To celebrate Pride Month, Flushing Town Hall is presenting a Pride Trilogy, livestreaming for three consecutive Thursdays, beginning on June 10, at 7 pm. The music series, featuring a stellar line-up of award-winning performers and vocalists, is part of its FTH At Home! online programming initiative to keep audiences throughout New York, the country, and the world entertained from the safety of home.
Since the COVID-19 shutdown of NYC performance venues in March of 2020, Flushing Town Hall’s YouTube subscriber audience has grown by more than 220%; the virtual Pride Trilogy, supported in part by funding from New York City Council Member, Finance Chair, and LGBTQ Caucus Chair Daniel Dromm, should add even more to those numbers. According to Dromm, “Flushing Town Hall’s Pride Trilogy is another exciting way that the organization ensures inclusivity in all of its fantastic events. Because invisibility is our biggest enemy, making us visible in the arts is so vitally important and no one does it better than Flushing Town Hall. I am most grateful to everyone involved for their support of the LGBTQ community.”
Internationally acclaimed singer, pianist, tap-dancer, and comedian Mark Nadler (recipient of the 2015 BroadwayWorld Editor’s Choice Award for Entertainer of the Year) kicks off the series on Thursday, June 10, with Gay As They Say. In his funny and tuneful show, Nadler explores the songs of musical icons Cole Porter, Noel Coward, Larry Hart, and Billy Strayhorn, questioning if they meant what you think they meant when you heard their provocative gay-sounding lyrics.
The trilogy continues on June 17, with Marieann Meringolo’s Here’s to the Ladies! A Salute to Great Ladies of Song, when the multi award-winning vocalist and native New Yorker celebrates the hits of the legendary Peggy Lee, Barbra Streisand, Joni Mitchell, Dionne Warwick, and more (as she did in her eponymous live solo album of 2007), accompanied on piano by Doyle Newmyer.
Obie Award-winning actor and singer Darius de Haas (Broadway’s Rent, Shuffle Along, and Kiss of The Spiderwoman; Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) will conclude the Thursday evening concerts on June 24, with Darius de Haas Sings Billy Strayhorn: Something to Live For, honoring the composer’s rich contribution to the Great American Songbook. The program will include such familiar songs as “Take the A Train,” “Lush Life,” “Day Dream,” “Chelsea Bridge,” and others from Strayhorn’s impressive canon, with de Haas bringing his singular perspective and long-time appreciation to Strayhorn’s music, to which he paid tribute on his debut solo recording of 20 years ago, Day Dream: Variations on Strayhorn.
“Billy Strayhorn is someone who I affectionately call ‘a triple threat’ – gay, Black, and a genius,” said de Haas. “I, and certainly many other artists, have benefited from his contribution to the Great American Songbook and stand on his small but mighty shoulders.”
All three installments of the Pride Trilogy (on Thursday, June 10, 17, and 24) stream live from the Flushing Town Hall theater at 7 pm, on the organization’s YouTube channel, and will be followed by a live Q&A with the artists. To reserve virtual tickets (priced at $5 each, plus a $1 service fee), go online. With the loss of nearly all earned income for the duration of the pandemic, the venue is in need of support and is currently raising funds under its Lemon-AID the Arts Campaign. Donations in any amount are appreciated to support the artists and the non-profit cultural organization as they continue to provide programming.
