Andy: A Popera Stage 2 by Bearded Ladies Cabaret

The new popera Andy, created by the Bearded Ladies Cabaret and Opera Philadelphia, asks repeatedly, “Why is Andy Warhol so big?” But that’s not the question I’m asking. I’m trying to remember what I know about Andy Warhol beyond screen prints of cultural icons like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Campbell's soup cans.

Years ago, when I was hanging out around Max’s Kansas City in New York City and looking for an apartment in the East Village, I was shown a rather large space that had been painted completely black, even the window panes. It had something to do with Andy Warhol, one of his superstars had lived there. I didn’t take the apartment, I wasn’t ready to be that outrageous, but I remember being intrigued by the lifestyle it implied.

But what do I really remember about Warhol himself and the people around him? Not much. And yet that’s what made the show so interesting. I Googled all the characters (Edie Sedgwick, played by Kristen Bailey; Candy Darling, played by Scott McPheeters; Andy's mother, Julia Warhola, played by Liz Filios; and Valerie Solanas, best known for shooting Warhol, played by Jennifer Kidwell) afterward because I wanted to see who these people were. Truth is, I didn’t really remember them and probably never knew them all that well. And then, after watching several videos on YouTube, I found myself asking, along with Dr. Peter P. Never, Professor, played by Sean Lally, the emcee of the show, “Why was Andy Warhol so big?”

Or is that not the question we need to ask about artists? Do we demand to know the lives of all the Impressionists or the Cubists or the Fauves? Some, like Van Gogh and Picasso and Pollack, have obliged us by living larger-than-life lives. But it is their work that we go to museums to see, not their lifestyle. Isn’t it enough that an artist's pictures hang in galleries? Do we need more?

Yet Warhol was all about style. About being famous in and of itself, for itself. Most intriguing was to watch interviews with Warhol in which his superstar of the moment answered for him, as he smiled and occasionally whispered a reply into the interviewer’s ear.

Modern fame

Today we have many stars who are famous for being famous. And we have come to accept that. In one telling scene in Andy, Edie Sedgwick invites a man, whose name happened to be Andy the night I was there, in the front row to be famous, and she and the other cast members and the audience begin to call his name and admire him and you could see how easy it is to claim that mantle of fame just because someone has decided that you are important enough to turn the spotlight on. “How can you see yourself, without an audience,” Sedgwick asks, and so Warhol created “superstars,” turning the spotlight on himself and his protégés and created a world for us to watch if not necessarily to admire.

The show itself was organized around unearthing Warhol artifacts from a large box that served as a time capsule while it allowed an actor to disappear into its bottomless depths — it supplied the basis for the line that everyone should “think inside the box.” The artifacts and Professor Never’s questions set up the staged numbers that included singing Marilyn Monroes against colored panels to represent Warhol’s screenprints, multiple Elvis Presleys, dancing Campbell's soup cans, and dramatic scenes featuring Edie Segwick, Valerie Solanas, and Candy Darling.

While the song and dance numbers were fun and hinted at what this popera could be, the narrative holding it together still needs work. Somewhere in the middle, it lost its way. Professor Never left the stage, and the structure fell apart till he reappeared again.

As quoted in the show, Warhol once said, “An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have.” This show may not be necessary, but it could be a lot of fun once it works out the narrative kinks and has the funding for full-fledged production numbers. Warhol’s outrageousness provides the perfect backdrop for this cast of irreverent performers to strut their stuff and show off their voices and their talents.

Andy is part of a three-stage process to develop a full-fledged pop opera to be shown in a gallery space in March 2015. Stage one consisted of pop-up short performances in public venues, such as supermarkets, around the city, publicized only by word of mouth and through social media. This presentation at the Wilma Theater was Stage two, and the company is working on obtaining funding for Stage three, according to writer-director John Jarboe.

Almost everyone involved in the production is local, he said, because they want the money to go toward local artists and technicians.