HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Just when you think things have slowed down, you get to look back and see that, "Hey, I did some good stuff this year!" There were readings and puppets and a Co-Star on And Just Like That, oh my! Celebrating 10 years of The Ides of March with the Rigano Brothers and returning to the Red Bucket Follies, and continuing the good mashup times with not one, but TWO BinderSuze shows. And somehow I still managed to get to DC and Denmark with my family and show my son the power of the Smithsonian Museums and Tivoli Gardens. Honestly the end of 2024 was a bit of a blur, but for good reason. Once December started: 12/6 I was back behind the kit for the final No Name show at Otto's for the year. BinderSuze performed a brand new mashup that night as well. 12/7 I was at Don't Tell Mama kicking off Goldie Dver's two part cabaret benefit for St. Jude's. Cabaret icons like Richard Skipper, Meg Flather, and Ruby Rims were among the amazing performers that night. 12/9-10 I was thrilled to be back as an offstage singer and "Vanna" with Broadway Cares/Fights AIDS Red Bucket Follies. It truly is one of the joys of the year to be able to support and then watch such talented performers who created performances you wouldn't see anywhere else, for such a wonderful and needed cause. 12/15 BinderSuze played Pangea, our second show this year and third live show overall. It was a great time with a great crowd. We performed favorites and brought in some new material that we can't wait to record. Look out for more material and new shows in the spring. 12/18 I was a walking Frost Giant for the Lincoln Square Winter Ramble with Processional Arts. There is nothing like walking with a large scale puppet around the Lincoln Center when people are not expecting to see glowing large scale puppets walking around. 12/19 MABC had its Christmas Gala featuring singers from the emerging artists programs as well as our choir. We sang from Haydn's Creation and Mozart's Coronation Mass and it truly was a lovely evening. 12/24 We had our Christmas Eve service at MABC which always ends with Silent Night to candlelight. So what's coming up? 1/3 No Name will be breaking in the New Year at Otto's with an incredible line up: Liz Miele, Menuhin Hart, Jillian Thomas and Leighann Lord among others. BinderSuze will be part of the band and we'll be performing one of our new mashups! 1/19 QED Astoria is one of my favorite venues and its owner, Kambri Crews, one of my favorite people. She is handing off QED and pressing "restart" on her journey. No Name wants to send her off with a bang and has a great show planned. 1/26 The last time I did a reading of my solo show Single What? Female, it was at QED and we had a stellar night... and hopefully we can repeat that and send off Kambri in the process. 2/15 I'll be back performing in a 20 minute musical over at Lincoln Center with Across A Crowded Room. I love this organization and how it brings artists together to create new work. In the meantime, I hope you had a wonderful holiday(s), and celebrated the New Year with people (and/or animals) you love and here's to getting all the joy and abundance a we can in 2025.
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🎶HAPPY HOLIDAAAAAYS! HAPPY HOLIDAAAAAAAYS! MAY THE MERRY BELLS KEEP RINGING, HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU! 🎶
BUCKETS AND BENEFITS AND BINDERSUZE, OH MY! What’s been going on? I can honestly say, your girl’s been busy and is just starting to slow down a bit. *Back in November, the fabulous Bug Johnson debuted a staged reading of their play The Golden Ass as part of the reading series at Pete’s Candy Store. I’ve played the goddess Venus in this piece sincethey started working on it with The Playground Experiment and was thrilled to be part of this reading of the full play. *A few days later, I was part of my first Voices of America monologue festival put on by the PGE. Each year, the PGE asks for submissions for this monologu festival AND book. I’ve wanted to be part of it for some time and this year was the year! There was so much great material, and so many fantastic performances. It’s a fab contribution, particularly as the monologues really are for all ages, races, gender expressions, and abilities. *December opened up with being part of the Cabaret stalwart, Goldie Dver’s benefit for St. Jude’s Hospital. To get to sing with legends and emerging legends of the cabaret scene is such an honor and also just a heck of a good time. *Following Goldie’s benefit, it was time for one of my other favorite benefits of the season: The Red Bucket Follies for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Being an offstage singer and “Vanna” for this event is an honor and pleasure and a JOY. *And then suddenly, it was the 15th, the date of my show with collaborator Richard Binder. We debuted our live show last year at Don’t Tell Mama, performed it again in May at The Green Room 42, and then decided to make it cozy and perform our holiday version at Pangea. There was a lot of love in that room and we got a fantastic response to our old and new material, in particular the mashup we call 2 Drunk 4 Champagne. We mashed up the Dead Kennedy’s, Kiss, Amanda Lenore, Lita Ford and Lerner & Lowe. And it WORKED. (We should have a recording soon.) *12/19 Binder and I will be with Madison Avenue Baptist Church for our Christmas Gala. Mozart! Haydn! It will be beautiful, so come on down In the meantime, if you need this merry mixed mezzo for your concert, demo, play, film, pilot, etc, contact me HERE. Peace ✌🏽 HAPPY (almost) SWEATAH WEATHAH, friends!
