!Viva 'Viva Variety’!
Calendare by Mark Mardon
Some of the best variety-show entertainment I've experienced in my soon-to-be 50 years of living on this planet (21 of them in this lovely city) has come from Steve Murray’s Viva Variety! I've spent a lot of time, as Steve knows, making up my mind about the show, mainly because' I've attended too few of the monthly events to get a complete picture of what he’s offering. Now that I’ve seen his production five or six times (out of 33), I’m ready to belatedly give “Viva Variety” a big two thumbs up!
Murray is a superior showman- one with a social conscience, who demonstrates enormous respect for his community by supporting local LGBTQ charities – and Viva Variety consistently delivers artists with class and style in a rollicking evening of live music, dance, comedy, spoken word, puppetry, and other art forms.
Each show is hosted by Murray, playing the Ed Sullivan role, albeit openly queer and far more animated. Most often he’s accompanied by his vivid, insanely twisted, tragic-comic semi-sidekick Peggy L’Eggs (of rockband Pepperspray fame) and his low-key electronic soundscape artist Geno Valle, who opens each show and plays at intermissions. Other than that, everything’s up for grabs, the artist lineup changing each time.
Each Viva Variety performer gets to do a short number or couple of songs, and almost invariably they’re fabulous! The audiences adore them! In fact the audiences fascinate me as much as the performers do. Viva Variety attendees are seasoned theatre-goers, mostly aging lesbians and gay men, and this regular outing is becoming a ritual for them. They eagerly anticipate the night’s selections, and respond with yelps, stomping, whistling, the occasional cat –calling, and much laughter, always giving the artists their whole attention.
Not all Viva Variety acts are totally awesome, of course. Some are middling, and some outright suck, but that’s the nature of the variety-show beast. Viva Variety is a grab-bag in which treats are many and duds fare few and far between.
The latest two shows – Viva Variety 32 and 33 – included some of my favorite performers, whose artistry I’ve admired in other settings, including singer/songwriter Garrin Benfield; the Alexis Harte Band (with adorable Adrian West on violin); the legendary Arturo Galster as Patsy Cline; and new singer-about-town Spencer Day and his jazz combo. The shows also introduced me to exciting artists, notably Kitten on the Keys, a dizzy act involving a woman, her piano, and a stuffed kitten; and the great Blake, a comedian who looks like he ought to be carved on Mt. Rushmore, he’s such a commanding figure. More to the point, his humor is fearless and rock solid.
Enough said. I can’t detail all the acts. You’ll need to pick out you own favorites at the next “Viva Variety” o