By Scott Barbarino****On March 10, 2020, amidst a gathering pandemic storm, a lease for a venue planned as a four story gay nightclub called The Q was supposed to have been signed. Its location: 795 8th Avenue—the heart of New York City’s vibrant Hell’s Kitchen/Times Square neighborhood. But by March 15, the entire entertainment business in New York was closed down by the Covid pandemic—abruptly changing all plans and postponing all dreams.
Flash forward to June 2021, with Pride Month in full sway and the virus seemingly under control. Miraculously, The Q finally opened due to the diligence and hard work of a dedicated trio of dreamers: Frankie Sharp, Alan Picus and Bob Fluet. Sharp, an award-winning event producer, nightlife curator and DJ is known for his hosting of famed parties like WestGay and Dreamland. Along with partners Picus and Fluet, the trio has created a space that boasts five unique areas in those four stories, combining nightclub, piano bar, cabaret, jazz, live music and drag genres all located under one roof.
What unites the programming and makes it truly special is that, according to Sharp, “The Q is the largest queer-owned and operated nightlife venue in Manhattan. It’s time that we, as queer artists, had our own space owned and operated by our own people!† The creative team at The Q is making sure the venue’s mission is to truly celebrate diversity and create an inclusive and a safe space for everyone.
We at NiteLife Exchange (NLE) applaud this great concept as perfect for post-pandemic New York City as we, after more than 18 months of turmoil, challenges and learning how to cope and change, can again embrace live entertainment.
Hitting the stage, or shall we say one of them, on Tuesday, August 17 at 11:00 PM will be Marti And The Cummers an all-live singing show, featuring NYC drag artist, television personality, and political figure Marti Gould Cummings, backed by a 5-piece rock band including musicians from Be More Chill, Chicago, Tootsie, The Cher Show, and Head Over Heels. Award-winning musical director/arranger Blake Allen will be at the keys.
The show started out at Feinstein’s/54 Below and eventually became an award-winning, sold-out show at the Mirror Room at Lincoln Center (BroadwayWorld Award 2019 Best Special Event; GLAM Nomination, Best Cabaret). Marti and the Cummers is a raucous rock show that features some of the genre’s best jams, from “Call Me” and “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” to “Crazy Train,†“Titanium” and “Since U Been Gone.†The new show will feature a different special guest artist and new songs each month. For this debut the guest artist is Broadway’s own incredible Christine Dwyer.
As Nightlife Guru Michael Musto has said, “…when the current crisis is behind us, clubbing will make an even bigger comeback than Glenn Close!”  We at NLE couldn’t agree more! The Q is one of the new venues which will help usher in the next roaring twenties.
To purchase tickets go to https://theqnyc.com/events/marti-and-the-cummers
Marti Gould Cummings is a NYC drag artist, television personality and political figure. Throughout his nearly decade-long drag career, Marti has been a regular fixture in the nightlife world, performing up to six regular shows a week. Marti And the Cummers have sold out concerts at Feinstein’s/54 Below, Lincoln Center’s Big Apple Circus, Dixon Place and regularly tour the world with Atlantis Cruises.
Marti’s album A Very Mary Holiday features some of Broadway’s brightest stars including Tony Award winner Cady Huffman and Tony Award nominee Daphne Rubin-Vega. You can see Marti on Fusion television’s “Shade Queens of NYC”, on “The Marti Report” on LOGO, “Dragged” on Yahoo! and on “The X Change Rate” on “The Build Series.”
Marti is also proud to serve on the Board of Directors for The Ali Forney Center for Homeless LGBTQ Youth and the Advisory Board of Equality NY. He is a National Co-Chair of Drag Out the Vote and serves on the NYC Nightlife Advisory Council as well as Community Board 9. In his continued commitment to making change happen, he recently joined the political arena and ran for a City Council seat in NYC’s 7th District. https://martigcummings.com/
Blake Allen is an award-winning, chart-topping composer and musician known for his innovative bridging of contemporary music and theatre. Heavily influenced by the hymns of his Mormon upbringing and the vast, cultural landscapes of growing up in El Paso, Allen’s music is “full of yearning and exuberance and affection†with “strings to make you swoon†(NY Times). Allen made his composer debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2016, and also premiered his violin sonata “L’abîme†there in 2017, before his debut album, Sonatas, in 2020 (#1 classical charts).
Besides composing music that blurs genres, Allen is also a performer and music director, most notably for orchestrating and music directing the record-smashing 2019 Revival of the Sherman Brother’s Over Here!, curating the sold-out An Evening With… series for three seasons and supervising several albums of NYC local nightlife fame. Having written for and performed on Broadway, in film and at historic venues such as Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, The Beacon, Symphony Space, Strathmore Center and across the USA, Canada, Mexico, Europe and the seven Seas, Allen’s shows include The Shards of an Honor Code Junkie (Off-Broadway, 2017; 2014 Banff Artist in Residency), Living the Dreamboat (Astoria Performing Arts Center, 2020), Folk Wandering (Off-Broadway, 2018), Kelly [1955] (NYTF 2019), Boston|Nebraska (2020 Kimmel Harding Nelson Center Residency), and Hocket. Allen has just received the Telly Award for composing the music for the Doris Dear Gurl Talk Series. www.blakeallen.org or @blakeallenpresents.
Christine Dwyer hails from right outside of Boston, Massachusetts, where she discovered her love of Boston sports and musical theatre. After graduating high school, Christine attended The Hartt School where she acquired a B.F.A. in musical theatre and a minor in English. Immediately after graduating, Christine and her mom trekked to NYC so she could audition for the national tour of the hit musical Rent. She ended up booking the principal role of Maureen Johnson and left to tour the country, Canada and Japan. After finally moving to NYC, Christine booked the 2nd national tour of Wicked as the Elphaba understudy, under the direction of multiple Tony Award winner, Joe Mantello. Through hard work and perseverance, Christine made her way hrough the ranks at Wicked, quickly becoming the standby for Elphaba and then taking over fo the role. After her run as Elphaba on tour, Wicked brought her to Broadway to make her Broadway day as the lovable green witch. She flew high for several years, returning time and time again to play her dream role. She even played the role for President Obama and on the Tony Awards for the show’s Tenth Anniversary. Christine left Wicked to play Sara in the new rock musical Murder Ballad. She also participated in several readings of new musicals in NYC. Christine then booked her first feature film as a lead character named Holly in 200 Hours, with director Phillip Guzman, which is due to be released later this year. In 2016 Christine opened the first national tour of Finding Neverland as Sylvia Lewellyn Davies, making her only the second person to ever play the role. This show was directed by another Tony Award winner, Diane Paulus. Through their mutual love of performing, Christine and her husband, Matt DeAngelis (another Broadway vet and TV/Film actor) formed a coaching business called “The Working Studio†to help up and comers, National Tour and Broadway performers alike, who can realize their dreams and pursue a career with the help of two working actors. Christine was last seen in the National Tour of Waitress as Jenna. http://christine-dwyer.com/
Leave a Reply