Review by Ron Fassler . . .
Robert W. Schneider is a director, writer, producer, educator, podcaster, and historian. His desire for learning and communicating much of what he’s gleaned from meeting and befriending hundreds of artisans in the Broadway community over the past few years is vast. That passion has provided teachable moments for the uninitiated, as well as devoted members of the congregation who worship at the altar of the theatre. He’s practically an evangelist—minus the asking for donations, thank God.
This past Sunday evening at 54 Below, where he has produced over one hundred concerts, Schneider designed an evening dedicated to queer musicals, a subject he knows quite well having authored the new book Queer Musicals: Boy Meets Boy to Jagged Little Pill, published this past September. It’s a natural that it be turned into a musical evening with songs from the shows that are explored in its 256 pages and Schneider gathered an eclectic team of performers that made each song a winner. Co-hosting as narrator alongside Matt Koplik, another swell podcaster whose “Broadway Breakdown” is pure delight, the pair sat stage left throughout the whole show and offered some terrific banter that put forth facts and laughter in equal measure. And Canaan J. Harris was a marvel at the piano; a one-man band adapting and adjusting to the array of talent with adept skills at the keys.
Self-proclaimed “Vibe Queen” Diva LaMarr kicked things off with a bang performing Cindi Lauper’s “Land of Lola” from Kinky Boots. With a take-no-prisoners approach, LaMarr used the audience to their advantage and built upon the song’s energy so naturally that the rousing finish was about as great as I’ve heard to any opening number at 54 Below. A tough act to follow, writer/performer Ryan J. Haddad, whose one-person show Hold Me in the Water was a highlight of the 2024-25 theatre season, was up for the challenge. Singing Cole Porter’s “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” Haddad didn’t camp it up but found meaning in the sly lyrics of a song that’s been open to interpretation from a queer perspective since it was first performed by Mary Martin in 1938.
Todd Buonopane gave us “Barry’s Going to the Prom,” from The Prom (music by Matthew Sklar and lyrics by Chad Beguelin), raising the temperature in the room with his outstanding vocals. The classic female duet “Bosom Buddies,” Jerry Herman’s second act showstopper from Mame, was reinterpreted by cabaret frenemies Robbie Rozelle and Mary Callanan with all the required bitchiness. A song that came next was new to me even though it’s from a 1975 off-Broadway musical. Boy Meets Boy is generally considered the first gay musical in which gay was depicted as being American as apple pie and as normal as vanilla ice cream. Macon Prickett, fresh off success in his own recent 54 Below shows, warbled Bill Solly and Donald Ward’s “What Do I Care?” with carefree abandon and an abundance of joy.
Queer musicals took a giant step forward with Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron’s Fun Home, the first show to win Tonys for women in the categories of book and score in a single season. “I’m Changing My Major to Joan,” one of the very best songs in the score, was sung beautifully by Kali Evonne, who sang this previously at another cabaret evening at 54 Below where I was present. Having played the role, she hits all the highs and lows with the commitment of a fine actor. Singing a Tom Kitt composition, “Come to Me,” Jerry Dixon was very touching in finding all the intricacies of Kitt’s beautiful lyrics in addition to being in fine voice. It then fell to Garth Schilling, shedding his drag queen persona of Vodka Stinger and performing Jerry Herman’s “A Little More Mascara” from La Cage Aux Folles. A tough solo to pull off in a cabaret setting, Schilling still poured his heart and soul into it with great good humor.
Charles Busch, not only a celebrated playwright (The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife), but very much at home on a cabaret stage, sang Noël Coward’s “If Love Were All”; a touchingly autobiographical song first sung nearly 100 years ago in Coward’s musical Bitter Sweet. In 2026, the song gives new meaning to the word timeless. John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a queer musical that also broke new ground when it opened off-Broadway in 1998, was represented by Daisy Eagan. A Tony Award winner at age eleven for The Secret Garden, Eagan took to the stage and owned it (you kind of have to when playing Hedwig). In the penultimate spot, Wade McCallum gloriously sang “What Would I Do?”, William Finn’s heartbreaking ballad that ends Falsettos, one of the true gay masterpieces of the American theatre.
The highlight of the night was a duet sung by Steve Schalchlin and Jim Brochu, who have been together as a couple for forty years. In the very personal song, “How Do You Fall Back in Love,” written by Schlachlin, the pair reminisced about a time when things weren’t going so great. Their harmonies and full-on embrace of the emotional heft the song carries were potent. It was truly one of those “there wasn’t a dry eye in the house” moments. So, so beautiful.
Lee Roy Reams, who made his Broadway debut in Sweet Charity some sixty years ago (and has more stories about his life in the theatre than the Smith Brothers have cough drops), finished out the night. Schneider’s book is actually dedicated to the actor, who has the distinction of being the first openly gay actor to play an openly gay character on Broadway. It was entirely appropriate then that he sang the title song from that landmark musical, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams’s “Applause.”
Lee Roy got his applause—and then some. It was that kind of night from an audience that had the time of their lives. Emotionally speaking, the singing at 54 Below for “Queer Musicals” warmed the heart and soothed the soul.
Queer Musicals: Boy Meets Boy to Jagged Little Pill took place Sunday, February 15 at 54 Below, 254 W 54th Street, NYC. Please click here for information on future programming.
Photos by Ron Fassler.
Headline photo: Robert W. Schneider and Matt Koplik.
