Speaker: David Hajdu I Entertainer: Mardie Millit

SPEAKER: DAVID HAJDU

Author David Hajdu discusses his new book, A Revolution in Three Acts: The Radical Vaudeville of Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay and Julian Eltinge. It's a startling tale of how three daring performers challenged turn-of-the-century America to think differently about race, gender, and sex. Told in graphic form with illustrations by the artist John Carey, the book brings the freewheeling world of vaudeville to vivid life on the page. Hajdu, an esteemed novelist and songwriter as well as an author and professor at Columbia, will also discuss his recently published novel, Adrianne Geffel, a satire of the avant-garde scene in downtown New York.

ENTERTAINER: MARDIE MILLIT

“Evoking both Bette Midler and a young Carol Burnett,”[1] with her “bright and beautiful”[2] “lustrous soprano,”[3] singer, comedienne and 2021 BroadwayWorld Cabaret Award winner Mardie Millit is “high-level finesse and charm.”[4] Her weekly streaming show, LIVE FROM LOCKDOWN!, started in April 2020 and established her as a zany refuge for frazzled frontline workers and regular citizens all over the world. She is almost always accompanied by her on-and offstage partner in crime, Drama Desk Award winner Michael Garin. She has also made regular appearances at the Monkey Bar, the Rainbow Room, Birdland, Iridium, 54 Below, and Joe’s Pub, both with and without Michael. Mardie has appeared regionally in a slew of classic musical theatre roles and in New York premieres of original shows by the likes of William Peter Blatty, Billy Stritch and Mark Waldrop. 

[1]Stephen Holden, New York Times [2] Stephen Mosher, Broadway World [3]Elysa Gardner, New York Times [4]Larry Myers, Ptown Nitelife