MacArthur Genius of Cabaret, Justin Vivian Bond at Spiegeltent

August 7–9 | Annandale-on-Hudson, NY | Tickets from $50

Justin Vivian Bond brings "Heated Revelry" to the Spiegeltent at Bard SummerScape for three performances, August 7 through 9, backed by a full band led by musical director Matt Ray. The show promises "an evening of music to lose your gay virginity by," built around songs from the soundtrack of "Heated Rivalry" and soundtrack-adjacent numbers—vodka, blueberry smoothies, and ginger ale encouraged.

Bond has spent more than three decades moving fluidly between cabaret, theater, film, television, and visual art. As one half of the legendary punk cabaret duo Kiki & Herb, they toured internationally and played Carnegie Hall; solo, they held a decades-long residency at Joe's Pub, appeared on Broadway and in the West End, and worked with directors and collaborators across "Shortbus," "Can You Ever Forgive Me?," "High Maintenance," and "Difficult People."

Their visual art has shown at Participant Inc. and the New Museum in New York and is held in the permanent collection of London's Victoria and Albert Museum. Their memoir, Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels, won the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction. Awards include an Obie, a Bessie, a Tony nomination, and grants from the Peter Reed Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Art, and Art Matters. In 2024, Bond was named a MacArthur Fellow; in 2025, Bard College awarded them an honorary doctorate.

Bond has been at the forefront of trans visibility and activism since the early 1990s, and their work has continued expanding into new territory in recent years—a 2019 debut at the Vienna Staatsoper in the world premiere of Olga Neuwirth's "Orlando," and, this past February, a role in "Complications in Sue," a new Opera Philadelphia commission Bond conceived with a libretto by Tony winner Michael R. Jackson. They currently split time between New York's East Village and the Hudson Valley.

Spiegeltent, Fisher Center at Bard College, 60 Manor Ave., Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. Tickets from $50 at fishercenter.bard.edu.