Prepare yourself for sleighing belles, rabid yells, and tidings of joy from New York’s most iconic “nonagenarian” lounge act, Kiki (Justin Vivian Bond) and Herb (Kenny Mellman). A match made in—depending on who you ask—a 1934 Western Pennsylvania children’s asylum, the 90s San Francisco club circuit, or the dawn of time, this relentlessly fabulous duo makes its returns to the stage with a holiday spectacular. Whether it’s an evening at Carnegie Hall, a sold-out run at Joe’s Pub, or Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway, Bond and Mellman’s signature cocktail of boozy banter, pop-culture shmaltz, and claws-out cultural critique has charmed this city for more than two decades. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to witness legends in action, belting Christmas classics off their long-out-of-print 2000 album Do You Hear What We Hear (Tori Amos’s “Crucify” as part of the “Whose Child is This?” medley, anyone?) and slinging enough cheer to choke down even this helluva holiday season.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Mx. Justin Vivian Bond (they, them, their) has appeared on stage (Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Londonʼs West End), screen (Shortbus, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Sunset Stories), television (High Maintenance, Difficult People, The Get Down), nightclub stages, and in concert halls worldwide. In December 2019 Mx. Bond made their Vienna Staatsoper debut as Orlandoʼs child in the world premiere of Olga Neuwirthʼs Orlando. In 2021 they appeared as the Lounge Singer in Boston Lyric Opera’s streaming opera Desert In, and made several year end “Best of” lists with their shows Only an Octave Apart co-created with counter-tenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, Zack Winokur, and Thomas Bartlett, as well as Kiki and Herb Sleigh at BAM with Kenny Mellman.
Mx. Bond’s visual art and installations have been seen in museums and galleries in the United States (Participant, Inc., and The New Museum) and abroad (Vitrine, London). Their memoir, Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels (Feminist Press), won the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction. They are the recipient of an Obie, a Bessie, and a Tony nomination, as well as an Ethyl Eichelberger Award, The Peter Reed Foundation Grant, The Foundation for Contemporary Art Grant for Artists, and The Art Matters Grant.
They have a master’s degree in live art from Central Saint Martins College in London and have taught performance composition and Live Art Installation at NYU and Bard College.
Kenny Mellman is one half of the Tony nominated and Obie and Bessie winning act Kiki and Herb. His show Kenny Mellman Is Grace Jones toured the US, Australia and the UK and his one man musical about gay bashing and homophobia, Say Sea Boy You Sissy Boy? was commissioned by Dixon Place. He co-wrote the musical At Least It’s Pink with Michael Patrick King and Bridget Everett at ArsNova. He also, with Everett and Neal Medlyn, co-created Our Hit Parade, a downtown NY deconstruction of the pop charts which ran for 4 sold-out years at Joe’s Pub. He was a 2021 recipient of a Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant.