn Festival

4 days of free readings dealing with
IMMIGRATION, SEXUALITY, WAR & FREEDOM

Thursday, February 3rd – Sunday, February 6th, 2011

CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

WWW.MTWORKS.ORG

MAIEUTIC THEATRE WORKS is pleased to continue their acclaimed fifth season with their flagship program dedicated to finding emerging playwrights from across the nation, The National NewBorn Festival.

This year's selected playwrights are Jacqueline Goldfinger from Pennsylvania, Rich Rubin from Oregon, Marilynn Barner Anselmi from North Carolina, Duncan Pflaster from New York, and Riti Sachdeva from New Mexico. Kicking off NewBorn will be the resident reading of David Stallings' The ReEducation of Arizona, helmed by resident director Cristina Alicea.

Readings will take place at The City College of New York's North Academic Center (138th Street & Amsterdam, Manhattan), Thursday, February 3rd through Sunday, February 6th.

Each play receives a free reading with the possibility of a second to the recipient of the Audience Favorite Award(announced Saturday, February 5th before midnight on the MTWorks website). Prior to the festival, the MTWorks' board of directors will bestow the first Excellence in Playwriting Award.

Creating a solid ensemble of over 50 remarkable actors including the MTWorks’ Company Actors, The 2011 National NewBorn Festival plays the following schedule through Sunday, February 6th:

Thursday, February 3rd at 6:00pm

THE REEDUCATION OF ARIZONA
by resident playwright David Stallings
directed by resident director Cristina Alicea

A satirical comedy that dissects the trickled down effect of Gov. Jan Brewer's immigration bill in Arizona.

Thursday, February 3rd at 8:30pm

SKIN AND BONE
by Jacqueline Goldfinger
directed by Dev Bondarin

A cannibalistic dark comedy about aging, set in a cozy B&B in the South.

Friday, February 4th at 6:00pm

COSTA REHAB
by Rich Rubin
directed by Shelly Feldman

Iraq war veterans create their own island of recovery in this piercing comedic drama.

Friday, February 4th at 8:30pm

RAISING RICCI
by Marilynn Barner Anselmi
directed by Kathleen O'Neill

A lesbian couple grieving the loss of their son seek solace in the Southern family that never accepted them.

Saturday, February 5th at 6:00pm

THE EMPRESS OF SEX
by Duncan Pflaster
directed by Glory Kadigan

The Empress Salacia, spurned by man, decrees that there shall be no love allowed in her domain, only sex.

Saturday, February 5th at 8:30pm

PARTS OF PARTS & STITCHES
by Riti Sachdeva
directed by Lee Sunday Evans

The establishment of Pakistan is the backdrop of this magical period drama where neighbor betrays neighbor and love trumps all.

Sunday, February 6th at 5:00pm

AUDIENCE FAVORITE WINNER

Readings are free and open to the public. For detailed location of each reading, campus map and to reserve your seats in advance (highly recommended) visit www.MTWorks.org/NewBorn.html
Watch our youtube promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We_VBafPVgw
To download photos of the playwrights and NewBorn artwork visit: http://tinyurl.com/6gqnx8h

The 2011 National NewBorn Festival is sponsored by
The City College of New York’s Psychology Club and Department

BIOGRAPHIES

MAIEUTIC THEATRE WORKS (MTWorks) is a non-profit NYC based theatre company that has premiered distinctive plays and brought numerous Broadway performers to Off-Off Broadway audiences since 2006. Now a family of 12 theater professionals and 28 company actors, MTWorks’ mission is to birth new plays inspired by playwrights and regions outside of New York City.

Past productions include Cody Daigle's A Home Across the Ocean at Theatre Row, directed by Cristina Alicea; Carol Carpenter's Good Lonely People at The Robert Moss Theatre (Winner of 3 Planet Connections Theatre Awards; Best Supporting Actress, Best New Playwright, Activist Award), directed by Diánna Martin; David Stallings' Barrier Island (Center Stage), directed by Cristina Alicea; The 2010 National NewBorn Festival at Asya Geisberg Studio, various directors; Underworld: Duets at The Triad NYC (Benefit); 4 Variations of Mee at Manhattan Children’s Theatre, various directors; Louise Flory's Look After You at The SoHo Playhouse (FringeNYC 09), directed by David Stallings; Jacqueline Goldfinger's The Oath at The Arclight Theater, directed by Cristina Alicea; The 2009 National NewBorn Festival at The ArcLight Theater, various directors; Into the Underworld: A Broadway Understudy Tell All...With Music at The Triad NYC (Benefit); David Stallings' Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell at The Connelly Theater, directed by Cristina Alicea (FringeNYC 08); Cody Daigle's Providence at The Rock Theatre, directed by Ian Crawford; Underworld: A Night With Broadway's Understudies at The D-Lounge (Benefit); The 2008 National NewBorn Festival at The Payan Theatre, various directors; David Stallings's Arpeggio at The 45th Street Theatre, directed by Cristina Alicea; The 2007 National NewBorn Festival at The Payan Theatre, various directors; and David Stallings' Folie a Deux: Insanity in Pairs at The Rock Theatre, directed by Cristina Alicea. www.mtworks.org

