Celebrating Pangea Pride with, Well… Pride!

By Michael Barbieri****I’m proud to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community! I’m proud to be a part of the cabaret community! At Pangea, in the East Village, a group of immensely talented performers presented Celebrate Pangea Pride, in honor of WorldPride and the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. I can honestly say I was proud to have been present for this wonderful evening!

It’s been said that the variety show is dead, but I beg to differ! This Gay Pride-themed variety show was not only alive, but out, loud, proud and fabulous! The evening opened with a lip sync from Julia Van Cartier, who then took the stage and welcomed us. Telling us that she’d had way too much style for the small town in which she’d grown up, she packed her Vuitton bag and moved to the big city. This story led into a very funny take-off of Little Shop of Horrors’ “Somewhere That’s Green,” called “Somewhere That’s Gay,” with parody lyrics by Gerry Geddes.

Decked out in silver spangles, Jack Bartholet showed off his bright, expressive tenor and strong belt with the powerful “Lavender Nights,” which he called the first real queer anthem. Indeed, Bartholet’s delivery of lyrics like “We’re not afraid to be queer and different; if that means hell, well, hell, we’ll take the chance” resonated with the entire audience. He was followed by Strawberry Fields, winner of The Metropolitan Room’s New York’s Next Top Drag Queen competition in 2015. Singing live, she gave us a strong rendition of “Come Back to Me,” from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. A bittersweet coming out story led into her version of Patsy Cline’s hit, “Crazy.” I’ve always been impressed by drag performers who sing with their own voices and not only did Ms. Fields look stunning in her retro 1950s-style red dress and crinolines, but her voice was equally lovely!

Yasuhiko Fukuoka charmed us with a gorgeous musical interlude of “Rainbow Connection,” which began slowly, then worked its way into a light waltz tempo and then finally segued into a beautiful, fluid arrangement of “Over the Rainbow.” A perfect selection for Pride! Also, Gerry Geddes self-penned monologue about the creation of the New York City Gay Men’s Switchboard was quite moving, and had a bit of a humorous twist, which Geddes related perfectly.

Next up was a longtime friend of mine, Andre Montgomery. I’ve known Montgomery since 1981 when I first heard him sing at Brandy’s Piano Bar. I’ve always considered him wonderfully talented, and here his singing was even better than when we first met! His mockingly bitter mashup of Johnny Mercer’s “I Wanna Be Around” and “Goody Goody” brought the house down, while his delivery of “You Are Here,” Gerry Geddes’ ode to the friends and family we’ve lost, was emotional and mournful, moving many of us to tears.

The evening took on more of a concert feel when Daniel LeClaire took the stage. Cutting quite the dashing figure in his sheer but sparkly black shirt, he brought a beautiful rock tenor to his cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” performed as a softly romantic ballad. With a lovely falsetto and none of the overdone riffing that many such singers affect, he made the song entirely his own.

The always fabulous Billy Lykken gave us a couple of numbers, including his version of Nina Simone’s civil rights anthem, “Mississippi Goddam.” Done with a more tongue-in-cheek feel than the original, the message still came through loud and clear. There is progress being made with gay rights, but as with all human rights, it’s still going “TOO SLOW!” And while I got the feeling that some of Lykken’s lyrics went astray, his performance was still marvelous! As the show began to wrap up, we heard from Matt DiPasquale, who knocked us out with a hilarious, vaudeville inspired, tongue-twister of a song called “Sister Susie’s Sewing Shirts for Soldiers,” performed complete with a cane and straw hat! He left us with a plea for love and support of the next generation of gay youth and a sweet, gentle rendition of Fred Small’s lovely “Everything’s Possible,” which said, “You can be anybody you want to be, you can love whomever you will. You can travel any country where your heart leads, and you know I will love you still.” Lovely!

Finally, Julia Van Cartier, who had kept the show moving along with her hilarious stories, purposely bad gay pride jokes, fabulous costume changes and wonderful intros of all the performers, gave us one last frenetic, high-energy lip sync and sent us all out with smiles on our faces and a sense of family and pride that lifted our spirits!

It’s been my experience that shows like these can often run long. This particular show, however, just flew by! There was never a moment when the pace lagged or my attention wandered. That speaks not only to the caliber of talent involved in Celebrate Pangea Pride, but also to Geddes’ directorial skill. And though this was put together especially for Gay Pride Month, it’s a show that could work at any time of year, and for all audiences, whether they be LGBTQ+ or our allies. That’s something to be proud of too!