Arts & Entertainment
Sonic cocktails
Pink Martini’s Lauderdale on life, music and his V Day show at the Kennedy Center
Thomas Lauderdale, founder and frontman for Pink Martini. (Photo by Autumn de Wilde)
Pink Martini
Thursday
8 p.m.
Kennedy Center Concert Hall
$30-$90
wpas.org
202-785-9727
Thomas Lauderdale, the gay founder and band director of Pink Martini, called just a few minutes after waking up one day last week from his home in Portland, where he lives in a house he says is haunted with his partner of eight years, Philip Iosca. Pink Martini returns to Washington next week for a Washington Performing Arts Society concert on Valentine’s Day at the Kennedy Center. Comments edited for length — Lauderdale is a big talker.
BLADE: Is it a good morning in Portland?
LAUDERDALE: Yes, I love it here. It’s sort of like the Pittsburgh of the west. And the guys are really cute here, more so than the girls. It seems like most cities either have cuter guys or cuter girls. Here it’s the guys.
BLADE: Pink Martini has performed with so many orchestras all over the world, yet your music is not straight-up classical at all. Are the players ever snobby about it or do they mostly just have fun with it?
LAUDERDALE: They’re really game for it. I think classical musicians who were snobby are becoming less so all the time. They have to be. Nobody’s going to hear them. Their audiences are dwindling all across America. … Most young people are watching “American Idol.” It’s just not a viable option to just play the traditional repertoire. … Orchestras all over the country are in the quandary of how to generate new audiences.
BLADE: So are the lines blurring between pop/rock and classical?
LAUDERDALE: Yes, they have to. … That was one of the reasons behind creating the band — I wanted to appeal to people outside their traditional dividing lines so it would connect with people who are really conservative, really liberal and everybody in between. This international styl with kind of an old fashioned pop feel, I felt it would be inspiriting and fun and a place where people could find commonality. And that’s kind of come true.
BLADE: Whatever happened to the Del Rubio Triplets (the group Pink Martini was formed to open for in 1994)? Surely they must be dead by now?
LAUDERDALE: Yes, sadly they are all dead. I think Millie, the oldest one by a few minutes, died about two summers ago. They were complicated — very Catholic, very anti-immigrant, yet so pro-gay and really Southern California. It was dizzying.
BLADE: Your stuff has this pre-classic rock era feel. Do you watch “Mad Men”?
LAUDERDALE: No. I don’t have a TV.
BLADE: You must feel some sense of identity with the pre-Vietnam era. Your music isn’t just that, but there’s kind of a Steve and Eydie vibe to some of it, right?
LAUDERDALE: Yeah, that sort of era between World War II and up to about 1964. It seems one of the goals of that era was building things that were beautiful and were built to last. You find refrigerators built in the ‘50s that are still working just fine. Later we saw, I think, a darker side to capitalism but I think it would have been nice if some of those trappings of that era had survived into the political liberation post-’64.
BLADE: On paper, it sounds so unlikely that a band like Pink Martini would make it. Do you feel you stumbled on something missing in the zeitgeist that there was a hunger for or does the cream always manage to rise with the truly talented in the end?
LAUDERDALE: Well, I don’t know. I think working on that first album, we were just trying to figure out a way to make it fun and accessible and not negative. It definitely helped that we were all from Oregon. This band would not have made it if we’d all lived in New York or San Francisco where everything is just so expensive and you have to be in five bands or something crazy just to make the rent. Here you can get by on very little, so you actually have time to think and just be.
BLADE: How many are in the band currently?
LAUDERDALE? Anywhere from eight to 14 depending. We’ll probably have about 10 in D.C. And we’ll maybe hire a string section.
BLADE: Can you tell us anything about the show?
LAUDERDALE: I haven’t thought that far ahead. It’s for Valentine’s Day so we might do something kind of romantic-ish.
BLADE: How gay is the band besides you?
LAUDERDALE: Well Ari Shapiro has been doing stuff with us and we’re both totally gay. And Timothy (Nishimoto). There are a few others who might be gay for pay. I think they could be tricked into it.
BLADE: You grew up in church. Were you aware at all of a mid-century trend where even the Lawrence Welk-era stuff was starting to be reflected in the gospel music of the time? There’d be stuff in the hymnals that even had waltz accompaniments.
LAUDERDALE: Well we had the red hymnal and the blue songbook where you had the newer stuff. That’s where you found the artsier, ‘70s stuff. You know, my Dad was the first openly gay minister in the Brethren church. He tends to like these cheesy inclusive modern hymns which I think are just cheesy and awful. When I go back to visit, I’m always pulling out these gloom and doom hymns — you know, we’re all going to burn — from, like, the 1880s. The melodies are just better, more beautiful. And I always win because I’m at the piano.
Theater
Out dancer on Alvin Ailey’s stint at Warner Theatre
10-day production marks kickoff of national tour
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Through Feb. 8
Warner Theatre
513 12th St., N.W.
Tickets start at $75
ailey.org
The legendary Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is coming to Washington’s Warner Theatre, and one of its principal veterans couldn’t be more pleased. Out dancer Renaldo Maurice is eager to be a part of the company’s 10-day stint, the kickoff of a national tour that extends through early May.
“I love the respectful D.C. crowd and they love us,” says Maurice, a member of esteemed modern dance company for 15 years. The traveling tour is made of two programs and different casting with Ailey’s masterwork “Revelations” in both programs.
Recently, we caught up with Maurice via phone. He called from one of the quiet rooms in his New York City gym where he’s getting his body ready for the long Ailey tour.