Liza Minnelli To Star In The Best Of "JIM CARUSO'S CAST PARTY" At Town Hall

2011-01-28T12:59:00.000-05:00

Show business superstar Liza Minnelli has announced that she will be performing at Town Hall on Thursday, February 17th in the All-Star, Best of Jim Caruso’s Cast Party, a major benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. In its eight year history, Caruso's famous open mike night at Birdland has seen a huge number of major stars drop in unannounced. Fans pack the place hoping it might be the night that Michael Feinstein, Liza, Chita, Tony Bennett, Larry Gatlin, Lucie, Marilyn Maye, Paul Schaffer, Cheyenne Jackson, might pop in and sing a song or two. At Town Hall, on February 17th, the fans packing the place won't have to wonder who's coming to sing: it's the big guns, the big talent, the big stars in all their multitude that are coming to perform in The Best of Jim Caruso's Cast Party in support of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

For this special show produced by Scott Siegel as part of his first "Siegel Season at Town Hall," the iconic Liza Minnelli will be re-united with her pal, Broadway legend Chita Rivera, as well as Country Superstar Larry Gatlin of The Gatlin Brothers. Also in the cast, Broadway and Nightclub star Lucie Arnaz, Marilyn Maye (Johnny Carson’s favorite singer, who holds the record for most appearances by a vocalist on “The Tonight Show”), YouTube sensation “Miranda Sings,” Broadway star and Tony nominee Christopher Sieber, Two-Time Tony nominee Sally Mayes, international jazz star Hilary Kole, R&B tenor William Blake (on the heels of his Carnegie Hall debut), Nightlife Award-winning jazz violinist Aaron Weinstein, multi-award-winning cabaret artiste Natalie Douglas, Klea Blackhurst (Merman afficianado and star of the new IFC Comedy Series “The Onion News Network”), acrobat and comedian Rudi Macaggi (direct from “America’s Got Talent”), and the rocking Dueling Fiddlers. There will be more special guest stars announced over the next few weeks! And you can count on a special surprise performer or two that night, as well!

The evening will be hosted by the multi-award winning Jim Caruso, with Billy Stritch at the piano, Steve Doyle on bass and Daniel Glass on drums.

About Jim Caruso’s Cast Party:
Jim Caruso’s Cast Party is an extreme open mic that has been running every Monday for the past eight years at Birdland, the historic music room in Manhattan’s Theater District. It’s also a bi-monthly event at The Magic Castle in Los Angeles. Stars like Martin Short, Carol Channing, Cheyenne Jackson, Michael Feinstein, Liza Minnelli, Melissa Manchester and Tony Bennett have all joined in on the fun and impromptu performances – sharing the stage with Broadway chorus cuties, jazzers and composers. Playbill put it best: "Starrier than the Hayden Planetarium…a hot spot where Broadway and Hollywood tip, twirl and hit the mic. It's become the place to cruise, schmooze, sing and be seen."

Scott Siegel presents…
The Best of Jim Caruso’s Cast Party

Thursday, February 17, 8PM
Town Hall Box Office is located at 123 West 43rd StreetTickets are $25 -$50 - $75
And can be purchased NOW by visiting TicketMaster.com or calling 800-982-2787
or at The Town Hall Box Office, open noon to 6 PM every day but Sunday.

THE SIEGEL SEASON at The Town Hall is supported, in part, by The Edythe Kenner Foundation, ASCAP, Jill & Irwin Cohen, Peter & Barbara Leavy, TheaterMania.com, The Berkshire Theatre Festival, Steve & Eda Sorokoff, Thoroughbred Records, Peter Hanson, and Steven T. Ernst.

Benefit Production of Doric Wilson's "The West Street Gang" Saturday, January 29th

2011-01-25T12:58:00.002-05:00

TOSOS celebrates the opening of the 10th season after its revival in 2002
with a pay-what-you-can benefit reading of Doric Wilson’s

THE WEST STREET GANG

...directed by Mark Finley
cast
Eric C. Bailey - Alex Bond - Christopher Borg - Ron Bopst - J.Stephen Brantley - Marc Castle - Jonathan Cedeano - Desmond Dutcher - Rick Hinkson - Oliver Houser - Robert Locke - Nick Mathews - Jim Nugent - Aaron Tone - Chris Weikel - Elizabeth Whitney

Saturday, January 29th
The Mitchell Room, ART/NY
520 8th Ave., 3rd Floor

7 PM

A political satire, The West Street Gang was produced as environmental theater at the Spike Bar in 1977. The patrons of a shabby waterfront gay club are forced to band together to defend themselves against a variety of fag bashers — from street punks to political opportunists to media raptors—and then Anita Bryant walks through the door.

"Uproarious" – Cue magazine
"Rapid-fire comedy" – Vito Russo, The Village Voice
"Daringly theatrical and hilariously funny" – Jerry Fitzpatrick, The Advocate
"I laughed till my stomach hurt" – Arthur Bell, The Village Voice
"The best gay play ever written" – After Dark magazine (back in 1977)
"If you really insist, I might have to admit it may have been mildly amusing" – Michael Feingold

(Reviews for the original production presented by TOSOS in the Spike Bar in June of 1977)

PLEASE RESERVE BY PHONE OR EMAIL

email: tosos@nyc.rr.com or call 212-563-2218
at ART/NY, 3rd floor, 520 8th Ave. (between West 36th & 37th Streets)
Contributions to TOSOS are tax deductible

www.tosos2.org

Broadway Backwards 6 Coming to the Longacre on Feb. 7th

2011-01-20T11:29:00.002-05:00

BROADWAY BACKWARDS 6, the only Broadway event custom-made for the gay and lesbian community, our friends and families, takes to the stage again for a star-studded, one-night only event, February 7 at Broadway's Longacre Theatre (220 W. 48th Street).

