Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Queer defiance: JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND at Joe’s Pub and the return of H.M. Koutoukas’ MEDEA OF THE LAUNDROMAT

• By drediman
• July 1, 2025
• No Comments

This past Pride Month, I got more than a whiff of queer defiance at a pair of downtown shows. Read on below for my thoughts on these performance, both of which had me contemplating the city’s indelible queer legacy.

JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND: WELL, WELL, WELL
Joe’s Pub

One of the centerpieces of my Pride Weekend was seeing Justin Vivian Bond perform Well, Well, Well (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) at Joe’s Pub. The show is the third and final entry in a trilogy of cabaret acts that started with Oh, Well — performed immediately following the 2024 Presidential Election — which was followed last month by Well, Well. Although each installment has been inspired by Radclyffe Hall’s classic lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness and features songs by lesbian, trans, queer, and gender non-binary singer-songwriters, each have had their own distinct energy, mood, and messaging. Whereas Oh, Well found the legendary Mx Viv resigned and lowkey and Well, Well processing their complicated feelings on a visceral level, the latest show is an unabashed call — set mostly to the music of lesbian songwriters — to defiantly flaunt queer joy in the face of it all. Some highlights in the wonderfully eclectic set included Sleater-Kinney’s “The Ballad of a Ladyman”, the late Jill Sobule’s “Resistance Song”, Mary Gauthier’s “Drag Queens in Limousines”, and Joan Armatrading “The Weakness in Me” — all of which were filtered through Justin’s seductively gravely instrument and intensely present and purposeful delivery. And as with the first two installments, Viv was instinctually backed by their terrific usual suspect musicians, led by the great music director Matt Ray. The notion of resistance by living out and proud was manifested by an overarching punk sensibility that feels absolutely right at this current juncture. Given Justin’s history as a queer icon and a longtime downtown performer, and I took both heed and comfort in his guidance and wisdom. Indeed, I felt I was in safe hands at every step of their three-step journey to this point.

MEDEA OF THE LAUNDROMAT
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club

The same kind of queer defiance underlies the recent revival of H.M. Koutoukas’ Medea of the Laundromat (RECOMMENDED) at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village (which is not very far from Joe’s Pub). Although Koutoukas was a fixture in New York’s avant-garde theater scene during the 1960s and 1970s — he’s been largely credited for giving rise to the city’s Off-Off-Broadway scene — his works have scarcely been performed in recent decades. It’s a treat, therefore, to have Arthur Adair’s inspired staging of Koutoukas’ subversive take on the Medea tragedy back on the boards for a new generation of adventurous theatergoers to experience. With the juxtaposition of Ancient Greece with a laundromat setting, the playwright makes it clear right off the bat that camp here is king (or more appropriately, queen). But despite the heightened absurdity of it all, Medea’s horrific actions still pack a powerful emotional punch, especially as portrayed by Tony-nominee John-Andrew Morrison (A Strange Loop). Dressed in larger-than-life drag, Koutoukas’ Medea exists beyond social norms, for which it seems she has been cast aside, probably as decreed by her husband Jason (of the golden fleece variety). It’s no surprise, therefore, that Morrison’s meticulous, deeply invested portrayal was spiked, in equal measure, with both ferocity and fabulousness. As such, Medea of the Laundromat transcends two-dimensional parody by utilizing the myth’s elemental rage for its own ends, namely to upend conventionality itself, both in theater and society at large. Everything else falls into the realm of kitschy unimportance. Even the fabled Jason (played with absolute hilarity by Jason Howard) comes across as little more than a buffoon. The play’s other character is the Nurse, whose kooky, Kabuki-like portrayal by Jenne Vath nearly stole the show — but seemed to be from a completely different show.