Broadway World Cabaret continues its new series about the artists for whom our team is grateful.
Lauren Marcus - The Drama Queen
There is an entire world of storytelling living inside of Lauren Marcus. An accomplished stage actress who has transitioned to the world of film and television, Lauren Marcus is also a writer working in several different mediums, she is a singing storyteller as comfortable performing show tunes in a cabaret as she is singing rock music in a dive bar, and in every facet of her work, Lauren brings to the table a cast of characters that live somewhere inside of her magical mind. Whether appearing in a group show, alongside her adoring husband, Joe Iconis, or doing a residency at The Rockwood Music Hall, Lauren arrives like a parade - all colors and excitement, all energy and emotion, and even though it seems impossible, Lauren Marcus is able to bring to every performance a heightened sense of theatricality, finely balanced with a grounded sense of reality. She need do nothing on the stage except open her mouth and say the story. The rest happens on her face, as the words, as the music, as the tale is told from between her teeth. And then, suddenly, out of seeming nowhere, the body takes over and there is a cyclone on the stage, equal parts Martha Graham dancer, rock and roll diva, and improv comedian. It isn't planned, it isn't scheduled, it is organic talent and thrilling instinct flowing from the being of a genius, an artist that isn't like any other: a creative genius.
But the whirling dervish isn't all that Lauren Marcus does or is. As a storyteller, Lauren Marcus has layers and colors and levels that make her entire oeuvre a universe of new adventures, from the wistful to the hopeful, from the madcap to the mercurial, and with each performance audience members see why Lauren has such a strong following, and why she is Joe's personal Muse. And speaking of Joe...
When the lockdown was lifted and venues were, slowly, beginning to re-open, Lauren and Joe were among the first artists to go back to work. They did dinner music sets at the West Bank Cafe for tips, not because they needed the money but because they needed to perform, because they needed to help bring New York City to life. That's the way it is at their house - storytelling eases pain and builds community. Storytelling builds strength and it builds character. Storytelling feeds, it enlightens, it guides. And with her own singular style of storytelling, Lauren Marcus is going far.
Just, please, not too far from the cabaret and concert world. We need her. We need her badly.
And a party hat.
Read the Broadway World Cabaret review of a Lauren Marcus show HERE.
Lauren's online presence is as follows:
Website: Click HERE.
Instagram: Click HERE.
Facebook: Click HERE.
Lauren's pronouns are She/Her/Hers
Lauren's future projects include:
Would love to say that I'm hard at work completing my first full-length album, and hoping to release it in late Jan/early Feb. I'm also planning another reading/presentation of my one-woman musical LAUREN AND THE CASE OF THE MISSING HAIR for early December, and I'm in the midst of a rewrite of my television pilot HONEST LIVING that I took to the New York Stage and Film Filmmakers Workshop last July.
Also -- very excited that I'll be in a new musical this spring in NYC. Nervous to mention the name since it hasn't been announced.
Photos by Stephen Mosher; visit the Stephen Mosher website HERE.
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