"American Idol" runner-up Clay Aiken (Spamalot), HBO's "True Blood" star Denis O'Hare (Tony winner for Take Me Out) and Tony winner Alan Cumming (Cabaret, CBS's "The Good Wife") join a line-up of performers that also will include Tituss Burgess (The Little Mermaid), Len Cariou (Tony winner for Sweeney Todd), Robin De Jesus (La Cage aux Folles), Jose Llana (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), Lin-Manuel Miranda (Tony winner for In the Heights), Debra Monk (Curtains), Bobby Steggert (Ragtime), Brian Charles Rooney (The Threepenny Opera) and Tony Yazbeck (Gypsy). Additional performers will be announced soon.

The show is produced by Broadway Cares and will benefit BC/EFA and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center of New York City.

BROADWAY BACKWARDS will feature some of Broadway's biggest names singing songs originally written for the opposite gender: women singing songs written for men and men singing songs written for women. By keeping all of the lyrics intact, including the original pronouns, each song takes on an entirely new dimension, sometimes with hysterical results and sometimes with immensely touching results. BROADWAY BACKWARDS will give its audience a chance to see and hear some of the most treasured songs of the Great White Way in a whole new key.

Creator Robert Bartley will again direct and choreograph with co-choreographer/associate director Kathryn Kendall and musical direction by Chris Haberl. The creative team also includes lighting designer Paul Miller, costumer designer Philip Heckman and musical supervisor Patrick Vaccariello.

BROADWAY BACKWARDS began as a grassroots concert performed at the Center in 2006. In subsequent years, the event grew quickly, performing Off-Broadway at 37 Arts, followed by Roundabout's American Airlines Theatre and last year at Lincoln Center Theater at the Vivian Beaumont.

For more information or to order tickets, visit the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS website.

Emerging Artists Theatre To Present Joe Godrey's A Queer Carol

2010-12-17T21:04:00.003-05:00

Two versions, Two casts: all-male and all-female. What's your preference?

Two winters ago, Emerging Artists Theater presented a staged reading of Joe Godfrey's A QUEER CAROL, a twist on the Dickens holiday classic. This one-night-only holiday benefit for EAT was such a hit, it deserves to become a tradition! So we're bringing it back,and it's more twisted than ever. Choose your performance carefully, because it's the girls against the boys:

Emerging Artists Theatre presents
A Queer Carol

But there will be only one chance to see each version
See one, the other, or both, but don't miss it!

Sun Dec 19th at 2:00 pm - All Female Cast
Sun Dec 19th at 5:00 pm - All Male Cast

TADA! Theatre
15 West 28th Street (btn Broadway & Fifth Avenue)
(N/R to 28th Street)
Tickets are $20
TICKETS AVAILABLE AT brownpapertickets.com

Directed by Melissa Attebery
Peter Saxe on the piano

Featuring:

WOMEN
BENITA SCROOGE - Vivian Meisner
ROBERTA CRATCHIT - Danielle Quisenberry
TINA/YOUNG SCROOGE - Erin Hadley
JACOBINA MARLEY - Rebecca Nyahay
GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PRESENT - Andrea Alton
GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST, ET AL. - Karen Stanion
SCROOGE'S MOTHER, ET AL. - Laura Fois
SCROOGE'S FATHER, ET AL. - Christine Bruno
FEZZIWIG, ET AL. - Amy Bizjak

MEN
EBENEZER SCROOGE - Marc Castle
ROBERT CRATCHIT - Mark Finley
TIM/YOUNG SCROOGE - Tim Seib
JACOB MARLEY - Kaolin Bass
GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PRESENT - J. Stephen Brantley
GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST, ET AL. - Desmond Dutcher
SCROOGE'S MOTHER, ET AL. - Ron Bopst
SCROOGE'S FATHER, ET AL. - Eric Chase
FEZZIWIG, ET AL. - Christopher Borg

World AIDS Day

2010-12-01T11:48:00.002-05:00

Kevin Sessums does an excellent interview with Judith Light, who is currently starring in Lombardi on Broadway, over at Towleroad today.

Well worth a read.

Review - MilkMilkLemonade (Astoria Performing Arts Center APAC)

2010-11-14T16:59:00.001-05:00

By Byrne Harrison
Photos by Rhys Harper
Cross-posted from StageBuzz.com

Walking into the theatre at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, it would be easy to believe that MilkMilkLemonade is a children's show; one of the old school types with vibrant primary-colored sets, built by young students under the watchful eye of a couple of young theatre teachers. In fact, the opening scenes of the play featuring Nikole Beckwith's amusing Lady in a Leotard certainly reinforce that feeling. The Lady, who serves as the rather awkward narrator of the play, begins the show with an uncomfortable chorus of Head Shoulders Knees and Toes. It is a very Vacation Bible School moment.

Playwright Joshua Conkel takes this format and turns it upside down by presenting the story of an effeminate young boy, Emory (Andy Phelan), his no-nonsense Nanna (Michael Cyril Creighton), the bully next door, Elliot (Jess Barbagallo), who is both repulsed by and attracted to Emory, and Linda (Jennifer Harder), a huge talking chicken with dreams of stardom and a knack for avoiding the processing machine. Facing head on the sort of topics that children's theatre would normally avoid, or worse, preach about - brutal death, sexual experimentation, bullying, homosexuality, and the comic stylings of Andrew Dice Clay - MilkMilkLemonade creates a world that lets adults remember the pain of childhood is a way that is so clearly artificial that it never allows pathos to slip in. The audience is removed enough to enjoy the humor, and it is a wildly amusing play, without feeling too badly for Emory, who is a remarkably well-adjusted and resilient boy.