After a busy summer that was mostly travel and SP work, I got to close it out with helming my dear friend Eric Vetter’s birthday cabaret, Eric Vetter: Delusions and Inspiration, which was a SUCCESS at Don’t Tell Mama. Just before that, I got to do my first co-star. Everyone I dealt with from the PA’s to hair and makeup, to the crew and director were fantastic, really just lovely. There were two scenes and mine was the last of the night and just me. It must have gone all right as the director closed us out with “If we’ve got to be here late on a Friday night, with one shot to go, it should be with you!” Look out for a very bored HR person over Zoom on And Just Like That this fall. Also, keep 11/13 and 12/15 open for a new cabaret and BinderSuze for the holidays! In the meantime, if you need this merry mixed mezzo for your concert, demo, play, film, pilot, etc, contact me at my website https://www.alexandradesuze.com 🧡. Oh and, just so you know, I am FULLY VACCINATED AND BOOSTED, Peace ✌🏽 HAPPY SUMMAH, ALL! I cannot believe that my son starts school a month from tomorrow and that the summer is almost over. Things have been a little crazy, hence my severe lack of posting, but tonight I finally got a chance to sit down and share what’s been going on!
SO…one thing I’ve been wanting to do for YEARS is get back to Denmark and see my cousins in person, let alone introduce my son to them. In early July, my son and I got to do just that. it was a short trip, but a great one and I was so happy to return to one of my favorite places AND catch up with family. Bookending that trip was a 29-hour reading of a new musical called “Conversations With My Penis”. Yes, you read right. Two urologists have written a musical/song cycle hoping to help men feel more comfortable about…their business. The cast was incredible and happened to star my dear friend and collaborator Richard Binder as well as the fabulous Sierra Rein, who brought me into this project. Not long after that, I went up to NH to visit The Barnstormers where I caught their production of Educating Rita starring the ridiculously talented Dale Place and my Sister from Nunsense the ever fabulous Sarah Corey. And of course, a visit to Barnstormers is not a visit without seeing Doug Shapiro, who not only is featured in their Agatha Christie play, “Come Back For Murder”, but is also running concessions this summer up there. I also got to see the designer run of the wonderful play “Into The Breeches”. Director Sarah Rozene gave it just the right touch along with the perfect cast. Doug and I sat there laughing, crying, sharing all the feels during this play that covers so many different topics without hammering at them. The day after I got back from NH, it was on to the Catskills for a family break with some great friends, great food, and fab hiking. Upon return, it was back to work with standardized patient work at Columbia Nursing, starting rehearsals for dear friend Eric Vetter’s birthday cabaret, Eric Vetter: Delusions and Inspiration, and then…a fitting and time on set for my first co-star. Can’t say which show just yet, but it was a marvelous time. Everyone I dealt with from the PA’s to hair and makeup, to the crew and director were fantastic, really just lovely. There were two scenes and mine was the last of the night and just me. It must ave gone all right as the director closed us out with “If we’ve got to be here late on a Friday night, with one shot to go, it should be with you!” It was a good time and here’s to more of that. SPEAKING OF MORE OF THAT…A while back I did a reading with fab actor Joyia Bradley. On a break during rehearsal, we ended up talking: “I’ve got agents, but no management,” - “Funny, I have management but no agents.” We made introductions to our people and next thing you know, she is signed with my management The Talent Express, and I am now signed with Will Ball at Vie for Commercials/TV/Film. Woo Hoo! So excited to be part of the team. Thank you for reading my essay on what I did on my summer vacation, and if you need this merry mixed mezzo, slap that contact button! P.S. Check back later for news on a new solo cabaret in November and a holiday BinderSuze show in December. Peace my friends! ☮️ ![]() So. Much. Happening. It’s been a happy and busy May so far. I’m gonna throw in one April thing because it was the end of the month and a fun gig. Friend and director Dev Bondarin asked me to do stage directions of a reading of a development project of The York Theater. Kilgallen and Kennedy is musical in progress dealing with a reporter and her hunt for the truth about the assassination of JFK. The following week, I did stage directions, again with Dev, as part of Vinyl Vanguard by fabulous up and coming playwright Marcus Scott, which was part of The National Black Theater’s Keep Soul Alive series. High school! Race! Culture! And all the cool music; can these kids be a band, or will it all blow up? A few days later, as part of the Fresh Draft Series put on by The Latinx Playwright’s Circle, I got to continue my exploration of the role of ‘Alex’ in Kendra Augustin’s play “The Beauty of My Youth is Gone, But The Chemicals