DAN FISHBACK IS ALIVE, UNWELL, AND LIVING IN HIS APARTMENT Will Be Performed at Joe's Pub

Dan Fishback will present a first look at his new musical Dan Fishback is Alive, Unwell, and Living In His Apartment, a rock musical theater song cycle about a chronically ill gay bitch trapped at home during a time of global fascism and mass-disabling pandemic, wondering how to spend the rest of his life living in a nightmare.

After 15 years of ME/CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome), Fishback has never felt more alienated. Debilitated by his illness, abandoned by a society that no longer protects high-risk people from COVID, and sidelined by a political environment that reviles the Jewish left, he can see only one path forward: rock music. But since he is no longer well enough to perform, he sends a band into a theater as his proxy, and projects his spirit into the body of a hapless lead singer (Ron Shalom), suddenly possessed by all of Dan's gnarliest feelings. 

Staged in a radically accessible manner for audiences across many disabilities, Dan Fishback is Alive, Unwell, and Living in His Apartment is a rock concert for people who can't go to rock concerts, a rally for people who can't go to rallies, and a punk rock fantasy for the artist himself, who might not even be in the room. Written by Fishback, the presentation's creative team includes director Aya Ogawa (The Nosebleed, Suicide Forest), ASL director Andrew Morrill (Grey House, Dark Disabled Stories), music director Kenny Mellman (Kiki and Herb, Kenny Mellman Is Grace Jones), arranger Ron Shalom (Minivan, Deeper Closer Warmer), projection designer Robin A. Ediger-Seto (Performance Space New York, The Museum of Sex), access dramaturg Alison Kopit (Dark Disabled Stories, Radiate), stage manager Miriam Rochford (Dark Disabled Stories, The Laramie Project), and artistic associate Piper Hill (The Potluck, NOISE). 

Shalom will also perform onstage as “Dan” alongside two ASL performers, Joey Antonio (54 Below, Deaf West) and Sandra Mae Frank (The Silent Hour, NBC's “New Amsterdam”). The band features Katharine Battistoni on guitar, Nathan Repasz on drums, Jamilah Sandoto on bass, and music director Mellman on piano.

This concert presentation of Dan Fishback is Alive, Unwell, and Living in His Apartment will be presented twice at Joe's Pub on Saturday, December 14th, and Sunday, December 15th, 2024, at 1:00 PM. 

This project has received support from Joe's Pub as part of their New York Voices artist commissioning program. New York Voices is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

To post a comment, you must register and login.