Welcome to the April edition of The Queer Agenda, The Queer Review’s curated monthly guide to LGBTQ+ cultural happenings in New York City and beyond.
April 3-7 – NewFest Queering the Canon: So Obsessed – In-person at BAM, New York & streaming nationwide
NewFest and BAM’s fifth annual retrospective screening series “Queering the Canon: So Obsessed” includes the New York premiere of the 4K restoration of Lisa Cholodenko’s High Art with Cholodenko in-person for a Q&A and a free screening of Cheryl Dunye’s Stranger Inside followed by an in-person Q&A with Dunye. Other highlights include a 35mm screening of Barbet Schroeder’s Single White Female, restorations of Tsai Ming-Liang’s Vive L’amour and James Bidgood’s Pink Narcissus. While virtual exclusives include Miguel Arteta’s Chuck & Buck, celebrating its 25th anniversary, and John Maybury’s searing Love Is The Devil: Study For A Portrait Of Francis Bacon. For full the schedule and to purchase tickets head to NewFest.org.
April 4-13 – 41st annual Wicked Queer Film Festival – Boston
The 41st annual Wicked Queer lineup features over 120 films from around the world. This edition’s theme is Community is Resistance. The Opening Night selections are Allan Deberton’s The Best Friend and Todd Verow and Charles Lum’s Memoriabilia, while this year’s festival will close with Elena Oxman’s Outerlands starring Asia Kate Dillon. Among the highlights are Bruce LaBruce’s The Visitor, Andrew Ahn’s reimagining of Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet, Rashaad Newsome and Johnny Symons’ Assembly, Victoria Verseau’s Trans Memoria , Kimberly Reed’s I’m Your Venus, and Sam Feder’s Heightened Scrutiny. Screening venues include the Brattle Theatre, Coolidge Corner Theater, Museum of Fine Arts, ICA, Mass Art, BFSR Emerson, and Boston University. Tickets are on sale through the venues with the full schedule available on wickedqueer.org.
April 7-27 – Emil Weinstein’s Becoming Eve – Abrons Arts Center, Off-Broadway
Based on the critically acclaimed memoir by Abby Chava Stein, Emil Weinstein playwrighting debut Becoming Eve stars Tommy Dorfman and Brandon Uranowitz with direction by Tyne Rafaeli. A week before the High Holidays, three rabbis find themselves in a room fighting to save a family by building a bridge between orthodoxy and modernity. One of these rabbis is Chava (Dorfman), the child of a dynastic Hasidic rabbinical family and destined to become a leader of the next generation before the revelation of her trans identity clashed explosively with the strictly gendered world in which she was raised. As we jump through memory—and wrestle with theology—truths and secrets emerge that ensure no one will read the old stories the same way again. For more details and to purchase tickets head to NYTW.org. Read James Kleinmann’s ★★★★ review.
April 10–May 7 – Ryan J. Haddad’s Hold Me in the Water – Playwrights Horizons’ Judy Theater, Off-Broadway
Playwright-performer Ryan J. Haddad follows his acclaimed, Obie-winning Off-Broadway playwriting debut Dark Disabled Stories, with a disarmingly vulnerable and funny one-person play about falling in love for the first time. Directed by Haddad’s longtime collaborator Danny Sharron, Hold Me in the Water finds Ryan ready for the romance of his dreams, with someone he’s only just met. As the connection between them grows, he learns that new heights of joy can bring deep insecurities to the surface. Is the newness and rareness of this connection a result of his romantic inexperience as a disabled man, or is there something else that’s kept Ryan from such a sweeping, cinematic love? For more details and to purchase tickets head to PlaywrightsHorizons.org. Read James Kleinmann’s ★★★★ review.
April 24-July 27 – Pirates! The Penzance Musical – Todd Haimes Theatre, Broadway
Roundabout Theatre Company’s new Broadway production of Pirates! The Penzance Musical—starring Ramin Karimloo, Jinkx Monsoon, David Hyde Pierce, Nicholas Barasch, Preston Truman Boyd and Samantha Williams—begins previews on April 4th before its official opening on Thursday, April 24th. Gilbert & Sullivan’s pirate ship docks in New Orleans in this jazzy-bluesy vision of the crowd-pleasing classic, in an outrageously clever romp sizzling with Caribbean rhythms and French Quarter flair. With the tongue-twisting Major-General, the rabble-rousing Pirate King, newly-imagined young lovers, daring daughters, footloose pirates and fleet-footed police, there’s a shipload of musical comedy delights on board to dazzle first-timers and G&S aficionados alike. For full details and to purchase tickets head to roundabouttheatre.org.
April 29 – May3 – Sandra Bernhard’s debut residency at Café Carlyle, New York
Legendary performer, actress, singer, and author Sandra Bernhard makes her Café Carlyle debut residency. Bernhard will perform her usual slew of comedic musings while taking audiences on a heartfelt journey through the music that shaped her life including all the songs you’ve come to expect from Sandy. For more details and to purchase tickets head to RosewoodHotels.com.
Compiled by James Kleinmann
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