Quince Productions is promising a “very gay” series of shows this year when the company returns to the Red Room at Society Hill Playhouse for its third annual “Full House: A Series of Cabarets” June 23-26.
The series features seven cabarets by Philadelphia performers in four days.
One of those performers is Andrew J. Terranova, who is making his professional cabaret debut in the series with “You’re Gonna Hear From Bea.”
“It’s a tribute to the late great Bea Arthur, who I’m a huge fan of,” Terranova said. “I felt that she’s a little underdone. Betty White is extremely popular right now but for me it was always Dorothy on ‘The Golden Girls’ or Maude. I admire Bea Arthur as a person. She was a huge advocate for women’s rights, for civil rights and for gay rights. She was a huge supporter of PETA. She was just a down-to-earth human being who was very selfless. Not only was she a great person, but also she was just so funny. She had razor-sharp comic timing. She has a pretty decent singing voice. She’s the kind of performer who, everything she does on stage, she puts her stamp on it.”
Another performer, LT Zerone, is performing his show, “Have I Got a Story for You,” a musical journey from youth to adulthood, which deals with coming out, navigating the world of gay dating and relationships and self-discovery.
“In planning this show, I decided to do a retrospective looking back at life from high school going forward,” Zerone said. “I have to admit I hit a milestone this year. I hit the 50 mark. It was sort of a genesis of realizing I got a really bad unsolicited piece of mail from AARP, which really pissed me off. I thought maybe we’ll focus on that — have a little fun with it. I’ve gone back and I wanted to focus on more modern singer-songwriter-type songs. It’s not your typical kind of Broadway stuff; it’s songs that tell a story. There are not a lot of heavy ballads in the show. What I did was I found a lot of songs that I identify with, either in experiences I’d been through or people I’ve known.”
Zerone has got a lot to live up to, as his performance at last year’s “Full House” was the biggest draw of the series.
“I’d determined I’m going to be the top-seller again this year,” Zerone said, attributing last year’s success to “good supportive folks.”
“It’s all a team effort,” he said. “But to be quite honest, I’m competitive in nature and I like to make sure I put through my best effort as far as attendance. I think the other thing that I have going for me is that I don’t perform a lot. A lot of these guys perform a lot. So I think it gets hard to ask your friends to come see you every five seconds. But I have a lot of supportive friends, which is really great.”
Terranova said he’ll try to catch all the shows in the series this year.
“My cabaret has the fortune of being the last one,” he said. “So I get to watch other people’s cabarets and see what they’re doing. Not to steal from them, obviously, but to learn some tricks to gain confidence and see what they’re doing that works. But also just because I support the other artists and I think it’s wonderful that we get a chance to do this.”
“Full House” runs June 23-26 at Society Hill Playhouse’s Red Room, 507 S. Eighth St. For more information or tickets, visit www.quinceproductions.com or call 215-923-0210.