Billy Lykken, whom Cabaret Scenes called a “thrilling discovery,” will return to the Metropolitan Room, with some new material, for a special Gay Pride weekend performance on Saturday, June 24 at 4:00 PM in his critically-acclaimed show Sacred Monster Live! It premiered last year at Don’t Tell Mama and was nominated for a 2016 BroadwayWorld Cabaret Award for Best Debut Show. The act is an alt-cabaret experience featuring Billy Lykken’s queer brand of comedy and outrageous parody, as well as his interpretations of songs ranging from Broadway, R&B, jazz, and Tin Pan Alley. Press notes explain that he “takes his audiences on a hyper-emotional journey of song, eyelash, and pizzazz filtered through the soul of an often heartbroken, but never bitter, sequined songstress whose eccentricities and self-destructive behavior are overshadowed by an all-consuming need to please the faithful masses.”
In a recent four-star review on our website, the show was enthusiastically described as, “This is not drag, nor is it cabaret style; it is something else all together. Lykken is simply himself – or at least, who he presents himself to be on stage. His singing voice often operates in that gender-neutral range, evoking memories of Tallulah Bankhead and Eartha Kitt, but he’s able to adjust the vocal style from Broadway belt to rock and roll growl. He can even croon a standard with intense feeling.”
Lykken’s 2016 debut earned a rapturous review from Cabaret Scenes, stating that “it happens at this volcanically victorious level VERY rarely in a reviewer’s experience, despite many, many shows seen each year. An exultant communal sense of knowing we’d be saying, ‘I was there that night it happened’ was evident. Almost like mythological magic, a one-of-a-kind fascinating creature suddenly appeared fully formed … or, in show biz lingo, a star was born!”
Sacred Monster was performed at The Metropolitan Room in February where it earned more rave reviews, including one from TheaterPizzazz.com, including the observation that “Billy was right at home with an enthusiastic audience responding with cheering and ‘woo-wooing’ to his fantastic range of characters, divas, riffs and personae, from drag-queen bitchiness to woman-scorned pathos.” The review continued to opine that “Billy gave the audience exactly what we needed: the pleasure of hearing and seeing an artist at work doing amazingly different things.”
Directed by Rick Skye (Liza LIVE!, MaCabaret, The Flip Side of Neil Sedaka, The War of the Mama Roses, It’s Madame with an E!, Judy and Liza Together Again) and Musical Directed by Yasuhiko Fukuoka, Sacred Monster covers a wide variety of musical territory and is loaded with special material written by both Lykken and Skye.
Tickets start at $20 and are available now by calling 212-206-0440 or visiting: www.MetropolitanRoom.com.
Leave a Reply