Failure Pride: Idols Thursday, June 20 at Club Cumming, 8 pm: $10
Queer culture is full of idols: pop icons like Madonna and Lady Gaga, classic stars of the stage like Barbra, drag queens of all sorts, activists like Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, the list goes on. Plus, we needn’t forget American Idol, which must at least count for something here. Tonight, the recurring performance series Failure: A Queer Workshop, hosted by Ragamuffin, La Llorona, and Le Petit Dumdum, will present a conversation on idols in all their forms, featuring guest performers Cher Noble, Lu Reyes, Agave Lamour, and Jojo Soul.
Who is Stacy? I personally don’t know, but comedians Marissa Goldman, Caroline Doyle, and Charlie Bardey might, considering the trio hosts a show boasting that name every month at cozy, colorfully-lit Bushwick bar Rebecca’s. Apparently, this Stacy has recently embarked upon an archaeological dig, but it was not so successful, and she’s feeling a bit downtrodden. (Who wouldn’t, if they were promised dinosaurs and didn’t discover any?) The three hosts have gathered an evening of laughs to serve as the antidote, which will be delivered by Rachel Pegram, Pat Regan, Tim Platt, Jolie Darrow, and Rufat Agayev, with an additional dose of drag from Chola Spears.
Theater artists Normandy Sherwood and Craig Flanigin, who together run the company The Drunkard’s Wife, are always up to something colorful. They specialize in the zany, the musical, the site-specific, the historically-inspired. Their latest creation, Madame Lynch, is sure to be no different. It centers around the self-proclaimed “Empress of Paraguay” Eliza Lynch, a woman who is not in fact from Paraguay but from Ireland. To help tell this tale of imperialism, they’ve enlisted the Paraguayan “folkloric dance group” Ballet Panambí Vera as choreographic collaborators.
Queer as in Fuck You Presents Just Kids Thursday, May 30 at Otto’s Shrunken Head, 10:30 pm: $10
Though technically Pride month doesn’t kick off till June, there’s no reason you shouldn’t enjoy some good old fashioned queer performance before then (and, of course, during Pride month too). Tonight, it’s the return of Vylette Tendency’s punk drag showcase Queer as in Fuck You, taking up residence at East Village bar for tiki weirdos, Otto’s Shrunken Head. This time, they’re paying tribute to the OG punk poet, Patti Smith. Grab a drink, park yourself in the back room, and have a queer old time watching performances by C’était BonTemps, Ash Blight, Chris of Hur, and winner of this year’s Brooklyn Nightlife Award for Drag King of the Year, God Complex. More →
Internet Explorers Thursday, April 18 at Caveat, 9 pm: $10 advance, $12 doors
If you don’t have your eye glued constantly to social media, you might’ve missed that Instagram’s meme-makers have started to non-ironically unionize. It’s undeniable memes are a bigger deal than ever, so it only makes sense there’ll be a live comedy show about them tonight at Caveat, as part of Mark Vigeant’s recurring Internet Explorers show. As tonight is all about memes, Vigilant will be hosting online comic artist Branson Reese and a trio of journalists who report on all things internet (The Atlantic’s Taylor Lorenz, who wrote the aforementioned meme article, plus Buzzfeed’s Katie Notoupoulos and The New York Times’s Amanda Hess). There’ll also be a game of “meme Shark Tank,” where a group of comedians will try to out-meme each other.More →
The Favourites Friday, April 12 at Club Cumming, 8 pm: FREE
Most people with an awareness of pop culture have at least heard of The Favourite, Yorgos Lanthimos’s recent feature film that facilitated, among other things, a frequent (and queer) call for actress Rachel Weisz to take control of them in every which way. WithThe Favourites, a new queer comedy show from Tessa Skara and Jes Tom, perhaps you’ll find a new object of affection to request bodily harm from. Described as “part safe space, part dyke party, part comics to watch showcase at a liberal arts college,” the kickoff show features Becca Blackwell, Kiko Soirée, Mila Myles, Spike Einbinder, Jess Salomon, and Eman El-Husseini—plus, of course, some obligatory Weisz fawning.More →
Yourself, Your Body Thursday, April 4 at Union Hall, 9:30 pm: $10
Arti Gollapudi, who we interviewed back in 2017 about her aggressively inclusive Comedy Cunt Collective, has been quite busy lately. One of her many endeavors include the recurring show Yourself, Your Body, a comedy show (produced by Amanda Justice, also of Comedy Cunt Collective) perhaps unsurprisingly about how bodies and brains alike can be, well, extremely weird. Anyone with a human body (and maybe some without) knows there’s a lot to be mined from this topic. This time around, the funny folks waxing humorously about this weirdness include Rachel Sennott, Rebecca O’Neal, Drew Anderson, Mia Myles, Amanda Justice, and guest co-host Maya Deshmukh.More →
