Kiki and Herb

Last updated
Kiki and Herb
OriginNew York City, New York, United States
Years active1989 (1989)–present
Labels Mr. Lady, Evolver
Past members

Kiki and Herb (Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman) are an American drag cabaret duo. Bond portrays Kiki DuRane, an aging, alcoholic, female lounge singer. Mellman portrays her gay, male piano accompanist, known only as Herb.

Contents

Despite Bond and Mellman being middle aged, their Kiki and Herb characters are, according to their elaborate fictional biographies, more than eighty years old. Both performers live in New York City, but the pair have performed from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., as well as Europe.

The act alternates between musical numbers and long, seemingly inebriated monologues by Kiki. The musical numbers, often medleys, draw on an enormous range of popular music, from Broadway musicals to Nirvana and from Britney Spears to REO Speedwagon. Kiki and Herb have also covered songs by Suicidal Tendencies, The Mountain Goats, and Butt Trumpet.

First wave: 1990–2004

Bond and Mellman began performing together in 1989, and created the characters of Kiki and Herb in the early 1990s in San Francisco. [1]

Between 1995 and 1996 Kiki and Herb appeared regularly at "Cowgirl Hall of Fame" in Greenwich Village, where they honed their show and built their fanbase. Among the devotees was John Cameron Mitchell, who later included Bond in his 2006 movie Shortbus . [2]

In 1998, the duo appeared at the first Gay Shame event, held at DUMBA in Brooklyn, and are seen briefly in the documentary short Gay Shame '98 by Scott Berry.

In 1999, they performed weekly in Have Another at the Fez and received their first New York Times review. [3] Their first album, the Christmas record Do You Hear What We Hear? , was released in 2000. In 2001, they received an Obie Award for the show Kiki and Herb: Jesus Wept. [4]

The duo appeared in a cameo role in the 2004 feature film Imaginary Heroes , released that year by Sony Pictures and starring, among others, Emile Hirsch, Jeff Daniels, and Sigourney Weaver. Kiki and Herb appear at a Christmas party attended by the main characters and perform an excerpt from "Tonight's the Kind of Night", the final track from their Christmas album. The same year, Kiki and Herb gave a "farewell" performance at New York City's Carnegie Hall. [5] The one-night-only show Kiki and Herb Will Die for You featured several celebrities, including Sandra Bernhard, Isaac Mizrahi, Jake Shears, Michael Cavadias, and Rufus Wainwright; the recording of the show was released as the two-disc album Kiki and Herb Will Die for You: Live at Carnegie Hall . After the performance the duo worked on other projects; Bond moved to London to study scenography, while Mellman worked in New York.

Second coming: 2004–2008

Their hiatus was short lived. In 2005, the duo reunited for The Resurrection Tour of select U.S. cities. A European tour followed, which included a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Also in 2005, two films about the duo screened at festivals: Kiki and Herb Reloaded and Kiki and Herb on the Rocks .

In the early summer of 2006, Bond and Mellman announced that Kiki and Herb would make their Broadway debut that August. After a handful of preview performances at the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia, Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway debuted for a four-week run at the Helen Hayes Theatre on August 11. Reviews were mostly favorable, including a glowing assessment by Ben Brantley of the New York Times . For Brantley, Kiki "suggests some wondrous hybrid of Marianne Faithfull, Elaine Stritch, Patti Smith and Kitty Carlisle Hart," her vocals "radioactive with an angry sorrow, ecstasy, and cosmic fatigue" in which "the point is never the prettiness of the voice but the history behind it and the passion to endure that vibrates within." [6]

The duo began a run of Sunday-night shows at Joe's Pub in New York City in January 2007, and toured the United States with The Year of Magical Drinking in the Spring and Summer of that year.

On May 15, 2007, Kiki and Herb: Alive on Broadway was nominated for a Tony Award for "Best Special Theatrical Event"; the New York Observer predicted the duo would win, [7] but they did not. [8]

Following a world tour, the duo returned to Carnegie Hall on December 12, 2007 with the holiday show "Kiki and Herb: The Second Coming."

Their concert DVD Kiki and Herb: Live at the Knitting Factory was recorded in 2007 and released January 2008; in addition to the performance, the DVD release included bonus clips from performances by Bond and Mellman in 1993, 1999, and 2005.