Remain” which is a post-apocalyptic tale that has some serious Handmaid’s Tale vibes. And then came BinderSuze: Mashup Mixtape at The Green Room 42. Binder and I debuted this show at Don’t Tell Mama last December and , and, after the response, brought it back. We even added new material and had a great night. Lastly, I just did a reading of MJ Perrin’s The Absurdity of Life as part of New Perspective Theater’s Sweet Noise Festival. This piece covers a lot of ground, from being a black queer woman, to childhood trauma, to parenting; so much to tell and I can’t wait to see how it evolves. Coming up: Come on over to The Triad for James Beaman in his critically acclaimed solo cabaret Lived Experience. After a fab debut back in October, he is bringing it back June 1st. I’ll be returning with MAC Award winners Sierra Rein and Goldie Dver as back up singers for the show. *6/14 I’ll be back at Otto’s Shrunken Head, back behind the kit for the June No Name..And A Bag O’Chips show. There might be a BinderSuze appearance as well! In the meantime, I hope your are able to get out and enjoy the good weather while we got it. And if you need this merry mezzo for your next project, go on and smash that CONTACT button! Peace ✌🏽 The link is LIVE thus it is OFFICIAL. If you missed us in December at Don’t Tell Mama, or want to see us again, come on over to The Green Room 42 MAY 17th @ 7pm. There will be fan favorites, there will be new material, there will be a not-so-secret special guest. We are so excited to bring this show back and continue to bring what started out as videos recorded at the church where we work, beyond the screen to the stage! You can get your tickets HERE.
In the meantime…I got to be a percussionist this past weekend, playing drums this past Friday and Saturday and then cajon on Sunday. Friday, I was back behind the kit with The Summer Replacements for our April No Name…And A Bag O’Chips show, which was also a tribute show for our late bassist Fernando Morales, whom we lost to Covid in 2020. Fernando loved haikus and metal music and we had plenty of both. Friends read his haikus, We played Radiohead’s Creep, Metallica’s Enter Sandman, and, to further prove the brilliance of my collaborator Richard Binder, we did a mashup of Buddy Holly and Cannibal Corpse; and it worked. Saturday was the MCS Jam. Yes, there is a parent band at my son’s school, and we do a monthly jam and it is always a good time. These people are sick musicians and it’s always a joy to share the music with the MCS families and to do it at Shrine in Harlem. I apparently was drumming enough that watch asked me if I was doing an indoor run. 🤣 Sunday, it was another wonderful session of Musical Theater Bookclub. It’s a great way to keep the chops up, learn scores and just have a good time. The host of this months show, La Cage Aux Folles, wanted to have a band, thus, we ended up with trombone, trumpet, French horn, bass, piano, keyboard, and then me, on cajon (box drum). It was so fun to play this music, let alone sing it, I’m tempted to have folks do the same should I finally host a show. Coming up! May 3rd - I’ll be back at Otto’s for our May No Name May 17th - BinderSuze @ The Green Room 42 Keep it here for more info! And if you need this merry mixed mezzo for your project, click the CONTACT button. Peace to you all on this Sox home opener! #RedSox #49 #2004 ✌🏽🧡 Hey there, all! Why does it feel like January went as quickly as February usually does? Well, as we head toward Valentine’s Day, here’s what is coming up!
A couple of weeks back, I was cast in a short play by Matthew J. Kaplan for the latest in-person volume of The Playground Experiment. Next thing we know, the play has been accepted into a short play fest in Queens! As a big fan of Matthew’s work, I am very excited to take this piece to the next level. Come on out at the end of the month and check out A Haunting Melody, along with other fab original work at the Queens Short Play Festival at The Secret Theater. Also, in March, The Rigano Songbook will be back at it for their annual Ides of March Extravaganza! It’s the 10th (Xth?) and thus, it’s gonna be extra fabulous. Look out for details here! All right, time to get back to audition madness. Peace, my friends 🧡✌🏽 Man, I am so grateful. Last year started with finishing my cabaret run at Don't Tell Mama and getting a couple of stunning reviews, and went out with just as much of a bang. At the end of October, just before the Halloween Parade, I was asked to be backup James Beaman's cabaret comeback show Lived Experience, which was a marvelous show where Jamie, after playing so many characters over his decades long career, finally got to show us himself. Shortly after, I got to sing the music of one of my favorite composers, Rachel Peters, in a new work with collaborator Kevin Townley, Jr. called Manor of Speaking. Based on Oscar Wilde's first speaking tour across America, the piece is a commission for Blythley Oratonio, internationally known mezzo Stephanie Blythe's tenor alter ego. To sing with an incredible cast, including a favorite mezzo was a dream come true. I can't wait to see what happens next with this piece.
