Bearded Ladies Cabaret is an experimental cabaret group devoted to exploiting all the possibilities of intimate, homemade theater through beautiful songs, tricked-out costume changes, drag, and virtuosic prop construction.

Whether it’s an opera, a homemade cabaret, a musical walking tour, or a show on a truck, Bearded Ladies Cabaret employs song, spectacle, storytelling, and heart to welcome audiences into moments of joy, healing, and subversion. Through sharing original pieces and creating bespoke platforms for performance at home in Philadelphia, nationally, and abroad, Bearded Ladies Cabaret nurtures artistic connection for a community of misfits, rabble-rousers, chanteuses and the people who love and need them.

With wit and sparkle Bearded Ladies Cabaret tackles the politics of popular culture, sex, gender, and artistic invention. They have been called “wildly entertaining” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, “talented singers and comic actors” by the Huffington Post, and “a little over the top” by Aunt Patty and Uncle Marv, who happened to be in town for the weekend visiting the Johnsons.

Bearded Ladies Cabaret members will be in two residencies this summer at ArtYard incubating new performance works, You Really Are a Heel and Rose: You are Who You Eat.

Performance Residency

July 2024

Bearded Ladies Cabaret will be in residence developing Rose Jarboe’s Rose: You Are Who You Eat, a true story of gender feasting, set to music.

About Rose: You Are Who You Eat

Once upon a vine, Rose Jarboe’s aunt revealed that Rose not only had a twin sister in the womb, but that Rose consumed her: “You ate her. That’s why you are the way you are.” This was a lot for Rose to swallow! In this musical shrine to the consumed twin, Rose welcomes you into a feast of gender through song, storytelling, and a full plate of wordplay.

Rose was commissioned by Works & Process and developed in collaboration with The Bearded Ladies Cabaret. The work was created during the pandemic in Works & Process bubble residencies at Mount Tremper Arts and Bethany Arts Community, with the support of the Mellon Foundation and Doris Duke Foundation. Early iterations of Rose were presented by Works & Process in the Guggenheim Rotunda (2021) Guggenheim Theater (2022), and CulturalDC (2022.) Rolling World Premiere at FringeArts (2023), La MaMa ETC (2024), and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (2024).