Varla Jean Merman
Varla Jean Merman is the drag persona of American drag performer, actor and singer Jeffery Roberson. Varla's fictitious pedigree boasts that Ernest Borgnine is her father and Ethel Merman is her mother. Merman is perhaps best known for her role in the 2003 independent film '' Girls Will Be Girls''. She also had a co-starring role in the 1997 film ''Franchesca Page''. Merman was also one of the performers featured in the HBO original documentary ''Dragtime''. She has appeared in a number of short films and live cabaret acts since she and her male alter-ego attended the School of Music at Louisiana State University. Merman's shows are a staple of summer entertainment in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She also performs fairly often in New Orleans, New York City, San Francisco, and London and has also enjoyed billing at the Sydney Opera House in Australia and Carnegie Hall. The gay-themed television network Logo commissioned Merman to write and star in an animated educational short ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, most populous city in Louisiana and the French Louisiana region, the second-most populous in the Deep South, and the twelfth-most populous in the Southeastern United States. The city is coextensive with Orleans Parish, Louisiana, Orleans Parish. New Orleans serves as a major port and a commercial hub for the broader Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast region. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1 million, making it the most populous metropolitan area in Louisiana and the List of metropolitan statistical areas, 59th-most populous in the United States. New Orleans is world-renowned for Music of New Orleans, its distincti ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Logo (TV Channel)
Logo TV (often shortened to Logo, and stylized as Logo.) is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Media Networks, a division of Paramount Global. Launched in 2005, Logo was originally dedicated to lifestyle and entertainment programming targeting LGBTQ+ audiences. It replaced VH1 MegaHits in the United States. The channel's availability peaked at 53.2 million US households in September 2013, but has steadily been dropped by various cable and streaming providers thereafter, falling to 21.7 million households by December 2023. History The channel launched June 30, 2005, as the first advertiser-supported commercial television channel in the United States geared towards the gay community. It was founded by former MTV executive Matt Farber. Its first president, Brian Graden, was named by ''Out'' as the 15th most powerful gay person in America in 2007. Logo replaced VH1 MegaHits when it was launched. The fact that the LGBT-themed channel was named "Logo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of the longest-running newspapers in the United States, the ''Times'' serves as one of the country's Newspaper of record, newspapers of record. , ''The New York Times'' had 9.13 million total and 8.83 million online subscribers, both by significant margins the List of newspapers in the United States, highest numbers for any newspaper in the United States; the total also included 296,330 print subscribers, making the ''Times'' the second-largest newspaper by print circulation in the United States, following ''The Wall Street Journal'', also based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' is published by the New York Times Company; since 1896, the company has been chaired by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, whose current chairman and the paper's publ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Playbill
''Playbill'' is an American monthly magazine for Audience, theatergoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most copies of ''Playbill'' are printed for particular productions and distributed at the door as the show's Programme (booklet), program. ''Playbill'' was first printed in 1884 for a single theater on 21st Street in New York City. The magazine is now used at nearly every Broadway theatre as well as many Off-Broadway productions. Outside New York City, ''Playbill'' is used at theaters throughout the United States. its Magazine circulation, circulation was 4,073,680. History What is known today as ''Playbill'' started in 1884, when Frank Vance Strauss founded the New York Theatre Program Corporation specializing in printing theater programs. Strauss reimagined the concept of a theater program, making advertisements a standard feature and thus transforming what was then a leaflet into a fully designed magazine. The new format proved popu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lucky Guy (musical)
''Lucky Guy'' is a musical comedy written and directed by Willard Beckham. The piece tells the story of Billy Ray Jackson, a young musician from Oklahoma who wins a songwriting contest and is invited to Nashville to record his song. He becomes the target of the used-car dealer Big Al Wright and the fading star Miss Jeannie Jeannine (the "Queen of Country Music"), who want to steal Billy Ray's song and use it to revitalize Jeannie's career. The show premiered on May 19, 2011, Off-Broadway at the Little Shubert Theatre, for a planned run through July 24 but closed after just ten days. The cast included Kyle Dean Massey (as Billy Ray Jackson), Leslie Jordan (Big Al Wright), Varla Jean Merman (Miss Jeannie Jeannine), Jenn Colella Jennifer Lin Colella is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her work in musical theatre. She received a 71st Tony Awards#Winners and nominees, Tony Award nomination and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress ... (Ch ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer than 100. An "off-Broadway production" is a production of a play (theatre), play, musical theatre, musical, or revue that appears in such a venue and adheres to related trade union and other contracts. Some shows that premiere off-Broadway are subsequently produced on Broadway. History The term originally referred to any venue, and its productions, on a street intersecting Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in Midtown Manhattan's Theater District, New York, Theater District, the hub of the American theatre industry. It later became defined by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers as a professional venue in Manhattan with a seating capacity of at least 100, but not more than 499, or a production that appears in such a venue and adhe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Leslie Jordan