The acting is outstanding across the board. In fact, this is one of the tightest ensembles I have seen in a while. It's helped no doubt by the fact that this is the same cast from the original production. They never strike a false note, and have a good sense of comic timing, letting the audience enjoy the laugh lines without moving on to quickly or waiting too long. Phelan and Barbagallo have excellent chemistry, in particular Barbagallo is outstanding dealing with Elliot's struggle between attraction and hatred. Harder and Beckwith shine in their roles. Their scenes in which the Lady in a Leotard translates Linda the chicken's speech are brilliant. Creighton is wonderful as the tough, doll-burning, chicken-killing matriarch.

Director Jose Zayas does an excellent job with this production, keeping his touch light and letting the script and actors shine. Other technical aspects are strong, especially Nicole Beerman's choreography and Sydney Maresca's costuming.

It's rare to see a production brought back to the stage as quickly as this one was (the original production was only last fall), but MilkMilkLemonade certainly earned another run. If you missed these two productions, keep your eyes open. I have no doubt we'll see more of this play, and certainly more of Joshua Conkel.

MilkMilkLemonade
By Joshua Conkel
Director: Jose Zayas
Choreographer: Nicole Beerman
Set Design: Jason Simms
Costume Design: Sydney Maresca
Lighting Design: Bruce Steinberg
Sound Design: David Margolin Lawson
Press Representative: Katie Rosin/Kampfire Films PR
Associate Set Design: Caite Hevner
Production Manager: Annie Jacobs
Technical Director: Andrew T. Chandler
Production Stage Manager: Alex Mark
1st Assistant Stage Manager: Katy Moore
2nd Assistant Stage Manager: George Spencer
Master Electrician: Michael "PJ" Collins & Keith Schneider
Graphic Designer/Production Photographer: Kate Northern
Box Office Manager: Dave Charest
Lead Carpenters: Ashanti Coombs-Ziths & Matt Groeneveld
Build Crew: Mabel Bermejo, Patrick Cecala, Tom Cogan, Michael "PJ" Collins, Jonathan Gregg, Stephanie Halbedel, Sean Romano, Ashlee Springer

Featuring: Andy Phelan (Emory), Jess Barbagallo (Elliot), Michael Cyril Creighton (Nanna), Jennifer Harder (Linda), Nikole Beckwith (Lady in a Leotard)

Good Shepherd United Methodist Church
30-44 Crescent St, Astoria, NY

Closed Saturday, November 13

Visit APAC's website for details.

It Gets Better

2010-11-13T23:32:00.003-05:00

By Byrne Harrison

Not surprisingly, the theatre/acting community has been particularly vocal in Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project. Here are some links worth viewing.

Murray Hill

The Colorado Theater Community

Yale School of Drama/Yale Repertory Theatre

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Broadway.com and Broadway Impact

Patricia Racette and Beth Clayton

Jim Newman

Amanda Campbell

Billy Elliot First National Tour

Rock of Ages

John Tufts

Jersey Boys National Tour

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre

Margaret Cho

Spring Awakening, Adelaide

Broadway

Adam Rothenberg

Memphis

BD Wong

Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet

Intiman Theatre

Chicago

Tovah Feldshuh

Charles Busch

John W. McLaughlin

Zachary Quinto

Chris Colfer

Pauley Perrette

Kathy Griffin

Sarah Silverman

Jeffery Self and Guy Branum

Hedda Lettuce

Wicked

Brian

Jenn

Michael Urie

James Duke Mason

Michael

Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon

Jonathan Del Arco

Mary McDonnell

Visit the website for more.

Daniel Radcliffe Sings Tom Lehrer

2010-11-12T23:11:00.000-05:00

A little something fun for those of you who like Tom Lehrer (or have seen Tom Foolery, the musical revue of his songs). Daniel Radcliffe sings Tom Lehrer's The Elements on The Graham Norton Show.

Angels in America Benefit to Support Empire State Pride Agenda Foundation

2010-11-12T14:50:00.004-05:00

By Byrne Harrison

On Thursday, January 6, 2011, Empire State Pride Agenda will be the recipient of a benefit performance of the sold-out first revival of Tony Kushner's Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, directed by Michael Greif at Signature Theatre Company. The benefit will consist of a performance of Millenium Approaches and will be followed by an exclusive VIP reception with Kushner and the cast.

Tickets are $1000 and can be purchased here.

Canned Ham to Return to Dixon Place for a One-Night Benefit Performance

2010-11-11T19:36:00.002-05:00

One year after premiering his one-man musical theatrical memoir Canned Ham at Dixon Place, Tom Judson returns to that same stage for a one-night-only "re-premiere" of the new, expanded version of the show Sunday, November 14th at 7:00pm. And that one night happens to coincide with Tom's 50th birthday, making for a truly celebratory evening.

Canned Ham details Tom's life in all areas of show business: acting in Broadway musicals (Cabaret, 42nd Street) composing music for film and television (Whit Stillman's Metropolitan, Sesame Street) and the work for which he is probably most widely known, appearing in gay adult films as Gus Mattox. Stories and songs are interwoven with visuals and musical numbers to describe a life that is extraordinary yet-because the story is bookended by the tale of his partner's death from AIDS-all too familiar to many. Tom accompanies himself on the piano, the accordion, the trumpet and nine other instruments - sometimes simultaneously.

For reservations visit www.dixonplace.org or call 212-219-0736.

To see the review of Canned Ham's Provincetown run, click here.

