Bianca Leigh on “Rainbows & Spandex,” Pride, and Her Journey in Performing Arts

Broadway + NYC

Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Off Broadway

Cabaret

Dance

Opera

Classical Music

Eastern

Central

Western

West End

WEST END

UK Regional

International

Canada

Australia / New Zealand

Europe

Asia

Latin America

Africa / Middle East

Entertainment

TV/Movies

Music

Ctrl + K to open · Esc to close

The star talks her origins in the performing arts, the importance of Pride and more ahead of her solo show 6/21 at NYC's Beechman Theatre

POPULAR

Get all the top news & discounts for Cabaret & beyond.

Bianca Leigh , currently in Oh, Mary! on Broadway, is bringing a cabaret Pride show, Rainbows & Spandex , to the Laurie Beechman Theatre on June 21st. The show, which is a mix of stand-up, characters, and songs, promises to be a show “for everyone who has ever waved a rainbow flag or worked a spandex onesie.” Recently, we had the chance to speak with Leigh about Rainbows & Spandex . Here is her reflection on the show, including the journey that led to its creation and what she hopes audiences take away from it.

Get all the top news & discounts for Cabaret & beyond.

I'm trying to think of the first time I did a cabaret show! I came to New York, and I began my transition as a trans person. I found that large commercial projects were closed to trans people unless they had a specific character that was usually tragic. And even then, they probably wouldn't cast a trans person! So I was very lucky enough to come to New York and find a very thin layer of professional theatre. You have PS 122 Theater, The Art Center, La MaMa, places where I got to work with Taylor Mac and Everett Quinton , and thrive and get paid. It allowed me to pursue what I was doing, because, for the most part, large professional theater productions, film, and television were not welcoming. I did a film called Transamerica with Felicity Huffman , and it was received very well. Many people came up to me, and some very big agents said, “You're the real deal.” “Thank you! I'm actually looking for representation . . .” “Oh, I couldn't sign someone like you. There's not enough work.”

So things were closed off for a very long time. I did a lot of downtown theatre, and I made a living singing in bars and nightclubs for many years, as a lot of hard-to-cast people have done when there aren't a lot of roles. You have to be able to do everything, and the upside of that is you become very flexible and your range increases. So I performed at the Stonewall for many years, Fire Island for many years, and I loved it. The first time I did a show like that, rather than a theatre show, I was petrified! I was going to do a set at the restaurant Lucky Cheng's, and my friends were there, and I panicked before I went on!

I did a cabaret show at a place called Judy's Chelsea, which is no longer. I was pretty terrible at first, because I didn't know what I was doing, but I do like to sing and crack jokes! And as I got better, I discovered that I was adept and enjoyed riffing with a crowd - some of the best moments are when something goes wrong. So I still consider myself primarily an actress who can sing if it's called for. I don't have a great voice, but it took me a long time to realize that the most effective performances, especially in intimate settings, are not about sounding pretty. When I can hit a high note that would do Beverly Sills proud, it's fun, but the audience wants to see you disappear into the song. I learned that from watching really great performers, some of whom did not have beautiful voices - maybe not even pleasant voices! - but you could not take your eyes off some of these people. Sometimes performers have both, which is where we get superstars.

So I did that, and then on and off, doing different things. I did a lot of regional theater for a while. Things started to open up. I finally got on Law and Order - things have changed over the years!

There's two things that happen here - you gotta work and keep a roof over your head, keep yourself and your loved ones fed, and then you're trying to do your craft. Sometimes, when you are of a difficult cast population, you end up here. I enjoy doing regional theatre quite a lot, because there wasn't as much pressure. It's well-funded in some of these great cities, and they don't have the same pressure to get names, which I understand a lot more now, being in a long-running Broadway show! You have to keep selling tickets to keep a show alive, and that is related to having names in the show. There are hits that are not so dependent upon that, and people do forget about that, but it's not a completely one-on-one correlation. There are many exceptions. The New York Times did an article once on shows that did have big names that bombed, and several that did not and flourished. So there are very significant exceptions.

I was doing a play in Kansas City, and Kevin Maloney of TWEED TheaterWorks , another venerated, outrageous downtown institution, said, “I am curating Sunday nights at Pangea, and I'm giving you a date.” He gave me a date, so I had to do a show! I had to pick several songs that I had been doing for years on platforms in gay bars, and write something around that. My first shows, the pattern was very spontaneous - sometimes it would land, and sometimes it wouldn't. I realized at a certain point, you have to structure some of it, you have to write some of it. So then I did the show at Pangea. I had written a structure, but I still had time to riff with the audience, and it worked out well. Then I did another one a year later, and I did another one.

