James Beaman is full of love and laughter in LIVED EXPERIENCE at Triad

James Beaman is fabulously himself in his new solo show, Lived experience. The show, which kicked off Pride 2024 with a one-off show on June 1 at 7 p.m. at the Upper West Side’s Triad Theater, takes a wry look at everything from Generation Z and Millennials’ obsession with “safety” and buzzwords to Beaman’s own life and long career as an actor, cabaret artist and drag performer. This was a reprise of the show Beaman also performed last October.

The June 2024 show began, appropriately, with an announcement from columnist John McWhorter, welcoming “ladies, gentlemen and others” to the Triad. McWhorter warned the audience that, in addition to the music, the evening would also include plenty of irreverent humor.

The last words of the message were accompanied by a rousing beat that led directly to the first number of the show: “And You Don’t Even Know It” from the musical film Everyone is talking about Jamiewhich Beaman could particularly identify with, as it was about a young boy who wanted to become a drag queen. James Beaman appeared on stage in a sparkling red sequin shirt and a pair of fabulous platform high heels. He introduced the audience to his own “personal patriarchy”, musicians Matt Scharfglass on bass, David Silliman on drums and music director David Maiocco on the piano. Beaman had three backing singers, “Beaman’s Beauties,” each a “dive” that Beaman conducted: Sierra Rein, Goldie Dver and Alexandra de Suze.

“I think Peter Allen just puked on me,” Beaman joked about his rhinestone-embellished ensemble before unbuttoning his shiny shirt to reveal a T-shirt that read “Zaddy.” Next, he took off his glittery shoes. Beaman sat down and pulled them on to the music of Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood, He noted that the show was particularly close to his heart because his father designed and built the original set.

The simple act of sitting down and taking off the sparkly shoes (which Beaman joked made him “almost blind”) felt like a kind of metaphor for the show itself. After a long career as a drag queen, Beaman finally performs as himself. Drag queening was an important part of Beaman’s life, but in Triad he was completely himself (except for a brief appearance as Carmen Miranda in a hilarious, Latin-tinged rendition of “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist” from Street Q). Beaman says goodbye to his drag persona with a slightly rewritten “The Girl Who Used to Be Me,” accompanied by a photo and video montage of the highlights of his career.

Beaman’s razor-sharp wit, inimitable stage presence and talent for fun carry us through the highs and lows. Beaman is delightful to watch, whether he is sincerely playing the suicidal middle-aged man who is afraid to dance (“A great band and a really nice audience” by Ballroom) or to perform his own rewritten texts, including an “I’ve Got a Little List” with a few new irritating characters for the 21st century, Noel Cowards “Why Must the Show Go On?’, rewritten to make fun of modern things like intimacy coordinators, and “The Terrible Thing about Triggers,” a pun on “The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers.”

Just as Beaman has largely shed his drag persona, there were moments in the show when he dropped his humor hats and bared his soul. Despite an overall funny tone and plenty of bells and whistles (tap numbers, maracas, costume changes), the show’s pathos runs deep. Between songs, Beaman speaks eloquently about his “lived experience” of dealing with the homophobia and hate of the ’70s and ’80s, the HIV and AIDS epidemic, and being told he had to “man up” to succeed as an actor. Beaman discusses the painful and the joyous moments in his life, dedicating a poignant “You and Me Against the World” to his late mother, who passed away on Mother’s Day. Beaman ends the show with a poignant plea for today’s LGBT youth to pause and reflect on their place in history and this movement that is only 50 years old. He notes that the entire modern gay rights movement happened in his lifetime, “and I’m not old, thank you very much.” Beaman closed the evening with a slow, jazzy version of “Why Try to Change Me Now.” The look of unbridled joy on Beaman’s face as he performed the tune was a perfect send-off to a perfect evening.

If you would like to learn more about Beaman’s thoughts on the LGBT movement and other issues, you can visit his website at www.jamesbeaman.com and subscribe to his Substack.

For more upcoming shows at the Triad, visit the website at www.triadnyc.com.

(Image credit header: Conor Weiss)

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