Jeremy Lawrence, best-known for creating and starring in several one-man shows which explore Tennessee Williams in the playwright’s own words, revives Lavender Songs: A Queer Weimar Berlin Cabaret, on Mondays, October 22, 29 and November 5 at 7 PM at Pangea. The show features songs performed or written by queer and Jewish kabarettists of the era (in English) by Lawrence as his alter ego Tante Fritzi. Exploring the edgy, gender-bender, sexy world of the era, the show is an evocation of the subversive world of Berlin’s cabarets and a celebration of the daring of its Jewish and queer artists who continued to mock and deride the ever-lengthening shadow of fascism for as long as they could. Lavender Songs is directed by Jason Jacobs with Ariela Bohrod at the piano.
Lavender Songs began as an evening created by German cabaret scholar Alan Lareau for the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. in conjunction with the exhibition Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945. Since then it has gone through many iterations (winning a Bistro Award in 2008).
Jeremy Lawrence’s work with the material of Weimar cabarets began with his creation of Cabaret Verboten in 1991. In its full-length version, the piece was produced around the country as well as in London and in Sweden. His work on Verboten led to his being asked to create the English lyrics for Ute Lemper’s CD Berlin Cabaret Songs (Decca) and to his being named by Melodie Hollander as the official translator of the works of her father, Frederich Hollaender. In addition, John Waxman, son of composer Franz Waxman, commissioned Jeremy to create English lyrics for songs his father wrote in Germany and France before emigrating to the United States.
As an actor, Jeremy has been seen in New York at the Manhattan Theatre Club and at The Mint among others. Regionally, his appearances include work at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Westport Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, the Mark Taper Forum and the Hanover Theatre in Worcester, MA where he is the perennial “Scrooge”. Television credits include “The Blacklist,” “Shades of Blue” and the upcoming “Dickinson.”
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Pangea is located at 178 Second Avenue (between 11th and 12th), NYC
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