Faith Soloway Previews Songs from ‘TRANSPARENT’ Musical at Joe’s Pu
As BWW previously reported, Faith Soloway, a writer, and producer of the hit Amazon series TRANSPARENT appeared at Joe’s Pub on June 19th to present her cabaret show, “Should ‘Transparent’ Become a Musical?” During the performance, Ms. Soloway, sister of the show’s creator Jill Soloway, previewed songs that you would hear on the big stage, if and when the award-winning series becomes a musical.
According to Variety, series star and Tony Award winner Judith Light and HAMILTON producer Jeffrey Seller were among those in attendance at the 75-minute cabaret show. Among those participating were co-host Alexandra Billings, who portrays ‘Davina’ on the series, Seth Bodi, Brandon Cordeiro, Amy Graves and Megan Amram.
Soloway opened the show with a song set to the opening theme of the TV series. Among the other numbers in the show was “I Was The Lesbian First”, performed by Amram as the character ‘Sarah’. Bodi channeled the character ‘Maura’ as well as Joni Mitchell in the number “When Joni Sings,” followed by Cordeiro’s performance of “Crazy People” inspired by the journals of Jill Soloway.
Among the showstoppers were Amy Graves’ performance as Light’s character Shelly, singing “Your Boundary is my Trigger.” Billings offered an emotional climax to the evening, singing “Your Shoes” as her character Maura. The night wrapped with the finale, “Boundary is the Secret”, which examined how each character felt about family.
The event also served as a fundraiser for Americans United, an advocacy group focused on the separation of church and state.
In a previous interview with The New York Times, Ms. Soloway revealed that she and her sister originally considered presenting the story as a “musical documentary”. She explains, “We even had a documentarian following us around while we worked on it.” Although the project morphed into the hit television series instead, music was still an essential element to the show’s key moments, whether performed in a studio, played in a nightclub scene or sung by Judith Light.
The comedy-drama television series TRANSPARENT was created by Jill Soloway for Amazon Studios and debuted in February 2014. The story revolves around a Los Angeles family and their lives following the discovery that the person they knew as their father Mort (Jeffrey Tambor) is transgender.
At the 72nd Golden Globe Awards, the show won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy, while Jeffrey Tambor won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.
Image courtesy of Amazon