Produced by the Pacific Northwest Cabaret Association, this festival has run every March at Egan's since 2012. I've had the pleasure of co-curating it with PNWCA founder and drag chanteuse Arnaldo since 2015, and 2018 was our best yet! I performed solo singer-songwriter sets on March 23 and 31 and hosted shows throughout the month, delighted by our 20 great West Coast artist acts and the many early-sellout crowds. Photo: Loretta Deranleau-Howard.
This fabulous project produced by the Rendezvous and made possible with a grant from 4Culture commissioned a handful of diverse artists to create pieces based on the history of Seattle's colorful Belltown neighborhood from 1890 to the present. I wrote and performed songs about Belltown's Film Row years in the 1930s and the origin of the Millionair's Club, founded in 1920 and still providing jobs and meals today. Kudos to director Jane Kaplan and to Ken Workman, great-great-grandson of Chief Seattle, who welcomed our audiences every night with his own take on Seattle history in both English and the Salish native tongue. I adored being part of this! Cast: Ade, Eric Ray Anderson, Jennifer Jasper, Angie Louise, K. Brian Neel, Markeith Wiley, and Shin Yu Pai. Photos copyright Eddie Rehfeldt.
It's always wonderful to be back at the 5th Avenue! This time it was to workshop another iteration of John Longenbaugh and Bruce Monroe's new musical "Anybody Can Do Anything", based on the memoirs of Betty MacDonald. Directed by Makaela Pollock; music direction by Josh Archibald-Seiffer. Cast: Alexandria Henderson, Justin Huertas, Cayman Ilika, Eric Polani Jensen, Angie Louise, Corinna Lapid Munter, Tatum Poirrier, Patrick Shelton, Jenny Shotwell, and Billie Wildrick.
Last show of 2017! I had a great time composing for, performing in, and music directing/bandleading this end-of-the-year episode of Sandbox Radio (my fifth and the series' twenty-eighth). Especially singing Sharon Jones' "Big Bulbs" with Sarah Rudinoff and Leslie Law with giant flashing Christmas lights adorning our bosoms...
Oh, how I loved spending the last few months of 2017 in yet another production of the enchanted and enchanting "Go, Dog. Go!" at Seattle Children's Theatre, with co-creators Steven Dietz and Allison Gregory back at the helm! Between the end of September and the end of November, over twenty-three thousand humans saw our show - and for at least half of them, it was THEIR FIRST PLAY! What an honor. I worked my tail(s) off reprising my 2011 dual role of the notoriously fashion-forward pink poodle Hattie and the always-loyal Spotted Dog. Thank you to the amazing folks at SCT, my castmates old & new (Chris Ensweiler, Basil Harris, Jojo Abaoag, Laura Lee Caudill, Nastacia Guimont, musical director Robertson Witmer), and of course the audiences and ever-curious, ever-hilarious KIDS!! A beautiful experience.
Thanks to theater simple for producing and curating this cool showcase for the Western Arts Alliance Conference. MASHUP featured my band The Love Markets ("A deliciously dark carnival" - Seattle Magazine); Vancouver illusionist Vitaly Beckman, famous for fooling Penn & Teller on their own show ("Incredible" - Penn & Teller); excerpts from God is a Scottish Drag Queen (Victoria, B.C.'s Mike Delamont, Heart of America (San Francisco's Black Swan Arts), "acrobaticalist ninja theatre" from NANDA ("Devilishly inventive" - Seattle Times); and The Master and Margarita from theater simple ("One of the great theater events of the decade" - The Stranger). Always fun to be one of an assortment of different-flavored bonbons!
The Love Markets and I had an amazing time playing our tenth show at ACT Theatre July 15 while also celebrating ACTLab's tenth anniversary! Over the years, whether we've found ourselves performing CD release shows on the Falls stage, hosting the Gregory Awards in the Allen, or playing for wonderful audiences in the Bullitt, our experiences at ACT have always felt like magic. Thanks to everyone who helped make this one happen.
Kicking it old school at Highway 99 Blues Club and loving it. Thanks to fellow pianist-songwriter Victor Janusz for putting me on the gig; Spencer Hoveskeland on guitar, Keith Lowe on bass, Steve Banks on drums, and Medearis "MD" Dixon on sax; and our rocking audience!
