Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Joe’s Pub continues to be a hotbed of vital, unpredictable performances: American Sing-Song’s HOLE! and Varla Jean Merman’s THE DROWSY CHAPPELL ROAN

• By drediman
• May 23, 2026
• No Comments

After many years of attending performances at Joe’s Pub, I’m happy to report that the venue continues to be a hotbed for vital, unpredictable performances of the distinctly downtown variety. This was in full evidence in a pair of off-the-wall shows I had the great opportunity of catching there last week. Here are my thoughts.

AMERICAN SING-SONG: HOLE!
Joe’s Pub

First up is American Sing-Song’s absurdly entertaining Hole! (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), a performance in which storytelling meets sprightly musical theater. The premise of it all still gets a chuckle out of me. Essentially, it involves a prophecy from a Nebraskan religious sect that requires its members to wear butt plugs in order to side-step being sucked up into the sky to meet physical annihilation. When the cult happens to be right (!), what transpires is a post-apocalyptic adventure finds two young cult members (both budding gays, but staunchly in the closet) who must infiltrate an enclave of gay Cincinnati Daddies — whose bums were also plugged during the time of “The Great Sucking”, but not for religious reasons — only to carve out a new path of their own in the brave new world. Comprised of only two resourceful and inspired performers — the hugely talented Jake Brasch and Nadja Milena — American Sing-Song is able to ingeniously conjure spectacle simply in the mind’s eye, primarily using foley sound effects that wouldn’t be amiss in a vintage radio show to create a detailed sonic landscape to accompany their delightful and surprisingly well-crafted score and tight, masterful storytelling. Despite the extreme irreverence and inherent risqué nature of the show, there’s also a pervading sense of goodwill and an insistent belief in humanity that imbues this wildly-plotted satire with a childlike sweetness that you can’t help but fall for. Indeed, I look forward to what giddy concoction this duo comes up with next.

VARLA JEAN MERMAN IS THE DROWSY CHAPPELL ROAN
Joe’s Pub

Then just a few days later at the very same venue, I was able to catch Varla Jean Merman Is The Drowsy Chappell Roan (RECOMMENDED), a show that has garnered strong word of mouth during its run at Provincetown last summer. The drag persona of Jeffery Roberson, Varla Jean Merman is a sweet and sassy creation that has become gay cultural icon, particularly at gay destinations like P-Town. In fact, Roberson is currently celebrating three decades of Varla Jean Merman. For the occasion, he’s created one of Varla’s sharpest and most elaborate shows to date. The 90-minute entertainment — relatively lengthy for a drag show — finds Varla scandalously claiming that Chappell Roan and a host of other so-called pop princesses (e.g., Dua Lipa, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, and Miley Cyrus) have stolen from her acts throughout her career. Now Varla wants her due, and her longtime fans at Joe’s Pub were there for it. Careening between hilarious parodies of recognizable pop songs (Roan’s hit “Pink Pony Club” is now “Big Phony Jugs”!) and incisively witty banter — aided by side-splitting projected images of Varla in various compromising positions and a retrospective of her album covers —she bulldozed through the show with glee and utter professionalism (kudos also to the game and expert musical accompaniment provided by music director Todd Alsup on piano). Over the course of the evening, I counted no less than nine fabulous costume changes, each of which was greeted with enthusiastic applause. At once bluntly subversive and comfortingly maternal, Varla somehow merges the gap between lovers of musical theater, zany camp, and pop culture. That’s knowing your audience.