By Michael Barbieri****We the people are under siege! Women, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, the free press, and anyone who dares speak their mind freely, are being challenged on a daily basis. And as with any fight, there comes a time when we all feel a bit hopeless and exhausted. Billy Lykken’s wonderful new show, A Faggy Resistance, was a welcome respite for those of us who feel embattled every time we switch on the nightly news.
Hailing from Seattle, Billy Lykken made his mark on the New York scene with his acclaimed debut cabaret act, Sacred Monster. Lykken wowed critics and audiences with his tributes to the iconic divas that had influenced him, along with his theatricality and his stylish, androgynous stage persona. As a critic, I enjoyed that show, but felt it needed some polish and cohesion. With A Faggy Resistance, the polish and cohesion were there, making for a wonderfully realized act that encompassed songs of revolt, resistance and speaking truth to power.
The opening number, “Everybody Says Don’t” (Stephen Sondheim), was particularly well chosen. With a driving rhythm and a light, breezy tempo, it was fun, yet still spoke to not allowing other people to dictate the manner in which you live your life. Lykken’s wryly humorous take on Nina Simone’s civil rights protest song, “Mississippi Goddam,” was a perfect fit for this show, including a few interpolated jokes at the expense of Donald Trump and Mike Pence—the President meets Pence in a gay bar. “Mississippi Goddam” has become a signature piece of sorts, yet even with the added humor, the message was never diluted and came through loud and clear: things are changing, but the change is “TOO SLOW,” a phrase which the singer urged us to chant along with him.
We got a dose of campiness with William Finn’s “Republicans,” in which Lykken sang about having sex with one of “the people who are ruining the world” and how screwing a Republican gave him the feeling “that it’s nice to have the roles reversed!” He donned a curly Streisand-esque wig and gave us a rendition of the feminist anthem “Queen Bee” (Rupert Holmes), from the 1977 version of A Star is Born. And while the song was played for laughs, it still made its point. We also got a taste of his sweetly soulful vocals with several of 
Aretha Franklin’s hits, including “Angel,” by Carolyn Franklin, Aretha’s lesbian sister, who penned the song for her girlfriend—quite an act of subversion and nonconformity for its day!
The show took a darker turn when Lykken brought up the sexual addiction and substance abuse issues seen in many gay men in a world that seems increasingly hostile. The Scissor Sisters’ angry, sorrowful “Return to Oz” painted a bleak picture of a once-beautiful world that has fallen to ruin. Harrowing lyrics like “The grass is dead, the gold is brown… what once was Emerald City’s now a Crystal Town,” referenced the plague of the crystal meth usage that has decimated so many members of the LGBTQ community. To his credit, Lykken delivered the song quietly and subtly, without a trace of melodrama, making it all the more compelling.
The real emotional gut-punch of the evening came with Lykken’s rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s “American Skin (41 Shots),” a song inspired by the 1999 shooting death of Amadou Diallo. A Guinean native, Diallo was shot by police 41 times when they mistook his wallet for a gun. Springsteen’s song brings the incident to life with its chorus of “Is it a gun? Is it a knife? Is it a wallet? This is your life… Ain’t no secret my friend. You can get killed just for living in your American skin.” It was one of the verses, however, that really hit home for me. I have two wonderful, kind, smart African American nephews and the lyrics in which a 
mother tells her son “Promise me if an officer stops you, you’ll always be polite. Never ever run away and promise Mama you’ll keep your hands in sight” were chilling and heartbreaking. They had me weeping for the safety of my two beautiful nephews, should they ever be confronted by a racist cop who doesn’t understand that black lives DO matter! Lykken’s performance of the piece, with its repetitive refrain of “41 shots!” was unadorned, insistent and stark, which made it mesmerizing and intensely powerful.
A Faggy Resistance struck the perfect balance between entertainment and rallying cry—at times the message was delivered with humor, and at other times, with in-your-face pathos. Even Lykken’s appearance was a rebellious statement. Sporting gorgeous makeup, a stylized revolutionary war-type tailcoat, a frilly, silver-grey backless blouse, skintight vinyl pants and stiletto boots, he looked like an androgynous freedom fighter, ready to fight for our rights! He was ably assisted in his battle by his excellent band: Musical Director Yasuhiko Fukuoka at the piano, Marco Panascia on bass, Steve Lykken on drums and Victoria Preston and Joey Otavvi Perez on backing vocals. My only bit of constructive criticism is that the tempo on “Everybody Says Don’t” was just a tad rapid, which caused Mr. Lykken to mispronounce the word “everybody” as “ev’body.” But that’s a minor quibble in a show that was otherwise wonderful.
Towards the end of the evening, Billy Lykken favored us with a Sam Cooke song that had the spiritual feel of a revival meeting. The song was called “A Change is Gonna Come.” One can only hope that the change will come… and that it won’t be “TOO SLOW!”
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