Leslie Allen Jordan (April 29, 1955 – October 24, 2022) was an American actor, comedian, writer, and singer. His television roles include Beverley Leslie on ''Will & Grace'' (2001–2006 and 2017–2020), several characters in the ''American Horror Story'' franchise (2013–2019), Sid on ''The Cool Kids'' (2018–2019), Phil on '' Call Me Kat'' (2021–2022), and Lonnie Garr on '' Hearts Afire'' (1993–1995). On stage, Jordan played Earl "Brother Boy" Ingram in the 1996 play ''Sordid Lives'', later portraying the character in the 2000 film of the same name. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he became an Instagram contributor, amassing 5.8 million followers in 2020, and published his autobiography ''How Y'all Doing? Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived'' in April 2021. Early and personal life Jordan was born on April 29, 1955 and grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He graduated from Brainerd High School. He said his mother, Peggy Ann Jordan (née Griffin; 1935 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chicago (musical)
''Chicago'' is a 1975 American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Chicago in the Jazz Age, the musical is based on a Chicago (play), 1926 play of the same title by Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals and crimes on which she reported. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal". The world premiere of the musical was a Broadway tryout from April 8, 1975, to May 3, 1975, at the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia. The original Broadway theatre, Broadway production opened on June 3, 1975 at the 46th Street Theatre and ran for 936 performances, until August 27, 1977. Fosse directed and choreographed the original production, and his style is strongly identified with the show. It debuted in the West End theatre, West End in 1979, where it ran for 600 performances. ''Chicago'' was revived on Broadway in 1996, and a year later in the West End. The ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Broadway (theatre)
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), many of the extant or closed Broadway venues use or used the spelling ''Theatre'' as the proper noun in their names. Many performers and trade groups for live dramatic presentations also use the spelling ''theatre''. or Broadway, is a theatre genre that consists of the theatrical performances presented in 41 professional theaters, each with 500 or more seats, in the Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. While the Broadway thoroughfare is eponymous with the district, it is closely identified with Times Square. Only three theaters are located on Broadway itself: the Broadway Theatre, Palace Theatre, and Winter Garden Theatre. The rest are ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
The ''Pittsburgh Tribune-Review'', also known as "the Trib", is the second-largest daily newspaper serving the Greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area of Western Pennsylvania. It transitioned to an all-digital format on December 1, 2016, but remains the second-largest daily in Pennsylvania, with nearly one million unique page views monthly. Founded on August 22, 1811, as the ''Greensburg Gazette'' and consolidated with several papers into the ''Greensburg Tribune-Review'' in 1889, the paper circulated only in the eastern suburban counties of Westmoreland and parts of Indiana and Fayette until May 1992, when it began serving all of the Greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area after a strike at the two Pittsburgh dailies, the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' and '' The Pittsburgh Press'', deprived the city of a newspaper for several months. The Tribune-Review Publishing Company was owned by Richard Mellon Scaife, an heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, until his death ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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All My Children
''All My Children'' (often shortened to ''AMC'') is an American television soap opera that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011, and on The Online Network (TOLN) from April 29 to September 2, 2013, via Hulu, Hulu Plus, and iTunes. Created by Agnes Nixon, ''All My Children'' is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictional suburb of Philadelphia, which is modeled on the actual Philadelphia suburb of Rosemont, Pennsylvania, Penn Valley. The original series featured Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime television's most popular characters. ''All My Children'' was the first new network daytime drama to debut in the 1970s. Originally owned by Creative Horizons, Inc., the company created by Nixon and her husband, Bob, the show was sold to ABC in January 1970. The series started with half-hour episodes before expanding to a full hour on April 25, 1977. The show had experimented with the full-hour format for one week starting on Ju ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Soap Opera
A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored by soap manufacturers.Bowles, p. 118. The term was preceded by ''horse opera'', a derogatory term for low-budget Western (genre), Westerns. According to some dictionaries, for something to be adequately described as a soap opera, it need not be long-running; but some authors define the word in a way that excludes short-running serial dramas from their definition. BBC Radio's ''The Archers'', first Broadcasting, broadcast in 1950, is the world's longest-running soap opera. The longest-running television soap opera is ''Coronation Street'', which was first broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV in 1960. According to Albert Moran, one of the defining features that make a television program a soap ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |