Ryan G. Hinds to Make NYC Cabaret Debut in Kander and Ebb Cabaret at Don't Tell Mama, 11/15
By: BWW News Desk Oct. 22, 2015
After playing to full houses in Toronto and Montreal, critically-acclaimed Canadian performer Ryan G. Hinds (Hedwig & the Angry Inch; MacArthur Park Suite, A Disco Ballet; Starry Notions) makes his New York City cabaret debut at Don't Tell Mama's with #KanderAndEbb, a uniquely personal musical exploration of the John Kander/Fred Ebb canon.
RYAN G. HINDS is an award-winning theatre performer and cabaret artist. Festival work includes sold-out performances at Just For Laughs in Montreal (2013 and 2014), LA Pride (opening for Mya and Macy Gray), several Nuit Blanches (in collaboration with artists such as Douglas Coupland and internationally renowned movement company Corpus), along with headlining appearances at venues in Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Theatre and film work includes both the movie adaptation (as a Hed-Head) and a stage production (as Hedwig, becoming the first black actor to play the role) of Hedwig & the Angry Inch, the critically acclaimed Fringe hit Starry Notions, and MacArthur Park Suite: A Disco Ballet. He has performed with artists such as Liza Minnelli, Todrick Hall, Debbie Reynolds, Lady Bunny, and Sky Gilbert.
The legendary songwriters' work, including Chicago, Cabaret, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Funny Lady, The Happy Time, Zorba, Steel Pier, The Visit, New York New York, and more, receives a tender, yet irreverent treatment as Hinds and Musical Director Mark Selby dig deep into their catalogue, exploring their lesser-known canon, revealing saucy and surprising tidbits, and performing new arrangements of a few of their better-known songs.
After premiering to a packed house and standing ovation at Toronto's Buddies in Bad Times (the world's largest LGBTQ theatre complex, where Hinds is an Artist-in-Residence) in December 2014, #KanderAndEbb received a remount this fall, followed by a run at the Mainline Theatre in Montreal.
Composer John Kander and Lyricist Fred Ebb's collaboration spanned 50 years of Broadway shows, television and film, and includes three Tony Awards, two Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and two Oscar nominations. Covering an incredible range of stories from life in a French-Canadian village to human rights abuses in a South American jail, their iconic musicals juxtapose romanticism with violence, humour with horror, and pain with pleasure; they are Flora the Red Menace, Cabaret, The Happy Time, Zorba, 70 Girls 70, Chicago, The Act, Woman of the Year, The Rink, Kiss of the Spider Woman (which had its world premiere in Toronto at the St. Lawrence Centre?s Bluma Apel Theatre in 1992), Steel Pier, Curtains, The Scottsboro Boys, and The Visit.
Established in 1979, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is a professional Canadian theatre company dedicated to the development and presentation of queer theatre. Over the course of its history, it has evolved into the largest facility-based (mainstage, ante-chamber performance space, and cabaret) queer theatre company in the world and has made an unparalleled contribution to the recognition and acceptance of queer lives in Canada.
Buddies' Artist Residency Program is a unique program devoted to the creation of original queer performance works: resident artists are offered space in the Buddies building, dramaturgical support from the company's dramaturge, Mel Hague, and the company's Artistic Director, Brendan Healy. Artists also receive technical support, opportunities to present the work to a general public as it develops, financial support, access to the Buddies' network of contacts and partners, and any other artistic and administrative support that are appropriate to a piece's development.
Since its launch in 2010, Buddies Artist Residency Program has yielded the following mainstage productions: Obaaberima by Tawiah M'carthy, A Monstrous Child: a gaga musical by Ecce Homo Theatre, The Gay Heritage Project by Damien Atkins, Paul Dunn, and Andrew Kushnir, and the upcoming Freda and Jem's Best of the Week by Lois Fine.
Where and When: DON'T TELL MAMA, 343 West 46th St at 8 pm on November 15th, $10 + 2 drink min | Tix: (212) 757-0788 or DontTellMamaNyc.com.
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