Among the many events honoring Pride in NYC next weekend (June 24-26), are a selection of three highly recommended top picks of award-winning shows and talents from Broadway and beyond. Playing on different dates and at different times, you can enjoy all of them or choose what your schedule allows.
Playbill Pride 2022 – Celebrate Pride in Times Square with a series of free weekend events from Playbill, in partnership with the Times Square Alliance, dedicated to honoring the LGBTQIA+ community and benefitting non-profit organizations that work for and with them. On Friday, June 24, on the mainstage, Playbill will host Pride 365: LIVE! – this year’s installment of its annual Pride in Times Square, established in 2015, with diversity, equality, equity, visibility, and inclusion guiding the programming. The line-up of stage and screen stars and Broadway shows features A Strange Loop, Beau, Fun Home, Head over Heels, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, La Cage aux Folles, Taboo, The Prom, and more.
Then on Saturday, June 25, beginning at 6:00 pm, Times Square will “ignite the night” with The Big Broadway Disco – a large-scale street party that invites revelers to dance the night away to classic and contemporary Broadway songs and performances with fabulous costumes and a disco flare, while being entertained by DJ Ari Grooves, DJ Duggz, Orfeh, Anthony Wayne and the cast of Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical, and a special performance from Off-Broadway’s Titanique star Courtney Bassett, all set around the Playbill Pride float. Also on hand throughout the weekend will be Playbill’s Sing for Hope piano, covered in real Playbills from Broadway’s most popular shows, where Broadway musicians and performers will lead sing-alongs and piano concerts. For more information, visit the Playbill website.
GRINDR The Opera – The latest staged concert version of the Offie Award-winning musical by Erik Ransom (book, music, and lyrics), co-presented by TOSOS and Iconoclast Theatre Collective, and directed by long-time collaborator Rachel Klein, with music supervision by Andy Peterson, music direction by Luke Williams, and Scott Lilly serving as Associate Director, is back in NYC at The Green Room 42, where it premiered this past Friday to an enthusiastic packed house. The hilarious sung-through parody of the popular gay dating app is filled with risqué sexual situations and graphic language set to an ebullient score and clever rhyming verse, with witty references to pop culture and the extravagantly dramatic worlds of opera and camp. An entertaining and engaging cast of five, starring Taylor Ratliff (aka Plasma LaRose) as the personification of Grindr, with Terrance Johnson as Devon (a romantic), Coleman Steele Cumming as Tom (a cynic), Noah Hartwell as Jack (a twink), and Kevin McGuire as Don (a daddy) – four men who meet through the app, each seeking a different type of connection – delivers the decidedly adult humor, rich vocals in a variety of styles, and distinctive personality archetypes of the Grindr Tribes niche groups, while sensitively revealing their backgrounds, embodying the struggles they face, and culminating in a surprising climax that is as outrageously funny as it is unexpected.
If you missed it on June 17, don’t do it again! You have one more opportunity to see GRINDR The Opera on Friday, June 24, starting at 9:30 pm, at The Green Room 42, inside YOTEL, 570 Tenth Avenue, 4th floor, NYC, or streamed live. For tickets (priced at $19 for the livestream and $39-79 for the in-person show), call (646) 707-2990, or go online. Everyone must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination and a photo ID to enter the venue. A link to the livestream will be emailed one hour before the show.
Boy Band Brunch: Pride Edition – Regularly appearing every other Sunday at 2 pm, at Chelsea Table + Stage, The Boy Band Project – an award-winning vocal ensemble of four rotating talents from the Broadway, Off-Broadway, and cabaret stages, reimagining the greatest hits of the popular guy groups from the 1970s to the present – brings its impeccable harmonies, hot moves, sexy personas, audience interactions, and tongue-in-cheek humor to a special Pride Edition of the show on Pride Day, June 26. Featuring Jamison Scott, Chris Brasfield, Stanley Martin, and BBP founder Travis Nesbitt, next Sunday’s concert will include a set list of fan favorites, themed video projections, and “all the feelings” of the Boys and the songs, along with some new surprises.
A portion of ticket sales will benefit The LGBT Network – a non-profit leader in pioneering advocacy and social change, providing a safe home and voice for LGBT people, their families, and support systems on Long Island and Queens – so you can enjoy a fabulously entertaining and intimate show, while also contributing to a worthwhile cause. Before you go, you can watch a trailer of The BBP below:
The Boy Band Brunch: Pride Edition plays on Sunday, June 26, beginning at 2 pm, at Chelsea Table + Stage, downstairs inside the Hilton New York Fashion District, 152 West 26th Street, NYC. For tickets (priced at $30, plus fees), go online. The venue does not currently require masks, but proof of vaccination must be provided to enter.