Their March 2008 performance at Perez Hilton's 30th birthday party would be their final show for many years. [9]

Revivification: 2016

In September 2015, Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman announced the return of Kiki and Herb with a new show, Seeking Asylum! at Joe's Pub from April 21 to May 6, 2016. [10] [11]

Fictional biography

For years, Bond and Mellman maintained a meticulous backstory for their characters, one made official on the Kiki and Herb MySpace page and their official website. This involved the characters meeting as children in a mental institution before becoming a jazz act in the fifties, beginning a long and chequered career mixing periods of success and misfortune. The shows were supposedly part of their comeback trail, and they would perform songs supposedly from throughout their career (which were actually anachronistic covers). Between songs Kiki would tell anecdotes from her life, including her friendships with Billie Holiday and Grace Kelly, and the details of her various relationships, whilst drinking heavily and often having on-stage rages and breakdowns.

However, in "Alive on Broadway," they introduced the notion that the fictional backstory may be meta-fictional—Kiki spoke of the duo actually being thousands of years old, implying that some of her previous stories were, at least in part, lies told by the character. After the Broadway show, Bond and Mellman consistently included this twist in their shows' monologues—Kiki will talk about knowing Jesus "in the Biblical sense," hanging around with Marie Antoinette, and even romancing a young Adolf Hitler.

Discography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lea DeLaria</span> American comedian, actress and singer

Lea DeLaria is an American comedian, actress, and jazz singer. DeLaria is credited with being the first openly gay comic to appear on American television with her 1993 appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show. She is best known for her portrayal of inmate Carrie "Big Boo" Black on Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black (2013-2019). She's known for her work on Broadway including the revival of The Rocky Horror Show in 2000, and POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danitra Vance</span> American comedian

Danitra Vance was an American comedian and actress, who was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) during its eleventh season in 1985.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda Lavin</span> American actress and singer

Linda Lavin is an American actress and singer. She is known for playing the title character in the sitcom Alice and for her stage performances, both on and off-Broadway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Cook</span> American actress and singer (1927–2017)

Barbara Cook was an American actress and singer who first came to prominence in the 1950s as the lead in the original Broadway musicals Plain and Fancy (1955), Candide (1956) and The Music Man (1957) among others, winning a Tony Award for the last. She continued performing mostly in theatre until the mid-1970s, when she began a second career as a cabaret and concert singer. She also made numerous recordings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Justin Vivian Bond</span> American singer

Justin Vivian Bond is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Described as "the best cabaret artist of [their] generation" and a "tornado of art and activism", they first achieved prominence under the pseudonym of Kiki DuRane in the stage duo Kiki and Herb, an act born out of a collaboration with long-time co-star Kenny Mellman. With a musical voice self-described as "kind of woody and full with a lot of vibration", Bond is a Tony-nominated (2007) performer who has received GLAAD (2000), Obie (2001), Bessie (2004), Ethyl (2007), and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists (2012) awards. Bond is transgender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Beth Peil</span> American actress and singer (born 1940)

Mary Beth Peil is an American actress and soprano. She began her career as an opera singer in 1962 with the Goldovsky Opera Theater. In 1964 she won two major singing competitions, the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions; the latter of which earned her a contract with the Metropolitan Opera National Company with whom she performed in two seasons of national tours as a leading soprano from 1965 to 1967. She continued to perform in operas through the 1970s, notably creating the role of Alma in the world premiere of Lee Hoiby's Summer and Smoke at the Minnesota Opera in 1971. She later recorded that role for American television in 1982. With that same opera company she transitioned into musical theatre, performing the title role of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate in 1983. Later that year she joined the national tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I as Anna Leonowens opposite Yul Brynner, and continued with that production when it opened on Broadway on January 7, 1985. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her portrayal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judy Kuhn</span> American actress and singer (born 1958)

Judy Kuhn is an American actress, singer and activist, known for her work in musical theatre. A four-time Tony Award nominee, she has released four studio albums and sang the title role in the 1995 film Pocahontas, including her rendition of the song "Colors of the Wind", which won its composers the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tonya Pinkins</span> American actress

Tonya Pinkins is an American actress and filmmaker. Her award-winning debut feature film RED PILL was an official selection at the 2021 Pan African Film Festival, won the Best Black Lives Matter Feature and Best First Feature at The Mykonos International Film Festival, Best First Feature at the Luléa Film Festival, and is nominated for awards in numerous festivals around the globe. Her web-series The RED PILLING of AMERICA can be heard on her podcast "You Can't Say That!" at BPN.fm/ycst

Pamela Isaacs is a California-born American singer and actress.

<i>Shortbus</i> 2006 film by John Cameron Mitchell

Shortbus is a 2006 American erotic comedy-drama film written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell. The plot revolves around a sexually diverse ensemble of colorful characters trying desperately to connect in an early 2000s New York City. The characters converge in a weekly Brooklyn artistic/sexual salon loosely inspired by various underground NYC gatherings that took place in the early 2000s. According to Mitchell, the film attempts to "employ sex in new cinematic ways because it's too interesting to leave to porn." Shortbus includes a variety of explicit scenes containing non-simulated sexual intercourse with visible penetration and male ejaculation.