Sondheim! The Birthday Concert to Air on PBS on November 24th

2010-11-11T19:22:00.001-05:00

The star-studded event, Sondheim! The Birthday Concert, celebrating the 80th birthday of the Broadway and film legend Stephen Sondheim with performances of his music and songs by some of the world’s biggest talents, will make its debut on PBS stations across the country on November 24th, thanks to the Emmy Award-winning producer Ellen M. Krass and Tony Award-winning co-producers Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley in association with Thirteen/WNET and Image Entertainment. The production, which is hosted by David Hyde Pierce, will air at 9PM ET (check local listings).

Originally presented by the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall on March 15th and March 16th, 2010, Sondheim! The Birthday Concert includes show-stopping numbers by Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Donna Murphy, Michael Cerveris, Elaine Stritch, Nathan Gunn, and many more. Led by world-renowned conductor Paul Gemignani and Emmy-nominated director Lonny Price, the evening includes songs and orchestral pieces from Sondheim musical theater favorites such as Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, Passion, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Anyone Can Whistle, along with a suite from music he wrote for the film Reds, which has never before been performed live.

Sondheim! The Birthday Concert is the third television co-production of Ellen M. Krass Productions, Stewart F. Lane, and Bonnie Comley in association with Thirteen/WNET and Image Entertainment. The first two were Cyrano de Bergerac (2009) and Company (2008), both for PBS’s “Great Performances.” The only continuing primetime performance showcase on American television, “Great Performances” presents a diverse programming portfolio of the performing arts. With its programs garnering 64 Emmy Awards and four George Foster Peabody Awards, the series has received every major television honor. Lonny Price directed Sondheim! The Birthday Concert for television, with Gary Bradley as editor.

Second Annual Broadway Can! Benefit To Be Held Sunday, November 14th

2010-11-11T19:07:00.002-05:00

BROADWAY CAN! A Concert for the Citymeals-on-Wheels & City Harvest

A night of Seth Bisen-Hersh's music performed by Broadway performers!

starring:

KARMINE ALERS (Rent)
SETH BISEN-HERSH
JESSICA LEIGH BROWN (Nine)
LANENE CHARTERS (Mamma Mia)
BRIAN CHILDERS (Danny and Sylvia)
RUSSELL FISCHER (Jersey Boys)
KIMBERLY FAYE GREENBERG (Danny and Sylvia)
MADISON JAMES
RORI NOGEE (Pinkalicious)
JESSICA LEA PATTY (The Addams Family)
ARBENDER ROBINSON (Hair)
BRIAN CHARLES ROONEY (The Threepenny Opera)
BRANDON RUCKDASHEL (Co-Ed Confidential)
BRIAN SHAW
BETSY STRUXNESS (Memphis)
SHELLEY THOMAS (Brooklyn)
ALENA WATTERS (The Addams Family)
CORREY WEST (South Pacific)
KRISTEN BETH WILLIAMS (Promises, Promises)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14TH, 8PM

$22 Cover/ 2 Drink Minimum (cash only - $2 off with the donation of a canned good)

Don't Tell Mama, 343 W. 46th St.
Call for reservations after 4: 212-757-0788 or reserve online at donttellmamanyc.com

The 2nd Annual Broadway Can! A Concert for Citymeals-on-Wheels & City Harvest will be presented at Don't Tell Mama, one night only, Sunday, November 14th at 8pm. The evening will be comprised of songs by composer/ lyricist Seth Bisen-Hersh. Bisen-Hersh will be joined on stage by a phenomenal cast including Karmine Alers (Rent), Jessica Leigh Brown (Nine), Lanene Charters (Mamma Mia), Brian Childers (Danny and Sylvia), Russell Fischer (Jersey Boys), Kimberly Faye Greenberg (Danny and Sylvia), Madison James, Rori Nogee (Pinkalicious), Jessica Lea Patty (The Addams Family), Arbender Robinson (Hair), Brian Charles Rooney (The Threepenny Opera), Brandon Ruckdashel (Co-Ed Confidential), Brian Shaw, Betsy Struxness (Memphis), Shelley Thomas (Brooklyn), Alena Watters (The Addams Family), Correy West (South Pacific) and Kristen Beth Williams (Promises, Promises). The concert will be directed by Laura Pestronk, choreographed by Erin Porvaznika, stage managed by Livia Hill with Emma Peele coordinating production.

The audience can expect to hear 18 songs from Bisen-Hersh's catalog featuring songs from Love Quirks: a song cycle of unconventional devotion, More to Love, The Spickner Spin and a world premiere from his new musical, What If...? Songs will include "Thanksgiving Day", "The Fag Hag Lament", "This is Awkward", "Can You Believe I Was Ever Sad We Broke Up?" and the popular youtube hit, "Hey!".

All the proceeds for the evening will go to Citymeals-on-Wheels, which "raises private funds to ensure no homebound elderly New Yorker will ever go a day without food or human company." The canned goods will be donated to City Harvest, which has "served New York City for more than 25 years" as a "food rescue organization, dedicated to feeding the city's hungry men, women, and children."

For more information or to donate to the charities, please visit:
http//:www.sethbh.com/broadwaycan
http://www.citymeals.org/
http://www.cityharvest.org/

UPDATE: Congratulations to the participants for raising $450 for Citymeals-on-Wheels and 70 lbs of canned food for City Harvest. Well done!

Interview With Elizabeth Taylor of Finding Elizabeth Taylor

2010-11-10T23:58:00.001-05:00

By Byrne Harrison
Cross-posted from StageBuzz.com

Elizabeth Claire Taylor is an actress and model whose one-woman show, Finding Elizabeth Taylor, opens tomorrow in New York. I had a chance to talk with her about making a name for herself when she shares one with "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World."

