World Premiere September 23 - October 3, 2021
with Justin Vivian Bond, Anthony Roth Costanzo
director and co-creator Zack Winokur
music director Thomas Bartlett
scenic design Carlos J Soto
costumes Jonathan Anderson for JW Anderson & Loewe
lights John Torres
sound David Schnirman
arrangements Nico Muhly
associate music director / additional arrangements Daniel Schlosberg
stage manager Jason Kaiser
assistant stage manager Jo Fernandez
associate scenic designer Marie de Testa
associate lighting designer Tessa Thompson
photographs Nina Westervelt
Presented by St. Ann’s Warehouse in association with Justin Vivian Bond | Anthony Roth Costanzo | Zack Winokur
Production Support:
Andrew J. Martin-Weber
Joan Taub Ades, Susan Baker and Michael Lynch, Mogens and Cindy Bay, Diane Borger, Elbrun and Peter Kimmelman, Helen Little, Elizabeth Van Alen Manigault, Steve Novick Charitable Gift Fund, Michele and Steve Pesner and Peace, Sonia Ponnusamy, Amanda Joy Rubin, Jill and Bill Steinberg, and New York State Council on the Arts.
Originally commissioned and developed, in part, in residence with Live Arts Bard at the Fisher Center at Bard, with the support of Amanda Joy Rubin.
Director Zack Winokur, set designer Carlos Soto, and lighting designer John Torres dress the stage as if it’s a diva too, draping her in vivid satins and chiffons. The front curtain is electric-blue taffeta, pulled aside to reveal a green velvet grotto, backed by a filmy gauze curtain, drawn in front of a curtain of silver lamé. The backdrops do a kind of striptease, each layer dragging slowly aside as the show progresses. The energy between Bond and Costanzo is sweet and unsensual, but the show still oozes sex, partly because of that naughty stage set that’s always slipping out of her robes to get into something more comfortable. Helen Shaw, New York Magazine
Like the performers in Only An Octave Apart, Soto’s set, Anderson’s costumes, and Torres’ lighting blend the best of Old Hollywood, the Golden Age of Broadway, Vaudeville, cabaret and opera. The production values are high, but the fussiness is kept to a minimum, putting the ethereal spotlight right where it belongs, on the artists. Sometimes they’re cast in striking silhouettes or transported to an Ibiza nightclub for their hysterical version of Sylvester’s “Stars.” Cindy Sibilsky, Broadway World
A handful of solos, which make excellent use of the layers of sheer and shimmering curtains that make up the set, designed by Carlos Soto, with lighting by John Torres, ground the performance in emotion. Andrea Whittle, W Magazine