Michael Cerveris and Kimberly Kaye to Make Chicago Debut With Loose Cattle Duo

Michael Cerveris and Kimberly Kaye bring a stripped down version of their band LOOSE CATTLE to Evanston SPACE in an intimate afternoon of songs from their recent album Heavy Lifting (and perhaps a rock showtune or two).

Based in New Orleans, Loose Cattle ("favorite Americana cowpunks in New Orleans" according to OffBeat Magazine) was formed in 2011 by two-time Tony Award and Grammy winner Cerveris and Warped Tour veteran Kaye, springing from the duo's shared affection for the musical and emotional rough and tumble of Johnny Cash's duets with June Carter Cash, crossed with John Doe and Exene of X, and the Mekons' Jon Langford and Sally Timms. The pair began playing country covers in friends' living rooms, but quickly found themselves on stages from Lincoln Center to Jazz Fest & NPR's Mountain Stage, with their recordings praised by the likes of Rolling Stone Country, No Depression, Los Angeles Times & American Songwriter. Loose Cattle nods to their punky pasts and country roots while also showcasing their often-poignant punch as an alt-country band. According to Cerveris, "There's something about having a clear-eyed, borderline cynical eye on the world while dancing a country waltz with a big old heart on your sleeve that is the place where this band lives."

Cerveris is a singer/songwriter and guitarist who toured the US and UK as a guitarist for Bob Mould, but also happens to have been declared "possibly the most versatile actor on Broadway" by Playbill magazine, while The Wall Street Journal suggested he "might just be the best musical-theater performer we have." A veteran of performances at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and several seasons of Sondheim at Ravinia. Over the years, Cerveris has sung on tours with Pete Townshend, The Breeders, and Stone Temple Pilots, opened for Frank Black and Vic Chestnutt, and recorded with Teenage Fanclub and members of Sonic Youth, The Posies, Sleater-Kinney, and Guided By Voices. He has also sung with New York City Opera, National Symphony in DC, New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, and Lincoln Center.

In his day job, Cerveris is a two-time Tony Award and Grammy Award winning actor for Fun Home, The Who's Tommy, and Assassins, (also Lucille Lortel Award) with additional Tony nominations for Evita, LoveMusik, and John Doyle's Sweeney Todd. Other Broadway includes In The Next Room, Hedda Gabler, Cymbeline, and Titanic. Off-Broadway includes King Lear, Macbeth, Abingdon Square, Nikolai and the Others, Sondheim's Road Show, an oak tree, and The Games at BAM/Next Wave with Meredith Monk and Ping Chong, as well as Hedwig off-Broadway, in Los Angeles and on London's West End. Cerveris' film work includes Ant Man and The Wasp, Cirque Du Freak and The Mexican. Television series David Fincher's "Mindhunter," Stephen Soderberg's "Mosaic," "The Plot Against America," "Tremé," "Billions," "Gotham," "The Tick," "Blacklist," "Madame Secretary," "The Good Wife," "Queen Of The South," and five seasons on "Fringe."

He is currently starring in Julian Fellowes' new series "The Gilded Age" for HBO.

A classically trained trumpet player and jazz vocalist, Kimberly Kaye took a mid-90s ride on the ska trend, playing stops like Vans Warped Tour with punk-ska groups New Direxion and The Youth Ahead with a horn and a bad blonde dye job. She graduated from the acclaimed Monmouth Country FPAC performing arts training program and Wagner College's award-winning musical theatre program, which-as formal arts education usually does-succeeded in giving her crippling stage fright. She took a decade away from performing to work in arts journalism for publications like "The Economist, The NY Observer, NY Daily News, Broadway.com and Theatermania.com. Kaye is also an outspoken queer activist and functional medicine practitioner and co-owner of Hottest Hell Tours, New Orleans' premiere haunted history walking tour. She is also co-creator and cohost of the Hottest Hell Presents Podcast, bringing tales of the weird and the downright creepy to spooky nerds around the globe." Kaye recently received a Big Easy Award for her performance as Yitsak in the sold-out New Orleans production of Hedwig And The Angry Inch which she also directed.

Performance Details:

May 22nd 2022
1pm
Evanston SPACE
1245 Chicago Avenue
Evanston, IL 60202
Tickets $30/35
https://www.evanstonspace.com
(847) 492-8860

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