We had a fabulous night playing on Cafe Nordo's "Lost Falls" stage! Good times in the lodge and under the waterfall - and the perfect opportunity to debut my new Agent Cooper song. Just one more thing, Diane...
Rob and I had a lovely time playing cocktail music for the "O" Gala to benefit Open Space on Vashon Island. Special guest Kevin Kent, auctioneer Laura Michalek and hosts Janet McAlpin and David Godsey made it a great night. Long live Open Space, and here's to the coming renovations.
Thanks to Jane Kaplan of Rendezvous for producing this great event, hopefully the first in a series. This one benefited Emerge America and the only bummer was the dozens of folks they had to turn away at the door! My great pleasure to perform alongside Gretta Harley, Lisa Koch, Nancy Guppy and El Sanchez, with political speakers Ruthie Stender, Pamela Eakes and Ijeoma Olou.
UMO Ensemble does amazing work, and it was great fun for we Love Markets to play their "resistance cabaret" to benefit UMO School of Physical Arts. Between the hoop performers and White Ladies, our bass sub Chris Jones in a slip that was more of a long nightie, and the premiere of new UMO characters the Garbage Buffoons, it was quite a Sunday evening in this island restaurant.
There's nothing like "Burlesco Notturno" at Open Space! The Love Markets and I loved sharing the stage March 25 with The Atomic Bombshells burlesque troupe, NYC's hilarious Mr. Gorgeous, and our hosts Madame X and her Lawyer. The perfect way to celebrate the green fuse that drives the flower of spring!
Bigger and brighter: March Is Cabaret Month Festival 2017! I loved pairing my solo singer-songwriter set with the amazing Sirens of Swing on opening night, grooving to the sounds of the Lou'siana Gators in a sold-out sass-fest featuring myself and Miz LaWanda DuPree on the 18th, and hosting a bunch of other great shows. Long live MICM Seattle!
After my four-month stint at Village many moons ago, I get to play Molly again - this time in Showtunes Theatre Company's super cool concert production! With eight women hive-minding the role of Molly and many gifted hilarious dudes playing all the other roles (male and female) in her epic story, this one showed the Benaroya crowds what a creative form the concert production can be. Kudos to director Billie Wildrick, musical director Nathan Young and our brilliant Irish-country band, my seven sister Mollies and cast, and the great folks at Showtunes.
My favorite installment of Sandbox Radio yet. It was my pleasure to music direct this episode at Town Hall - performing "I'm The Revolution" with Sandbox Radio Orchestra, harmonizing on The Roches' "Hammond Song" with Megan Chenovick and Leslie Law as a tribute to the late great Maggie Roche, and composing incidental music for new short plays by the likes of Scot Auguston and Elizabeth Heffron. Thanks, Sandbox!
The Love Markets and I kicked off 2017 with a new episode of "ArtZone with Nancy Guppy" on January 27, airing on Seattle Channel through Feb. 9. We loved performing "Beauty Factory" and "Heaven Song" (both from our 2016 album Beauty Factory) live in the TV studio and hanging with Nancy. Also featured: a cool piece from director Chris Barnes on the story of The Love Markets! Watch it all here: VIDEOS: THE LOVE MARKETS ON ART ZONE 2017
Thanks to all who helped me kick off December with a couple Ballard weekend traditions in a row. December 3 was a wild holiday ride at Egan's, New Orleans-style, with me and Miz LaWanda DuPree trading off at the wheel and the Lou'siana Gators supplying the horsepower... and on December 10 The Love Markets and I played into the wee hours at the 10th Annual Tom Waits Tribute Night, along with our favorite copacetic Waits-loving bands and artists. The tradition lives on!
What a way to kick off the season of giving: This year's incredible "Taste of GSBA" Gala at the Westin Hotel raised $856,000 for LGBT student scholarships with the GSBA Scholarship Fund! It was our great privilege to play for a room packed with such beautiful, brave, brilliant and generous folks. Not to mention getting to accompany an aerial act by Terry Crane and Erica Rubinstein, who choreographed an awesome piece to "Heaven Song". Thanks GSBA - The Love Markets love you!
Thanks to Seattle Theatre Group for programming such cool events and hiring me to host them! I had a blast judging costume contests at the Neptune's anniversary party screening of "Rocky Horror" and the Halloween party screening of "Nosferatu" at the palatial Paramount. So lucky to have these historic venues in our city AND curators that make the most of them!