Eh Dah? Questions For My Father Now through April 14 at NYTW Next Door, 7:30 pm (some shows other times): $49 ($25 day-of cash only rush tickets available to artists, residents of the East Village and Lower East Side, seniors, and people 25 and under)
This new musical by Aya Aziz and Hypokrit Theater Company, which previously won two awards at 2016’s New York Musical Theater Festival, transcends cultures and continents. It centers around a multi-generational family spread across Egypt and America who are grappling with with what’s simultaneously a very 2019 issue and one that stretches far into the past: coming to terms with the best way to digest the stories we were told growing up, and figuring out what is more truth than fiction, particularly in a post-9/11 world.More →
Brown Privilege Comedy Thursday, March 21 at Friends and Lovers, 8:30 pm: FREE (donation suggested)
The 39th edition of Saurin Choksi and DJ Sareen’s Brown Privilege Comedy returns to Crown Heights bar Friends and Lovers tonight. As always, the show spotlights some of the best comedians of color the city has to offer, with nary a token white person to be found. This time, they’re bringing along Gibran Saleem, Aminah Imani, Ayanna Dookie, Kevin Iso, and Alex English. After all the jokes have concluded, stick around—DJ Sareen takes the stage and the show becomes a dance party.More →
Anything That Gives Off Light Now through March 30 at Joe’s Pub, 7 pm (some dates at 9:30 pm): $35
The latest endeavor from theater collective The TEAM—working in collaboration with the National Theater of Scotland and music duo The Bengsons—is staged not in a traditional theater space but the cabaret coziness of Joe’s Pub, inside the Public Theater. Of course, that’s purposeful, considering the show is partially set in a London pub. Amongst pints and whiskeys, two Scottish men and an American woman cross paths and begin a journey that takes them throughout Scotland, America, and the inner workings of the mind, all set to a Scottish-influenced folk-punk score.
FRIDAY
(image via Wet Cash NYC / Facebook)
Wet Cash Friday, March 15 at GG’s Social Trade and Treasure Club, 7:30 pm: $10 suggested donation
Yes, this comedy show to benefit Make the Road NY is named Wet Cash, but it’s probably not the greatest idea to stroll up to the venue (a Bushwick thrift store) and attempt to pay your suggested donation using a bunch of dollars that were once floating in a bucket of water. However, you might end your night with some—the team behind the show will be giving out drippy dollars (which could be a good band name) to a lucky(?) audience member. That’s not the only liquid present, however, there will also be free beer from Braven, and of course, comedy by Dylan Adler, Rachel McCartney, Ben Katzner, David Drake, and host Noah Rocklin.
What is there to say about cream sauce? It is indulgent and sometimes too filling, but it is also good. Those three descriptors could very well also characterize comedian Edy Modica’s play of the same name, coming to Ridgewood’s The Windjammer this Saturday. Fittingly, Modica will be presenting absurd anecdotes of all sorts inspired by the Italian side of her family, with help from fellow performers Brian Fiddyment, Eliza Kimberley, Francesca d’Uva, Rachel Kaly, Chase Montavon, and opener Steve Girard. Expect tales of pasta, funerals, cannoli, and of course, plenty of sauciness.
SUNDAY
Leigh Silverman and Madeleine George (image via NYTW / Facebook)
Hurricane Diane Now through March 24 at New York Theater Workshop, various times: $69 ($25 same-day rush tickets available for young people, artists, and East Village and Lower East Side residents)
The hedonistic, hard-partying Greek god Dionysus has shown up in countless pieces of culture over the years, from the old classics to the name of a record label. Currently, you can find the wine-soaked deity in Madeleine George’s play Hurricane Diane, directed by Leigh Silverman. Rather than a bearded being clutching the traditional grapes and a drinking horn, George’s Dionysus takes the form of Diane, a butch lesbian gardener with a penchant for seducing housewives. Diane is played by actor Becca Blackwell, who describes themself as “someone living both genders,” and according to mythology, it’s likely that the actual Dionysus did too.