When did you first realize there was another fairly well-known Elizabeth Taylor out there?

From a very early age - probably 5 or 6 I started to register of the name jokes that I was getting. As a little girl, I distinctly remember thinking, "Who is this Richard Burton guy they keep mentioning?" And I did quickly learn that whenever anyone said my name - first and last - a magical ripple of laughter went through the room! This was the 1980's so Elizabeth Taylor was HOT - her perfume, her incredible AIDS activism - a real phoenix rising from the ashes.

What was the genesis of Finding Elizabeth Taylor?

At a dinner party about 5 years ago, one of the guests said to me (after a few glasses of wine), "You have a great story - and you're funny - you should make a movie where you drive to Hollywood and try to find Elizabeth Taylor - and call it, 'Finding Elizabeth Taylor'. A true 'A-ha!' moment. Being a die-hard NYC theatre actress the idea of a one-woman show came naturally. I started recording and transcribing stories from my life as well as researching the other Elizabeth Taylor - which is always fun! The production going up tomorrow will be my 5th run and I truly feel my best one to date.

You say being a die-hard New York actress made you want to do a one-woman show. Tell me a little more about that.

I got into UCLA, Berkley and Northwestern - but getting that purple folder telling me I was accepted into NYU's Tisch School of the Arts was the dream really coming true. I have always had an admiration for the theatre and there was no looking back after I left my home (ironically, Los Angeles!) to come to New York. Even those days when it's freezing, have lost my MetroCard, and feel absolutely exhausted of this city - seeing a wonderful play sends me to euphoric heights and reminds me that I am on my right path. Seeing the greats like Meryl Streep and Patrick Stewart continue to do wonderful NYC theatre affirms it - however hard it may be! And let me tell you, I don't know WHAT is harder that a one-woman show! But at the same time, there is simply nothing more satisfying as it is simply you and your design team - mine has been incredible - molding the show into something special. And I specifically didn't want the show to look like a traditional 'solo show'. Finding Elizabeth Taylor feels like a solo play - there are scene changes - sets - incredible music (We are thinking of releasing a soundtrack! Ha ha!) - I want it to be just as compelling and transformative for the audience as any other piece of theatre. Why a one woman show? As my mentor Camryn Manheim once said, "I wrote a one-woman show because it's the only part I wouldn't be rejected for" and I think that about sums it up!

How did you get involved in modeling?

My first job out of college was an usher on Broadway - I know, the glamor - but really, pretty fabulous as far as actor jobs go - and my dear friend Vinnie turned to me on the stairway one matinee and said, "Honey, you look good - you should be a plus-size model!" I have lived off of the industry for almost 6 years now. And yes, fondly said goodbye to ushering. The next time I work at a Broadway house, I want it to be as an actor!

What advice would you give to someone who is interested in modeling or acting?

Open calls! They are painful but essential. You really need to hear feedback then decide to go from there. Believe me, I thought acting was hard self-esteem-wise until I started modeling! A good personality helps keep the client, but you do need to have the "look" whatever it maybe for them at the time - to get in the door. A great resource is www.plusmodelmagazine.com. And like everything in life, when you believe in what you are doing it does make it easier! The journey I took from plump kid to skinny anorexic NYU student to curvy plus-size model affirmed to me that my destiny in life is to spread this message of size acceptance and self-love. The modeling was an incredible manifestation of that and I am grateful for it each and every day. Come to my show for the whole story!

What other projects do you have coming up?

More productions of Finding Elizabeth Taylor!

Finding Elizabeth Taylor opens Nov. 11, 8:30pm at Theatre Row (www.unitedsolo.org 212-239-6200), and continues on Nov. 15-16, 8pm at Manhattan Theatre Source (www.theatresource.org 866-811-4111).

Eryc Taylor Dance To Perform Four-Night Engagement at Joyce SoHo, November 10-13

2010-11-10T15:12:00.001-05:00

Eryc Taylor Dance Four-Night Engagement at the Joyce SoHo November 10-13, 2010

For more information or to order tickets, visit their website.

Lifebeat Benefit Concert Celebrates Carole King

2010-11-09T19:25:00.003-05:00

On November 29th, artists and musicians will unite for BROTHER, BROTHER: KING FOR A DAY, a special evening to benefit Lifebeat at Comix. Performers including Lala Brooks, Ann Hampton Callaway, Grayce Coviello, Colton Ford, Sherri Lewis, Stewart Lewis, Gregory Nalbone, John Pagano, Katy Pfaffl, Barbara Porteus, MarTina Vidmar, Julie Waldman-Stiel and Liz Callaway will offer their interpretations of the songs of CAROLE KING. The inspiration for this event, which will be hosted by Matt Walton (All My Children, One Life to Live) and feature musical direction by Jimmy Horan, comes from Ms. King’s song “Brother, Brother” from her 1971 album Music. The song was her heartfelt response to Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On” and is still relevant today.

BROTHER, BROTHER: KING FOR A DAY aims to raise awareness of World AIDS Day. First observed in 1988, World AIDS Day (WAD) occurs each December 1st and has served to raise awareness about the epidemic, honor those who have died, focus attention on issues that are key to a successful response, and inspire positive action. “We are grateful to all the artists and individuals who are donating their time and talents to this incredible event. Music has the power to heal and inspire and you’ll see that at BROTHER, BROTHER: KING FOR A DAY,” said Ben Wymer, Interim Executive Director at Lifebeat.