Based in North Newark, N.J., where he recently bought a house, Maurice looks forward to being on the road: “I enjoy the rigorous performance schedule, classes, shows, gym, and travel. It’s all part of carving out a lane for myself and my future and what that looks like.”
Raised by a single mother of three in Gary, Ind., Maurice, 33, first saw Alvin Ailey as a young kid in the Auditorium Theatre in downtown Chicago, the same venue where he’s performed with the company as a professional dancer.
He credits his mother with his success: “She’s a real dance mom. I would not be the man or artist I am today if it weren’t for the grooming and discipline of my mom. Support and encouragement. It’s impacted my artistry and my adulthood.”
Maurice is also part of the New York Ballroom scene, an African-American and Latin underground LGBTQ+ subculture where ball attendees “walk” in a variety of categories (like “realness,” “fashion,” and “sex siren”) for big prizes. He’s known as the Legendary Overall Father of the Haus of Alpha Omega.
WASHINGTON BLADE: Like many gay men of his era, Ailey lived a largely closeted public life before his death from AIDS-related complications in 1989.
RENALDO MAURICE Not unusual for a Black gay man born during the Depression in Rogers, Texas, who’s striving to break out in the industry to be a creative. You want to be respected and heard. Black man, and Black man who dances, and you may be same-sex gender loving too. It was a lot, especially at that time.
BLADE: Ailey has been described as intellectual, humble, and graceful. He possessed strength. He knew who he was and what stories he wanted to tell.
MAURICE: Definitely, he wanted to concentrate on sharing and telling stories. What kept him going was his art. Ailey wanted dancers to live their lives and express that experience on stage. That way people in the audience could connect with them. It’s incredibly powerful that you can touch people by moving your body.
That’s partly what’s so special about “Revelations,” his longest running ballet and a fan favorite that’s part of the upcoming tour. Choreographed by Alvin Ailey in 1960, it’s a modern dance work that honors African-American cultural heritage through themes of grief, joy, and faith.
BLADE: Is “Revelation” a meaningful piece for you?
MAURICE: It’s my favorite piece. I saw it as a kid and now perform it as a professional dance artist. I’ve grown into the role since I was 20 years old.
BLADE: How can a dancer in a prestigious company also be a ballroom house father?
MAURICE: I’ve made it work. I learned how to navigate and separate. I’m a principal dancer with Ailey. And I take that seriously. But I’m also a house father and I take that seriously as well.
I’m about positivity, unity, and hard work. In ballroom you compete and if you’re not good, you can get chopped. You got to work on your craft and come back harder. It’s the same with dance.
BLADE: Any message for queer audiences?
MAURICE: I know my queer brothers and sisters love to leave with something good. If you come to any Ailey performance you’ll be touched, your spirit will be uplifted. There’s laughter, thoughtful and tender moments. And it’s all delivered by artists who are passionate about what they do.
BLADE: Alvin Ailey has been a huge part of your life. Thoughts on that?
MAURICE: I’m a believer in it takes a village. Hard work and discipline. I take it seriously and I love what I do. Ailey has provided me with a lot: world travel, a livelihood, and working with talented people here and internationally. Alvin Ailey has been a huge part of my life from boyhood to now. It’s been great.
Catfish Comedy will host “2026 Queer Kickoff Show” on Thursday, Feb. 5 at A League of Her Own (2319 18th Street, N.W.). This show features D.C.’s funniest LGBTQ and femme comedians. The lineup features performers who regularly take the stage at top clubs like DC Improv and Comedy Loft, with comics who tour nationally.
Tickets are $17.85 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.
Arts & Entertainment
Catherine O’Hara, ‘Schitt’s Creek’ star and celebrated queer ally, dies at 71
Actress remembered for memorable comedic roles in ‘Beetlejuice’ and ‘Home Alone’
Catherine O’Hara, the varied comedic actor known for memorable roles in “Beetlejuice,” “Schitt’s Creek,” and “Home Alone,” has died at 71 on Friday, according to multiple reports. No further details about her death were revealed.
O’Hara’s death comes as a shock to Hollywood, as the Emmy award-winning actor has been recently active, with roles in both “The Studio” and “The Last of Us.” For her work in those two shows, she received Emmy nominations for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series and outstanding guest actress in a drama series.
In 2020, O’Hara won the Outstanding Lead Actress in a comedy series award for her work in the celebrated sixth and final season of “Schitt’s Creek.” She was also known as a queer ally and icon for her theatrical and often campy performances over multiple decades. In “Schitt’s Creek,” she played Moira Rose, the wig-loving mother of David Rose (played by series creator Dan Levy). David is pansexual, but the characters around him simply accept him for who he is; the show was embraced by the LGBTQ community with how naturally David’s sexuality was written and portrayed. That show ran from 2015 to 2020 and helped bring O’Hara and her co-stars into a new phase of their careers.
In a 2019 interview with the Gay Times, O’Hara explained why the show got LGBTQ representation right: “Daniel has created a world that he wants to live in, that I want to live in. It’s ridiculous that we live in a world where we don’t know how to respect each other and let each other be. It’s crazy. Other shows should follow suit and present the world and present humans as the best that we can be. It doesn’t mean you can’t laugh, that you can’t be funny in light ways and dark ways. It’s all still possible when you respect and love each other.”
Additional credits include “SCTV Network” (for which O’Hara won a writing Emmy), “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Six Feet Under,” “Best in Show,” “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” and “Dick Tracy.” O’Hara also lent her voice to “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Chicken Little,” “Monster House,” and “Elemental.” O’Hara was expected to return for Season 2 of “The Studio,” which started filming earlier this month.
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