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Courtesy of Flushing Town Hall
Flushing Town Hall’s Pride Trilogy features an extraordinary lineup of multi-award winning performers and vocalists. (From l. to r.) Mark Nadler, Marieann Meringolo and Darius de Haas.
Flushing Town Hall to celebrate Pride Month with musical trilogy
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
In celebration of Pride Month in June,
Flushing Town Hall is presenting its Pride
Trilogy, a three-part musical series featuring
an extraordinary lineup of award-winning
performers and vocalists.
“Inspired by the success of our Black
History Trilogy in February, we are
very excited to present this new series
for Pride,” said Ellen Kodadek, Flushing
Town Hall’s executive and artistic director.
“As New York City reopens, we are
also thrilled to be welcoming artists back
to the stage in our Hall while continuing to
livestream for audiences at home.”
Th e Pride Trilogy is supported in part
by funding from Councilman Daniel
Dromm, who said Flushing Town Hall’s
Pride Trilogy is another exciting way that
the organization ensures inclusivity in all
of its events.
“Because invisibility is our biggest
enemy, making us visible in the arts is so
vitally important and no one does it better
than Flushing Town Hall,” Dromm said. “I
am most grateful to everyone involved for
their support of the LGBTQ community
of Queens. Happy Pride!”
Mark Nadler, an internationally acclaimed
singer, pianist, tap dancer and comedian,
kicks off the trilogy with “Gay As Th ey Say”
at 7 p.m. on Th ursday, June 10.
In this fun and tuneful show, Nadler
explores the theory that Cole Porter, Noel
Coward, Larry Hart and Billy Strayhorn
meant what you think they meant when
they wrote provocative, gay-sounding
phrases in their lyrics. Th e virtual audience
is invited to stay for a live Q&A with
Nadler following his performance.
Nadler is the recipient of the 2015
Broadway World Editor’s Choice Award for
Entertainer of the Year. His off -Broadway
hit, “I’m a Stranger Here Myself,” has been
honored with the 2013 Nightlife Award and
was nominated for a Drama Desk Award
and two Broadway World Awards.
Th e show was presented at Th e Adelaide
Cabaret Festival in Adelaide, Australia,
where it was nominated for the prestigious
Helpmann Award. Additionally, Nadler’s
“Broadway Hootenanny” performed at
Adelaide Festival for several years in a
row. He has performed at Carnegie Hall
with the New York Pops Orchestra and
has been a soloist with the Baltimore
Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony,
Oregon Symphony, National Arts Centre
Symphony in Ottawa and others.
On Th ursday, June 17, at 7 p.m., the
Pride Trilogy continues with Marieann
Meringolo’s “Here’s to the Ladies! A Salute
to Great Ladies of Song,” celebrating such
icons as Peggy Lee, Barbra Streisand, Joni
Mitchell, Dionne Warwick and more.
Meringolo is a native New Yorker and
multi-award winning vocalist who has
been called“one of the circuit’s most powerful
singers,” and described by “Time
Out New York” as “if k.d. lang’s DNA
were to get whipped together with Barbra
Streisand’s in a genetics lab specializing in
divas, the result might well be Marieann
Meringolo.”
Meringolo is a MAC Award-Winning
Recording Artist as well as a BackStage
Bistro Award-Winner for “Outstanding
Vocalist.” She performs in New York’s most
celebrated venues, has toured with the late
comedian David Brenner and headlines
on cruises around the world. She received
rave reviews for her 2018 album, released
on the BluJazz label, “Between Yesterday
and Tomorrow: Th e Songs of Alan &
Marilyn Bergman.”
Meringolo’s gorgeous voice is oft en
played on radio stations and the internet
around the world, and has been heard on
selected United Airlines fl ights, as well as
on Air Force II. She has also had the honor
of performing live at the United Nations.
Flushing Town Hall’s Pride Trilogy
will conclude with a very special performance
from Darius de Haas at 7 p.m.
on Th ursday, June 24. In Darius de Haas
Sings Billy Strayhorn: “Something to Live
For,” de Haas will celebrate the composer’s
rich contribution to the Great American
Songbook with songs like “Take the A
Train,” “Lush Life,” “Day Dream,” “Chelsea
Bridge” and more.
An Obie Award-winning actor and
singer, Darius de Haas has appeared in
Broadway’s “Rent,” “Shuffl e Along,” “Kiss
of the Spider Woman” and in Amazon’s
“Th e Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” He brings
an ever evolving and singular perspective
to Strayhorn’s tremendous output-
celebrating a composer whose music he
sung for his debut solo recording 20 years
ago, the critically acclaimed “Day Dream:
Variations on Strayhorn.”
Known mainly in his lifetime as one
of Duke Ellington’s greatest collaborators,
Strayhorn has been increasingly celebrated
for his own rich contributions, not
just to music but as a humanitarian. An
out, gay Black man at a time when the
norm was to keep that hidden (particularly
in the macho-dominated world of jazz),
Strayhorn was not only out but held in the
highest regard by his fellow musicians and
colleagues.
“Billy Strayhorn is someone who I aff ectionately
call ‘a triple threat’ — gay, Black
and a genius,” de Haas said. “I, and certainly
many other artists, have benefi ted
from his contribution to the Great
American Songbook and stand on his
small but mighty shoulders.”
Flushing Town Hall’s Pride Trilogyis
presented as part of its “FTH At Home!”
virtual programming initiative to provide
the highest-caliber global arts performances
to audiences throughout New
York, the country and across the world to
enjoy from the safety of home. Since New
York City fi rst shutdown to COVID-19
in March of 2020, Flushing Town Hall’s
YouTube subscriber audience has grown
by more than 220 percent.
To learn more about the upcoming
TRILOGY and to reserve virtual tickets
($5 each, plus a $1 service fee) visit
fl ushingtownhall.org/pride-trilogy.
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