Tickets for BROTHER, BROTHER: KING FOR A DAY are available at:
www.Lifebeat.org.
$40 General Admission
$60 Reserved Prime Seating
$100 VIP (Premium seating + VIP Barefoot Wine & Bubbly Reception + $25 Gift Certificate to Platinum Salon)
Sponsors for the evening include: Comix, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, Platinum Salon

For a complete listing of artists and bios at:
http://www.love-out-loud.com/events.html

About LIFEBEAT
Lifebeat is a nonprofit that uses the power of music and the music industry to help educate young people about HIV/AIDS prevention. For more than seventeen years, Lifebeat has helped to mobilize the talents and resources of the music industry to raise awareness and funds, and to provide support to the HIV-positive community.

Lifebeat relies on a small but dedicated staff and an active Board of Directors to carry out our mission, as well as a wonderful group of volunteers and a network of national AIDS service organizations (ASO’s) to educate young people through our outreach efforts.

About COMIX
Opened in September 2006 in Manhattan's booming Meatpacking District, Comix has quickly defined itself as the premier comedy club in New York City. Comix is Zagat’s highest rated comedy venue, was dubbed “one of the top six clubs in the country” by the Hollywood Reporter and has also been named the top headliner club in New York City by both GrandLife and Digital City. In addition to outstanding comedy shows, Comix is also the ideal venue to enjoy great drinks, food and private events with options for every taste and budget. Our distinctive menu and VIP dinner packages will delight even the most discriminating diner, so come on an empty stomach and enjoy a meal with your laughs.

Spend the Holidays with "Comfort & Joy" at the Richmond Triangle Players

2010-11-09T18:27:00.003-05:00

Nov. 17 - Dec. 11, 2010

Jack Heifner's Mapcap Holiday Comedy
Comfort and Joy
Directed by Amy Berlin

Featuring T. Ross Aitken, Hilary Beard, Keith Fitzgerald, Ford Flanagan, Trevor Kimball, and Starlet Knight

It's the Christmas season in the Hollywood Hills. Scott and Tony, a happily married couple, find themselves in the middle of a holiday disaster.

Scott's recently widowed, demanding mother arrives from Texas convinced that her son is really straight. Tony's brother, recently thrown out by his wife, is camped out on the sofa threatening suicide. Tony's sister arrives unexpectedly from South America in a very pregnant condition.

And into this holiday whirlwind descends an unusual fairy - yes, a real one -- who teaches the family about love, hope and forgiveness.

Written by the author of the modern classic Vanities and RTP's smash hit Key West, Comfort and Joy is inventive and hilarious, fast-moving, and ultimately, a touching way to spend the holidays.

Opens Wednesday November 17; Plays Thursday - Saturday Evenings at 8:00 pm, through December 11. Sunday matinees on November 28 and December 5 at 4:00 pm. Tickets $20 (Thurs Eve and Sun Mat) and $25 (Fri and Sat Evenings).

The Thursday, November 18 performance of Comfort and Joy will benefit the Central Virginia Food Bank. All you need to do is bring at least one non-perishable food item that night, and you will receive one ticket to that evening's performance! Need more tickets? Bring more food! How simple is that?

The Central Virginia Food Bank asks that you contribute the items that are most urgently needed: peanut butter; canned tuna, salmon, chicken and ham; canned fruits and vegetables; hot and cold cereals; pasta and rice.

The fine print: you must bring at least one non-perishable food item in order to receive a complimentary ticket to the November 18 performance of Comfort and Joy. We cannot accept cash donations to the Central Food Bank.

For more information, visit their website.

MTWorks Presents Underworld IV Benefit Featuring Broadway Understudies

2010-11-08T14:17:00.001-05:00

MTWorks is pleased to announce UNDERWORLD IV: Broadway Understudies & MTWorkers will be held Monday, November 8th at 9:00pm at The Triad NYC (158 West 72nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam).

The annual benefit event headlines Broadway understudies performing their favorite songs and sharing their most intimate career changing stories. This year under the musical direction of Sonny Paladino (Billy Elliot, Mamma Mia, Dirty Rotten Scoundrel's, Grease), the skillful Broadway performers will take the stage with MTWorks' very own troop of seasoned actors from previous main stage shows.

"What a show. All of them, the young and the not-so, all with stars in their eyes. But then, their audience was equally afflicted. It was worth it. Had a couple of stars in my own eyes"
- Gene Paul, Theater Scene

UNDERWORLD IV will include Broadway understudies Alicia Albright (Wicked), Brad Bass (Memphis), Kristin Bracken (Wicked), Kathy Calahan (Mary Poppins), Anthony Galde (Wicked), Michael Hunsaker (Ragtime), and Kristen Beth Williams (Promises, Promises). With MTWorkers Alex Bond (A Home Across The Ocean, Barrier Island), Sarah Chaney (The Oath), Mark Emerson (A Home Across The Ocean, Barrier Island), Adi Kurtchik (Look After You), and Susan Wallack (Good Lonely People). This year will include performances by special guest Dathan B. Williams both a Broadway performer (Show Boat) and MTWorker (A Home Across The Ocean), and Tym Moss from QNation & TalkRadio's Artists Exposed.

All proceeds from Underworld IV go to MTWorks current 2010-11 Season, which includes the upcoming world premiere of award-winning playwright David Stallings' new play The Family Shakespeare, directed by Nicole A. Watson in April 2011 at The June Havoc Theatre.

