Mx. Justin Vivian Bond & Bearded Ladies at Queer Fear Cabaret

The William Way Community Center, the Philly's premiere LGBTQ Community Center, gets the Halloween costume party started this Friday, throwing those closets open for a dress up party before the double bill performance of Queer Fear Cabaret starring New York singer and Shortbus star Mx. Justin Vivian Bond sharing the bill with the Bearded Ladies.

Paul Blore, one of the coordinators of the performance events at William Way that the show's dress up will "get the audience started with us to kick off Halloween, before they head out to other weekend events" he said.

Blore said that he has wanted to bring these performers to the Center, which ahs been increasing its concert series. "I have been aware of the Bearded Ladies. I saw the Edith Piaf show was a big fan. Our consultant in New York Gordon Bieberman suggested Justin Vivian Bond, who was doing the Weimar New York shows. So I thought that would make a good combination for a show for Halloween, since the Bearded Ladies plays so much with gender construction," Blore said.

John Jarboe, director and star of the Beardeds, has transfixed audiences portraying Edith Piaf, not only in gay cabarets, but at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and on the streets of Philadelphia in front of thousands of Bastille Day revelers. For Queer Fear, the Bearded Ladies will preview Marlene and the Machine, as in Dietrich and German expressionism, which opens in December at the Wilma Theater.

The center has been increasing up their musical events "Earlier this year we started to do a series of classical programs. Pew Center supports Queer Fear Cabaret, with funding through Arts & Heritage and the Philadelphia Music Project. "We're really proud of the art shows were doing, along with live programming at the center, which we're doing more and more of and, our archives exhibits too in the lobby space," Blore said.

Several of the music events have completely sold out this year. "we even had a baby grand piano donated for one of the performances this year and turned the lobby into a concert hall, and actually we getting great feedback from the musicians who have been performing that we have great acoustics here."

We're really excited about the turnouts for these events, We get a good mix of older and younger audiences attending the performances at the center." Blore said that Justin Bond and the Bearded Ladies "are so great at engaging with the audience. That is one of the key things we want for all of our shows."

William Way Community Center
1315 Spruce Street, Philadelphia
http://www.waygay.org/ | 215.732.2220
Queer Fear Cabaret
Friday, October 26, 7:30pm
$20 William Way members/$25 non-members