Britton & The Sting in MAMA & Justin Vivian Bond Begin Performances Tonight at Little Island

Performances of Mama, a new work created and performed by Tony Award-winner and founder of The Broadway Advocacy Coalition, Britton Smith, and his funk liberation band Britton & The Sting, will begin tonight at The Amph, with the official opening set for tomorrow, Thursday, July 25. Mama will run on Little Island through Sunday, July 28. Simultaneously, Mx Justin Vivian Bond, the downtown cabaret legend and recent recipient of the first Judy Icon Award, will play five nights in the Glade, tonight through Sunday, July 28 on Little Island.
 
Little Island’s fifth world premiere at The Amph showcases Britton Smith and Britton & The Sting in an unforgettable five performances debuting 13 new songs created specifically for Little Island, where sonic adventure embodies the transformative power of water, life, and connection.
 
The band’s anthem “Let’s Get Drunk and Go to Church,” has reached over 44 countries and has sold-out classic New York City venues including The Apollo, Williamsburg Musical Hall, Rockwood Music Hall, Nublu, and Joe’s Pub. The eight-person group recently opened for indie group Sammy Rae & The Friends on their nationwide CAMP: The Tour and have been featured in Vanity Fair, Vogue, Fault Magazine, the New Yorker and more.
 
Mama is co-directed and choreographed by Emmy Award-winner Ebony Williams, a frequent collaborator with Beyoncé, Doja Cat, and Alicia Keys and the first African American female dancer with the renowned Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Mama is also co-directed by LlLLETH, a visual artist, performance and film director, choreographer, and composer trained under Ivo van Hove, Diane Paulus, Lila Neugebauer.
 
Alongside Smith, Britton & The Sting is made up of Tiffany Mann, Ines Nassara, Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere, Andrew Jagannath, Malachi Mabson, and Josh Roberts. Associate choreography is by Christine Sheppard and music direction is by Jagannath. Scenic design is by Carlos Soto, costume design is by Matsy Stinson, lighting design is by Itohan Edoloyi, and sound design is by Jordana Abrenica. The production stage manager is Buffy.
 
Mx Justin Vivian Bond has appeared on stage (Broadway and Off-Broadway, London’s West End), screen (Shortbus, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Sunset Stories), television (“High Maintenance”, “Difficult People”, “The Get Down”), nightclub stages (most notably a decades long residency at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater in NYC), and in concert halls worldwide (Carnegie Hall, The Sydney Opera House).
 
Their visual art and installations have been seen in museums and galleries in the US (Participant, Inc, The New Museum) and abroad (Vitrine, London). Their memoir Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels (Feminist Press) won the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction.  They are the recipient of an Obie, a Bessie, and a Tony nomination, an Ethyl Eichelberger Award, The Peter Reed Foundation Grant, The Foundation for Contemporary Art Grant for Artists, and The Art Matters Grant. They have self-released several full-length recordings: most notably Dendrophile,  and Silver Wells. As one half of the legendary punk cabaret duo Kiki & Herb, they toured the world and released two cds: Do You Hear What We Hear? and Kiki and Herb Will Die For You at Carnegie Hall.
 
Mx Bond has been at the forefront of Trans visibility and activism since the early 1990s.
They have a master’s degree in Live Art from Central Saint Martin’s College in London and have taught performance composition and Live Art Installation at NYU and Bard College.
Currently Viv divides their time between residences in New York City’s East Village and the Hudson Valley. In December of 2019 they made their debut at The Vienna Staatsoper in the world premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Orlando as Orlando’s child.
 
Little Island continues its four-month-long summer season of world premieres, which kicked off on June 1, featuring a total of nine newly commissioned pieces. Little Island’s new arts program moves towards the future with a commitment to a multi-year roster of original work, all commissioned by and developed at Little Island. Bookended by the premiere of choreographer Twyla Tharp’s newest work How Long Blues and a 90-minute remix of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro in which outré opera diva Anthony Roth Costanzo sings every leading role, the season will offer premieres of varying scales across all areas of performance – including music, dance, theater, opera, comedy, jazz, pop, and funk, all outdoors and directly sited on the Hudson River at 14th Street in New York City. The Amph, the park’s 700-seat amphitheater, will house larger scale performances at a $25 ticket price, while The Glade, the park’s 200-seat venue, will be home to more intimate works, all of which will be completely free to the public.
 
Tickets to Little Island's summer season of performances, as well as information on free programs, are available for purchase at littleislandtickets.com, TodayTix.com, or by downloading the TodayTix app.