Let's Hear It for the Boys: A Transmasc Cabaret

Before anything else, I owe the producers and company of Let’s Hear It For the Boys an apology. I saw this cabaret on June 20, and this review is arriving months later than it should have. A few days after the performance, my family suffered a devastating loss, and it pulled me away from most of my life. Then problems with my web host stalled my site, and the pile-up sent me into a depression so deep that I ended up in the hospital. I’m only now starting to feel close to normal again. The talent on that stage deserved better, and I offer my humblest apologies. When the fourth one rolls around in 2027, it will be worth all of your attention, as the talent on display will be as amazing as this year's.

Now to the show, which earned every word of this.

Now in its third year, Let’s Hear It For the Boys: A Transmasc Cabaret is presented by The Green Room 42, produced by Max Raymond and Charlie Hano, and directed by Jules Dameron, Artistic Director of New York Deaf Theatre. The crowd was electric from the first note. I spent the whole night overflowing with joy, my heart pounding and my face aching from smiling so wide.

The opening number set the stage for an evening of queer joy and celebration! Every act shined but I will highlight the ones that really stood out to me.

Patrick Falk's “Extraordinary” from Pippin electrified with every note and their expressive performance. It’s a song about a young man who is sure he’s meant for something bigger, and Falk sang it like he already knew he was. His stage presence is phenomenal, and his energy was off the charts. Some performers wait for a room to warm up to them. Falk walked up and warmed it up himself.

Samy Figaredo gave everything he had to “Out Tonight” from RENT, sung in Spanish. Mimi’s song is pure restless hunger for a night out, and Figaredo took that literally, running through the audience and bringing the party right to them. Hearing it in Spanish gave a very familiar song a fresh spin.

Then Imani Russell brought the evening’s first big change of pace with “The Manuscript” from Confessions of the Fox, a new musical by Abbie Goldberg and Raiah Rofsky. After the high-voltage number before it, this slower, more emotional song asked the room to settle in and listen. The contrast was perfect, and it showed how much range this lineup had.

Then came the laughs. Falk and Raymond teamed up for Mammarelli’s Mastectomies, a sketch by Ireland Meacham that pokes fun at how hard it is to get top surgery. They were side-splitting. The over-the-top accents and mannerisms sold every joke, and the gleeful “Bye, bye, boobies!” was one of the biggest laughs of my night. Comedy like this can say more about a broken system than a lecture ever could, and it does it while you’re laughing.

“Somewhere That’s Green” from Little Shop of Horrors is one of my favorite musical numbers of all time. Audrey’s dream is so small, a little house, a toaster, a life with Seymour, and that’s exactly what makes it heartbreaking. Raymond’s take let all of her hopeful joy shine through. Hearing a trans man sing a song about longing for a simple, ordinary, happy life adds another layer to it and I was wiping my eyes by the end.

Later, Russell returned with “Epic III” from Hadestown, playing guitar as they sang. Hadestown is my favorite musical running today and my second favorite of all time, and I’ve seen it more than 15 times, so I know this song well. It’s the moment Orpheus finally sings his whole song to Hades, and it has to be strong enough to change a god’s mind. Russell’s voice and control were mind-blowing and fully Broadway caliber. That fits the first transmasculine nonbinary actor to play a transmasculine nonbinary principal role on Broadway, in How to Dance in Ohio (which I saw them in!). It was deeply moving.

Every act on the bill earned its place. The full company opened the night with a new arrangement commissioned for the cabaret from Sasha Paris-Carter, a strong start that brought the whole cast together before anyone stepped out alone. Zia gave a powerful reading of “For Our Sins” from Thani Brant’s new musical The Laugh of the Medusa, a lament in which a trans writer comes to terms with the hate around them. Falk returned for “Cavities,” a bittersweet love song by Brooklyn singer-songwriter Landon Frederick, arranged by Jude Caminos, and showed he can handle a quiet, heartfelt number as well as a big showstopper. Burlesque and heels dancer Eli Hagan and drag prince Masc.Ari each brought an original act, and both added a welcome shot of dance and drag to a night built mostly on song. Masc.Ari and Zia later teamed up for an excerpt from Eddie Oliver’s Please Be a Fish, a dark, surreal comedy about an aquarium worker who suspects he’s turning into a sea monster, and it gave the evening a weird, wonderful detour. Zia then closed the solo numbers with a moving “I’ll Cover You (Reprise)” from RENT, and the full company returned to send us home on a high.

None of this would have worked without a great band, and this one was outstanding. Music director and pianist Kade De Angioletti led the group with skill and steady confidence, moving easily from rock to ballads to musical theater standards and back again. Han Van Sciver on drums, sandile mhlaba on bass, and Tui Jordan on guitar made up a tight, powerful rhythm section that gave every performer something solid to stand on. They backed each act like they’d been playing together for years.

ASL interpreters Adrian Walker and El Flansburg did far more than make the night open to Deaf audience members. They brought real emotion to every song and scene, matching the joy, heartbreak, and humor of each act with their faces and hands. When Walker and Flansburg worked a song or scene together, it was even clearer how talented they are as performers in their own right. Watching the two of them share a number was like seeing it performed a second time, in a different language, with just as much heart.

In his director’s note, Dameron wrote that he hoped transmasc audience members would leave feeling seen and less alone. I can only speak for myself, but I left that room full, and I’m already hoping Let’s Hear It For the Boys comes back for a fourth year, and many, many more!

I attended this performance on a press pass.