What happens when you set three spangly, sparkly, larger-than-life performance artists loose in a queer-owned, South Seattle auto body shop?
In the case of Cherdonna & the Bearded Ladies (aka Seattle’s Cherdonna Shinatra and Philadelphia drag stars Jarbeaux and Martha Graham Cracker), whose show “Threesome” runs April 18-27 at Repair Revolution presented by On the Boards, it’s safe to say some song and dance will be on the menu. There will be laughs, maybe some tears, and hopefully some glitter. The rest, so far, remains a mystery.
One thing we know for sure is that these three can perform, so open yourself up to surprise and you’ll likely be rewarded with a show that’s more than the sum of its impressive parts.
Officially, you can “[e]xpect an hour of pleasure, punk rock, and spectacle, not to mention devastating torch songs, whispered side conversations, indulgent cry-gasms, and tiny monkey wrenches.” These three charismatic artists, who often perform solo, have together created — are perhaps even still creating — a show that resists categorization. They’re using their voices and bodies in new ways and breaking all their own rules, because who cares? Those rules were all made up anyhow.
First, let’s introduce our triumvirate: Cherdonna Shinatra (aka Jody Kuehner), a versatile dancer and choreographer, and the beloved Seattle performer known for her airhornlike voice, troll-doll hair and boundless enthusiasm for the world around her. Jarbeaux (aka John Jarboe) is an actor and director, performance artist, elegant, pearl-bedecked chanteuse, and founding artistic director of Philadelphia troupe The Bearded Ladies Cabaret. Martha Graham Cracker (Dito van Reigersberg), also a Philadelphia-based artist, is the co-founder and artistic director emeritus of Obie-winning Pig Iron Theatre Company, and an inimitable cabaret performer with the voice of an angel and the chest of a bear.
All three artists, who asked to be referred to primarily by their stage names throughout this story, create incredibly funny, slyly subversive work, with personal vulnerability that cultivates astonishing intimacy with audiences. But they have different strengths and ways of working.
“When I’m making a piece, it usually starts with: What am I obsessed with? What are things that I can’t get out of my mind?” Cherdonna said. She trusts that a theme will follow, whereas Jarbeaux and Martha both begin more intentionally with thematic elements they want to explore.
“Threesome” first began germinating around 2018, after Cherdonna performed in The Bearded Ladies’ Philly cabaret extravaganza “Do You Want a Cookie?” and enchanted Jarbeaux with her delightful weirdness, blessing her audience with Nilla wafer sacraments.
“One impulse for [‘Threesome’] was just, like, ‘I want to be in [Cherdonna’s] process,’ ” Jarbeaux said. “It’s been really exciting and challenging and rich to live in a more dance mindset, a choreographic mindset, and to trust that through working, through moments of pleasure and obsession, we’ll figure out what’s important for us as a group.”
“The loveliness of this group makes it easy to try new things,” Cherdonna said. “I said, I’d love to use my voice, but I also really want to use it well, so to have the encouragement and the know-how to do that with these people, the support is just so exciting.”
Sharing professional expertise is a critical part of this artistic exchange: Martha and Jarboe are helping Cherdonna sing, she’s helping them dance. They love Cherdonna’s physical language and economy of words (drag queens: not famously concise), and she loves how directly they connect to their audiences. Newness may be thrilling as a performer, but it’s not always easy for fans who expect certain things from their favorite artists.
Born of mutual admiration, alchemized by illness and fueled by themes of joy, grief, support, community, care and repair, “Threesome” finds these folks freeing themselves of the stylistic expectations that come with being a recognizable performer: Producers, presenters and audiences tend to want more of what you’ve done before.
“Some people who saw the showing [of ‘Threesome’] we did in Philly two years ago were, like, ‘Thank god we get to see something this weird,’ ” Jarbeaux said. “And some people said: ‘Can’t you just do a show tune?!’ ”
“There are no show tunes in this show,” Martha added. There will be songs of many genres (let them surprise you), solo performance moments and, as Jarbeaux put it, “attempts of absurd unison.”
“Threesome” was originally slated to premiere in Seattle in 2023, but that run of shows was delayed due to multiple health issues in the cast. When the trio resumed work, their shared and individual priorities had been entirely reconfigured, as had the way they work.
During a recent video shoot for On the Boards’ archives, Cherdonna choked up discussing this difficult past, and explaining how the resulting community care reminded them all how impossible it is to do any of this — make art, live life — alone. That idea, along with explorations of the covertly loaded question, “How are you?” made their way into this new version of “Threesome.” Cherdonna was seated between her co-stars, and the instant her voice cracked, a hand reached out from either side, supporting her through the tough moment.
Emotions still sit very close to the surface in this group. In one short interview, they’ve made each other cry, and they’ve made each other laugh (and laugh, and laugh).
“There’s just a lot of beautiful cheerleading in this group,” Cherdonna said. As artists grow and change, so too must their personas.
“People don’t know us as well [in Seattle], which is great,” Martha said. “It means you can surprise yourself — oh, I’m not the singing drag queen. Or maybe, I am that, but I’m something else, too.”
In our increasingly algorithm-driven lives (a topic the group has discussed during this creative process), genuine surprise feels special. How often today do you get to see something — or be something — that’s not just a variation on something you’ve seen before?
As these artists figure out who they are now as performers and people, they’re sharing that exploration with each other, and with us the audience, the community. And aren’t we all always figuring out who we are, to some degree? Community is part of the reason they’re performing at Repair Revolution, a queer-owned auto shop also focused on education and empowering people to take care of their cars themselves.
“Threesome,” Jarbeaux joked, does the same thing, but their tuneup is for the human spirit. And you know what? It’s been a long few years. Mileage-wise, we’re probably all overdue.