<i>The Capeman</i> 1998 American musical

The Capeman is a musical play with music by Paul Simon and book and lyrics by Simon and Derek Walcott based on the life of convicted murderer Salvador Agrón. The play opened at the Marquis Theatre in 1998 to poor reviews and ran for 68 performances. A blend of doo-wop, gospel, and Latin music, it received Tony Award nominations for Best Original Score, Best Orchestrations and Best Scenic Design. Renoly Santiago received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Featured Performer in a Musical. Ednita Nazario won the Theater World Award for her performance.

Lillias White is an American actress and singer. She is particularly known for her performances in Broadway musicals. In 1989 she won an Obie Award for her performance in the Off-Broadway musical Romance in Hard Times. In 1997 she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for portraying Sonja in Cy Coleman's The Life. She was nominated for a Tony Award again in 2010 for her work as Funmilayo in Fela Kuti's Fela!.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">61st Tony Awards</span>

The 61st Annual Tony Award ceremony was held on June 10, 2007 at Radio City Music Hall, with CBS television broadcasting live. The cut-off date for eligibility was May 9, meaning that to be qualified for the 2006-2007 season, shows must have opened before or on this date.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisa Kron</span> American actress and playwright (born 1961)

Elizabeth S. "Lisa" Kron is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for writing the lyrics and book to the musical Fun Home for which she won both the Tony Award for Best Original Score and the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. Fun Home was also awarded the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2015 and the 2014 Obie Award for writing for musical theater.

<i>Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall</i> 2007 live album by Rufus Wainwright

Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall is the sixth album by the Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, released through Geffen Records in December 2007. The album consists of live recordings from his sold-out June 14–15, 2006, tribute concerts at Carnegie Hall to the American actress and singer Judy Garland. Backed by a 36-piece orchestra conducted by Stephen Oremus, Wainwright recreated Garland's April 23, 1961, concert, often considered "the greatest night in show business history". Garland's 1961 double album, Judy at Carnegie Hall, a comeback performance with more than 25 American pop and jazz standards, was highly successful, initially spending 95 weeks on the Billboard charts and garnering five Grammy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Cameron Mitchell</span> American film director (born 1963)

John Cameron Mitchell is an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, singer, songwriter, producer and director. He is known as the writer, director and star of the 2001 film Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which is based on the stage musical of the same name. He also portrayed the role of Joe Exotic in the Peacock limited series Joe vs. Carole in 2022.

Kenneth Mellman is an American musician and cabaret artist. He is a member of The Julie Ruin.

<i>Fun Home</i> (musical) Musical adapted by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori

Fun Home is a musical theatre adaptation of Alison Bechdel's 2006 graphic memoir of the same name, with music by Jeanine Tesori, and book and lyrics by Lisa Kron. The story concerns Bechdel's discovery of her own lesbian sexuality, her relationship with her closeted gay father, and her attempts to unlock the mysteries surrounding his life. It is told in a series of non-linear vignettes connected by narration provided by the adult Alison character.

Kirsten J. Childs is an American playwright, librettist, and former actress.

David Cale is an English-American playwright, actor, and songwriter, best known for his solo performance works.

References

  1. ↑ Muther, Christopher (2007-06-08), "Kiki & Herb's lush life", Boston Globe
  2. ↑ Bruni, Frank (2006-09-24), "'Shortbus' Cast Didn't Study for This in Acting Class", New York Times
  3. ↑ Strauss, Neil (1999-08-10), "All Washed Up but Knows the Score", New York Times
  4. ↑ "2000–2001 Obie Awards". Information Please Database. Pearson Education, Inc. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
  5. ↑ Isherwood, Charles (2004-09-12), "Once More, With Too Much Feeling", New York Times
  6. ↑ Brantley, Ben (2006-08-16), "'Kiki & Herb': The Road to Catharsis With Those 2 Immortals", New York Times
  7. ↑ Heilperin, John (2007-06-05), "It's Tony Time for Sir Tom … and Kiki and Herb", New York Observer, archived from the original on 2008-07-25
  8. ↑ Kennedy, Louise (2007-06-15), "Beyond fabulous", Boston Globe
  9. ↑ "Why Kenny Mellman Needed to Revive Kiki and Herb". Talkhouse. 2016-07-05. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  10. ↑ Kiki and Herb Plan Reunion at Joe’s Pub
  11. ↑ Coates, Tyler (2016-03-24). ""We Can't Die Ladies and Gentlemen!": Presenting Kiki and Herb". Brooklyn Magazine. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.