My father had passed away, and I wrote a show in honor of my father. I told stories about my dad. And somewhere along the line, I got Oh, Mary! , and wrote a solo musical about life as a trans woman in the 80s. We did that at the Laurie Beechman before these guys owned it, and it went very well. Then I also took a stand-up class, and that taught me a lot! My teacher was Kate Rigg , my dear friend, and she has directed me. She is a Juilliard-trained actress who has also done stand-up and cabaret, so she's perfect. This class was perfect. It was also an LGBTQ+ class! A lot of the people wanted the stand-up training, the experience, but they weren't strict stand-ups - they weren't going to go to open mics night after night, which is what a young stand-up comic does. But these are people that had written some of their own stuff, and stand-up class is really a writing class.

Kate taught me a lot, and we've collaborated on a show that I did at Joe's Pub. A lot of that material is going to be in the show, because I had a tendency to completely rewrite every time I did a show, and that's not smart. But with this, I have added some pride material. A lot of my material has touched on LGBTQ+ themes and oppression and anti-US legislation, but I sat down and asked myself, “What am I so proud of? What are we proud of? Let's talk about it. Are we proud because we're a wonderful community? Are we proud because we've survived? Is it both? Is the parade a political act? Is it a protest, or is it a chance for us to gather and have a great time? Or is it both? Why must everything be a binary?” So I blended some of my material with some new material where I talk about these things, some other stuff that I like to talk about, and songs in between. I've never done just a straight stand-up hour!

I like to incorporate music. I'm trying to develop that. Does it stop the flow, or does it enhance? Is it a nice break? But that's what I've been doing. I will do another show at Joe's Pub, and I will do another show at the Laurie Beechman , because I don't believe that I have to stay in a newer place, nor have I been pressured to! But I like the D’Angoras, and they've been very good. We talked about me doing a show for a long time, and when I got the opportunity to do something at Joe's Pub, they were so encouraging! So I really want to go back to the Beechman. I've performed there many times. It's really spruced up, and the guys are so enthusiastic about it. It's really revitalized, so I'm happy to be part of that. I have my script, I have to finalize the songs, and I'm trying to memorize the new material in between scenes backstage at Oh, Mary! ! We'll be ready. We have enough time. I moved in the middle of all this, too - I do not recommend moving during the run of a Broadway show! There's not a lot of time. It was horrendous, but it's really lovely.

So how I ended up doing the show . . . I was asked to do a show for Pride month. It was an opportunity, and the best thing is a deadline! I hadn't done a cabaret show in a while, and I try to keep it very simple, nothing too crazy. And, like, I said, it's interesting, because you talk about Pride - what does that mean? What does that mean to younger people? What does that mean to older people? Because when I came to New York, AIDS was here. It hadn't taken any of my close friends, because we were very young. Some of them were HIV positive, but they didn't know it. It hadn't been enough time for them to get sick yet. Eventually, I lost many friends. I used to march in the parade with lots of friends, and it was a different time. People were dying, the entertainment industry was ravaged. Many people died that were not gay men, but it really went like wildfire through the gay male community, and just cut down so many stellar talents. But marching in the parade then was different, and we had the moment of silence.

And there wasn't even a test in the beginning, and a whole generation, including my generation, we had been around before we knew that AIDS, HIV was a thing, so nobody knew who was going to test positive, who was going to get sick. People my age, we didn't even think we'd live to thirty. It was a very dark time. So Pride was defined to be joyful in that atmosphere. And it's evolved over the years, and things got much better for the community when the cocktail came about. People began living - even thriving - with HIV. People still do die. It's very important to remember that. And a lot of civil rights, the right to marry, all these things happen, so then Pride was different.

And now we're back in a darker time where our rights, especially trans rights, are in danger - there's a concerted effort to overturn gay marriage. What does that mean for Pride? It becomes more of a joyous defiance, a gathering. So we'll talk about that. I like to find the humor in things, which is not to say that things are not rough, because they certainly are. It's more of a way to cope with it, a defiant thing. Our humor, our ability to laugh together, and be outrageous.

Follow the star on Instagram @bianca_leigh2000 .

Rainbows & Spandex runs on 21 June at the Laurie Beechman Theatre.

Tickets are available on their website here .

Get an Alert Each Time Kat Mokrynski Writes

Videos

Cabaret SHOWS

Recommended For You

Sign up for announcements, and exclusive discounts on tickets to your favorite shows!

© 2026 - Copyright Wisdom Digital Media , all rights reserved. Privacy Policy

_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/cabaret/article/Interview-OH-MARYs-Bianca-Leigh-on-RAINBOWS-SPANDEX-at-The-Laurie-Beechman-20260615)._