Next I was asked by marvelous cabaret artist Goldie Dver to be part of her holiday benefit for St. Jude's, Tis The Season: With A Twist. It was a night of cabaret legends, featuring Lennie Watts, Meg Flather, Tanya Moberly, Aaron Lee Battle, Sidney Meyer, and many more. Goldie raised around $2K for St. Judes and I was so happy to be part of it. And then: BINDERSUZE! For eight years we've been making mashups and, after being asked if we were ever going to do a show, we finally did! We had a nearly full house at Don't Tell Mama for our show, and had a great reaction from the friends and family who came. The plan is to do it again in the spring so keep an eye out here for the latest. As for THIS year, it started with an appearance as a wealthy Senator in a 20 minute musical as part of the NYPL's series Across A Crowded Room. Timothy Leech (book, lyrics & music), Nicholas Radu-Blackburn (book & lyrics), and Cheryl Chin (music) met at Across A Crowded Room last summer, and decided to write Polar Excess, a marvelous satire loosely based on the Titanic submarine fiasco. 1/22, I'll be back with the Playground Experiment live in Matt Kaplan's A Haunting Melody. Hope you all are well and have a happy, healthy, joyful, and prosperous 2024. ![]() What do you mean I have not posted since JULY? Well, life has been busy with readings and concerts and HALLOWEEN...here's the lowdown friends: *We did two No Name Shows at QED in August and September (An keep an eye here as there is a chance for a monthly regular spot there.) *50th Annual Village Halloween Parade - Yes, this year was the 50th Anniversary of this fantastic night of creativity in the city. Marching with Processional Arts is always a joy, particularly after spending Saturdays up there helping build the puppets. This year, the theme was Inside Out/Upside Down because, who isn't these days, and the puppet performance was called Mirror/Mirror. It's a time of reflection, as well as a way for the audience to see themselves in the parade. When Ralph Lee first created the parade, he started with a number of "sweepers" who swept away the bad energy of the day before the creative flow of the evening. The Sweepers were brought back, but this time as 15 foot high illuminated ladies, one of which I had the honor of carrying. "Angela Lansbury" (as I called her) and I had a great night with our fellow sweepers and the mirror shards we had to sweep up. It's always a good crowd and good time. *11/9 Madison Sounds will feature the MABC Choir in a concert as part of the church's 175th anniversary celebration. We'll do some church favorites, but also show you what else we do. Link with more info, HERE. *11/14 We all know what a fan I am of the work of composer Rachel Peters. Well, now I will be part of a reading of a work she has put together with librettist Kevin Thomas Townley, Jr featuring Stephanie Blythe as Blthely Oratonio as Oscar Wilde in Manor of Speaking. Manor of Speaking follows Oscar through a tour of the states he made in 1882 discussing home decor. this will be a trip and I am so excited to hear all this out loud. (This is a private reading, otherwise, there would be a link for sure.) 12/8: One night only with BINDERSUZE: Mashup Mixtape. We're taking our mashups on the ro- okay over to Don't Tell Mama for a one night set. We'll have favorites and new ones, so come on down! link for reservations is HERE. There are a couple of things awaiting full confirmation, which I will surely get up on here when, you know, confirmed. Enjoy the fall weathah, and hope to see you! ✌🏽 |
When not pandemibaking...
I have finally started a website! I just got these beautiful new headshots done by L Morgan Lee of BLUEphotography, and at last have a place to display them. I've also been getting this self-tape thing DOWN. Madison Avenue Baptist Church, with whom I've been the alto for going on twelve years, like most churches, has gone virtual, so we are making videos of solos and hymns for the time being. (Someday, I'll release an outtake reel.) There've been other opportunities, as well, for practicing this process: virtual choir and concert videos. I've been lucky enough to work with Prospect Theatre Company and, thus, was asked to be part of their lovely video featuring Peter Mills' tune "Two Buoys". (I come in with the alto part and drums>) Two Buoys Next, a dear friend - a jazz musician and choir director, presently living in Italy - started up Singers Without Borders and asked me to be part of this uplifting number: How Can I Keep From Singing? Lastly, The Rigano Songbook asked 42(!) of their closest friends to help out with this wonderful song about an all too relevant and growing segment of our lives as we try to communicate with proper social distancing: Screen To Screen The Rigano has a concert planned for 3/13...and then the world shut down. But far be it for them to not have a show. Yes, the Ides of March Extravaganza is now the Ides of APRIL and will be in virtual form. When those videos go up, I'll be sure to share here. In the meantime, contact me here if you would like me to be part of YOUR virtual - and/or, eventually, LIVE - project. Peace ✌️ AuthorAlexandra de Suze is a singer, actor, drummer who also writes a bit and occasionally makes silly videos Archives
January 2025
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