All tickets are $30 (+2 drink minimum, cash bar) and are available online at www.BrownPaperTickets.com. Tickets may also be purchased in-person at The Triad NYC half hour prior to Showtime, cash only.

Fore more information visit www.mtworks.org. You can also visit www.triadnyc.com for driving/subway information.

Win Two Tickets To "The Divine Sister"

2010-11-08T10:30:00.004-05:00

Want to win tickets to The Divine Sister, Charles Busch's latest play? Click here to find out how you can win two tickets to the show in their Hidden Habits Contest. Hurry, because the contest closes tomorrow.

Gay Theatre NYC Review

Tonight at Industry-Bar - Marty Thomas Presents: Diva

It's Back! Shocks & C*cks 3: Cold C*cked - All Nude All Dude Review

TONIGHT: A Very Tawny Christmas!

Colton Ford Gives Us the Naked Truth About "A Molly Jolly Christmas"

Mama Rose Through the Years

Thank you for being a friend...

I've a Feeling We're Not in Kansas Anymore

"A Molly Jolly Christmas" - A Comic Christmas Treat

Someone's Been Taking Liberties With a Mamma Mia Sign

There's No Place Like Home

Oh, Mary… "Little House on the Ferry"

Four More Chances to see "Shadow Boxing," Part of the 2011 Brits Off Broadway festival at 59E59 Theaters

"Divine Madness," a Tribute to Bette Midler and Lady Gaga, to Benefit the Trevor Project on Halloween

Earl Dax Presents "Pussy Faggot!" Tonight at The Delancey

Paige Turner Talks About "So You Think You Can Drag" -- Finale Will Be October 26th

"Southern Comfort" - A Polished and Nuanced Production

Matt Alber Hides Nothing For His Provincetown Debut

Noċtú

Tonight - "8" by Dustin Lance Black

This Month's Title Photo

Hurricane Irene Can't Beat At Hand's The Big "A"

Redd Tale Theatre Company Presents Its Take on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in Two One-Acts

Del Shores: More Sordid Confessions To Play This Friday at The Laurie Beechman

NYC: Broadway Stands Up for Freedom

Interview with Jeff Key of "The Eyes of Babylon"

Tonight - CABARETION 2.0! Honoring Charles Busch

New York Neo-Futurists to Present 5th Anniversary Edition of LGBT-Themed "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind" This Weekend

Interview with Mark Jason Williams of "The Other Day"

1ST ANNUAL OFF BROADWAY ALLIANCE AWARDS RECEPTION TO BE HELD AT SARDI’S JUNE 21

Drunken! Careening! Writers! - Glitter and Be Gay Edition

Liza Minnelli Tickets On Sale Friday at 10 AM

Planet Connections Second Annual LGBT Date Auction

This Month's Title Photo

Iraq War and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell explored in "The Eyes of Babylon"

Tom Judson Returns to Dixon Place in "The Tom Judson Show"

Broadway Bares XXI: Masterpiece Announces Special Guest Stars

Broadway Sings for Pride - Monday, June 27th

"It's Not Just For Gays Anymore"

Tony Awards at Splash's Musical Mondays

Tonight - Meet the Broadway Bares Dancers

Interview with Molly "Equality" Dykeman

Jeffrey Solomon Talks About Santa Claus Is Coming Out

RIP Doric Wilson

Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine

All The Kings Men to Perform in NY This Friday

Cast of Lucky Guy To Appear at SPLASH

LA - Celebration Theatre's May Day Cabaret This Sunday

Sad News - Wings Theatre

Las Vegas Broadway Bares: The Sequel - Tonight

TOSOS Presents a Staged Reading of "Insatiable Hunger"

Once Upon a Musical Time - Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps

Songs in the Key of Equality Cabaret Coming May 16 and 17

Meet the Tales of the City Creative Team

Broadway Stars Join Annual Earth Day Benefit Concert - Broadway Recycled

Interview - Indio Melendez of "Indiosyncracy"

Downtown Urban Theater Festival Features LGBT Writers

PF Party Ushers in Its Terrible Twos

"Six Silences in Three Movements" Is Poetry in Motion

New York City Opera Announces Spring Season

Broadway Bares: Solo Strips At Splash On April 3rd

Johnathan Cedano Returns In Confessions of a Homo Thug Porn Star

The 5th Annual Broadway Beauty Pageant Benefitting The Ali Forney Center Is Monday

Duncan Pflaster's "Six Silences in Three Movements" Begins a Limited Run This Weekend

Lambda Literary Foundation Announces This Year's Lammy Finalists

Tom Judson's "Canned Ham" Returns to Dixon Place

2012 NewBorn Festival Seeking Submissions

Purple Rep To Present "Gay Plays for Straight People (And Also Gay People)" in April

"My Scandalous Life" - An intimate, if not always telling, portrait of a cipher

FRIGID New York Interview - Tania Katan of "Saving Tania's Privates"

MTWorks' Antonio Miniño to Perform in "All About Valentines" Event

2011 Newborn Festival Starts Today

Liza Minnelli To Star In The Best Of "JIM CARUSO'S CAST PARTY" At Town Hall

Benefit Production of Doric Wilson's "The West Street Gang" Saturday, January 29th

Broadway Backwards 6 Coming to the Longacre on Feb. 7th

Emerging Artists Theatre To Present Joe Godrey's A Queer Carol

World AIDS Day

Review - MilkMilkLemonade (Astoria Performing Arts Center APAC)

It Gets Better

Daniel Radcliffe Sings Tom Lehrer

It's Back! Shocks & Ccks 3: Cold Ccked - All Nude All Dude Review