Alexandra Billings In Concert


Friday, June 17 8pm

Saturday, June 18 8pm


Critically acclaimed transgender actress/singer Alexandra Billings makes her Minneapolis debut at the Loring Theater in association with longtime producer and friend Mary Beidler Gearen/MBG Productions Inc.


The show will feature songs from her award winning cabaret show including: "Being Alive," "Let The River Run," "I'm Not My Mother," "Angels, Punks and Raging Queens," and the "Alone Medley.” She will be accompanied by pianist Perry Hart. 


Recognized for both her acting and singing talents, Alexandra has guest starred on television shows “Grey’s Anatomy” and “ER”, and was the subject of the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary special “From Schoolboy to Showgirl.” She also stars in the popular YouTube series “Katie’s Corner.”


Tickets:

$25 balcony

$30 main floor

$50 VIP


Generously sponsored by



What the Press Said


“Alexandra Billings is a GREAT actress who can also sing up a STORM.”      
-Larry Kramer, Oscar-nominated Screen/Playwright

“Alexandra Billings is a funny, forthright performer!”
-David Finkle, Village Voice, NYC

“Billings has one of the best belt voices since Ethel Merman”
-Backstage NYC

“From her childhood as a boy to her life as a woman living with AIDS,
this is one amazing piece – just Alex, just the stage, and just wonderful.”
-Windy City Times, Chicago

“A Tour de Force performance.”
-Justin Hayward, Chicago Reader

“Solo performance is a triumph of spirit.”
-Sherman Oaks SUN, LA

“Alexandra Billings is the most electric performer to come out of our
community.”
-Lawrence Bommer, Windy City Times Chicago
























Alexandra Billings is one of those people who just won’t give up.  She possesses the most indomitable spirit I have ever known.  Any one of the calamities she has survived in her lifetime thus far would have been enough to annihilate most people.  But, Alexandra has a deep-seated volcanic force of joy and determination that keeps her moving forward. That, and her arsenal of talents, makes her remarkable.

From her boyhood as Scott in Schaumberg, IL, a suburb of Chicago, she developed a love of the music and performances of the great icons we still celebrate in music and films: Garland, Streisand, Minnelli, and Hepburn among many others.  She studied them and took their passion straight into her heart.  As she grew into high school her struggle with gender identity began to become more and more of an obstacle and she suffered being mocked, beaten and abused at school by those who saw she was “different.”

By the time she found the Chicago sub-culture cross-dressing showgirl world which made room for her as her performer persona “Shante,” she had suffered the pain of rejection, self-doubt, self-loathing and a kind of desperation which would soon lead her into the darker world of defiant self-destructiveness, drug and alcohol addiction, life on the streets, homelessness, prostitution, and eventually in 1995, a diagnosis of AIDS.  Yet, she had that force of joy deep within her which enabled her to keep evolving her talents first as a club performer then, finding comfort as herself as “Alexandra Billings,” a brassy cabaret performer and singer, and eventually an acclaimed actress and singer.  She lost many friends to AIDS and overdoses and had begun to get “clean” by 1985. She valued survival in a different way and decided to re-claim herself and move on.  Her adventures and misadventures put her in places and situations where she learned a variety of individual talents including juggling, mime, dance, humor and improvisation.  Alexandra has a powerful mind and memory and an imagination to match.  She continued to feed her hunger for studying great performances.  She developed a very devoted following who came to see her perform.

Alexandra re-forged her friendship with her best friend in high school, Chrisanne, and the two found in each other not only a soul mate, but a life partner.  They celebrated a wedding in Chicago in 1996, and another in L.A., during a time when their marriage was recognized as “legal.”

Alexandra is a wonderful writer.  When, in 1995, she was asked by David Zak of Bailiwick Repertory Company in Chicago to write her “autobiography” and make it into a play for the July ’96 Pride Series, she wondered why anyone would want to hear it.  But, she had a fistful of type-written vignettes, monologues and memories that would soon become her one-person show “Before I Disappear” – an autobiography in story and song.  It was my privilege to develop and direct the play with Alexandra and Chrisanne who wrote many of the lyrics for the show.

Alexandra had become something of an enigma by this time and the show drew such an audience that we extended into December.  We described the show in this way: “From boyhood to womanhood:  “Before I Disappear” is a rollercoaster journey to the center of the world of transgender star Alexandra Billings.”  People were very interested in hearing about her personal journey.  As a co-production of my company MBG Productions, Inc., and Lampkin Music Group, the show continued to evolve and over a decade toured to Boston’s “Out on the Edge Festival,” was re-mounted in Chicago at Bailiwick Rep, played Off-Broadway at The Producer’s Club, in Los Angeles at the Avery Schreiber Theatre, and at Acorn Theater in Three Oaks, Michigan.  The show received 2 Artistic Directors’ Awards nominations in Los Angeles.

In the meantime Alexandra and Chrisanne had moved to LA and Alexandra’s singing and acting career had blossomed.   Her experiences now included television and film work, performing at Steppenwolf Theater (among others) and teaching Viewpoints for them in Chicago and LA.  Within that time Alexandra’s parents passed away requiring some poignant changes to her life story.  She was beginning to outgrow “Before I Disappear” and we talked about BID 2.  She had won a bundle of Chicago Jeff and After Dark awards and a MAC award for cabaret in NYC.  She was invited to be the Grand Marshall(-ess) of the Gay Pride Parade in her loyal hometown of Chicago. She recorded two albums with producer Ralph Lampkin’s LMG.  She was the recipient of many other awards and honors including entry in the Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.  She is the subject of the 2010 Emmy-nominated documentary “From Schoolboy to Showgirl” on PBS Chicago WTTW.  She has evolved into the joyful, lovely, funny and gifted performer she continues to be and she is the happiest I have ever known her to be.  Her latest creation is the character of Katie in the youTube video series “Katie’s Corner” and in “Katie’s Corner-Live!” produced and directed by Sean Abley.   Alexandra says, “Katie’s Corner is all about love and passing along the laughter.”

We look to produce “Alexandra Billings at Carnegie Hall” in 2012.  Watch for more information. 

Please visit Alexandra’s website www.alexandrabillings.com or e-mail me with questions at mbgearen@aol.com  Enjoy “Alexandra Billings in Concert” in Minneapolis at Loring Theater June 17&18, 2011, 3 performances.  www.loringtheater.com 

-Mary Beidler Gearen, MBG Productions, Inc.