Longtime friends and collaborators Alexandra Billings and Honey West are teaming up once again for two dates in August. The Big Gay Cabaret series focuses on LGBTQ+ performers taking to the stage on Southport Avenue in an intimate setting.
Billings and West are busting out of the box with popularity as the venue was moved from the Venus Cabaret Theater to the Mercury Mainstage due to high ticket demand.
Billings was the first trans performer to play Madame Morrible in the Broadway production of Wicked and has had made regular television appearances on series such as Transparent and The Connors. This member of the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame has taken home numerous accolades, including the Visibility Award from the Human Rights Campaign as well as five After Dark Awards. She wrote an autobiography titled This Time for Me.
West was recently seen in A Little Night Music at Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre. She’s not a stranger to the Mercury with roles in Clue and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. West was also inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame and received a Best Actress Award from BroadwayWorld.com.
Billings heads east to meet West for The Big Gay Cabaret Series presented by Ginger Minj.
Windy City Times: Where did you first meet each other?
Alexandra Billings: We met at a whorehouse where Honey was working…
Honey West: I was working in the kitchen making soup! [everyone laughs] No, I believe you came to one of my cabaret shows, didn’t you?
AB: I don’t remember the act of meeting you, and that is how deep you are in my life.
HW: I was doing Dirty Dreams of a Clean-Cut Kid for Push Studios and at the same time you were doing Gertrude Stein and a Companion at Strawdog Theatre.
AB: That was directed by my wife, Chrisanne Blankenship.
HW: After you saw Dirty Dreams you stayed after to talk to me because you enjoyed the show. I tried to get you to be in my next show, but you told me to talk to your agent!
AB: I was fascinated by the whole thing. You sang and had backup dancers with costume changes. This was unusual at the time and it was like you were Ann-Margret from Las Vegas!
WCT: It sounds like you were both fans of each other’s work.
AB: That is absolutely true and a great word because I am a huge fan of Honey’s. She is the closest thing in the world to me besides the human that I married. I could watch Honey West work for hours and I have!
HW: I feel the same way.
WCT: When was the last time you sang together?
HW: Has it been a couple of decades?
AB: At least, girl. The last show was at Bailiwick Repertory Theatre.
HW: That was a benefit.
AB: Yes, and our last gig together. When this upcoming show was announced, I was shocked that tickets sold so fast and people remembered us.
HW: We thought we would do a little show at the Venus Cabaret with 80 seats, and within a few days it sold out. People started getting angry when there were no tickets left, and we moved it to the Mercury Theater with over 200 seats. There are a few seats left in the back row, so we might sell that out as well. It will be packed with friends and family. No matter how awful we are, it should still be a fun experience!
AB: We have to actually have an act then.
HW: It is easier to rehearse when we are in the same city.
WCT: How do you choose which songs to sing for a cabaret act like this?
HW: People have been asking about certain songs. We are doing songs that people will remember with just a few new things.
WCT: Duets and also solos?
HW: Oh, yeah. We came up with a format back when we worked at The Gentry together. She always wanted me to start the show, so we would do some duets and banter. I would then do a solo set followed by two duets, and she would do a solo performance, then end with a couple more duets. It was comfortable and worked for us.
AB: I haven’t picked out my songs yet. I know there are a couple I want to do. I am terrified by this, so I will wait until I get closer to the date.
HW: When I started doing cabaret, even for four-hour shows, I never had a setlist. I was fortunate to have an accompanist who could play to anything that came out of my face. I would work the crowd, and in an intimate space that’s the best way to do it. Alex has more structure, and we learned a lot from each other.
This is a big space, but there is flexibility within the show for improvisation and to do whatever we want.
AB: I think people are coming to watch me screw up the lyrics!
HW: That’s what I am there to see.
AB: I have received several messages about us performing “Money” from Cabaret. I asked one person why they wanted to hear it, and they said, “Because I love to watch you balance the ball on your nose.”
HW: With Alex, you never know what ball she will balance it on, because she’s an incredible mimic. She’s either incredibly gifted or insane!
AB: I’m either one of those.
WCT: I want you to sing “Creep” like you did at the Steppenwolf gala in 2017, Alexandra. You blew the roof off of that fundraiser with your rendition of it.
AB: Thank you and I appreciate that. It’s a great song and I have been singing it for a while. People want me to perform ballads, but I have to make a choice. I am figuring it out.
WCT: Is there a cabaret performer that you love?
AB: I love Karen Mason, Ann Hampton Callaway and Amanda McBroom. If we are going in the Chicago vault, I liked Ginger Tam and she sang like a pop star. She was performing in a nightclub and sounded like Mariah Carey. Beckie Menzie is also brilliant and local to Chicago.
These are cabaret performers who were my teachers. I watched them build their act and it was fascinating. Many of my idols are Chicago staples.
HW: There’s no one better than Beckie Menzie.
AB: Beckie knows who she is from the minute she is around the piano. There’s no falseness or sense of bravado. She is very present, and is good at welcoming the audience into her space, just like Honey does. It feels like people are sitting in a living room where someone will get up and sing a song.
WCT: Who is the accompanist for this show?
HW: Chuck Larkin is playing for us and played for a number of people in the past including Ginger Tam before she passed away.
AB: I think it is really important to acknowledge the people who have been in the business for years. They are people whose generosity has not wavered.
WCT: What is the landscape in LA compared to Chicago for working together?
AB: It is about movies and television here in Los Angeles. I get up at 5 a.m. and have hair and makeup, then film all day. By the time I go home, it’s time to go to bed and prepare for the next day. In Chicago, it’s people in the theater who sleep until noon and do a show at night.
I love both places. I was born in California and was raised in Chicago.
WCT: I hosted the Q&A for your movie Queen Tut at the Reeling Film Festival, and we couldn’t have you in person to promote it properly because of the strike. You were a force in the film as Malibu.
AB: It’s a funny business and changing like mad. It was an incredibly joyful experience making that film.
WCT: Honey, I was in the audience for the Grabby Awards last month. Are you planning on hosting this event in the future?
HW: I am not sure if I am hosting it next year to be honest. I hosted it for 25 years. I am hoping to be on tour next year, either by myself or with Alex.
WCT: Will you make an album together?
AB: I think someone is trying to tell us something. You are the second person in three days who has talked to us about making an album together.
HW: We should, and I am thinking about a couple of projects. We could do a record of past songs we have done together, and then one of all the new stuff.
AB: Back in the day it was more difficult to make an album in a studio, but now we could make it at home.
HW: Dropping some vinyl is much easier today. If you are in the same place for a couple of days, then we can do it. I will come knocking on your door.
AB: She was surprised two months ago and flew from Chicago to LA, which is not like her.
HW: Had you responded to my texts I wouldn’t have dropped in like that.
WCT: Now you can show up on Honey’s doorstep on this trip to Chicago. What are your thoughts on the Wicked movie by the way?
AB: The musical is extraordinary and the people involved are making it with good intentions. Since it is not me playing Madame Morrible, at least it’s Michelle Yeoh, and I have no problem with that.
WCT: What are you both working on next?
HW: I am working on an autobiographical show called From the Diary of the Boy in the Tutu. Alex just did a reading in New York of her show S/He & Me.
Alex and I seem very different, but we have parallel lives. Sometimes when we catch up after not talking for a while, we are doing very similar projects at the same time.
AB: It’s a connection we have always had. That is why I don’t remember meeting you in the first place. You have always been a part of me, Honey.
There are two trans elders in the community who are writing autobiographical pieces. We live in precarious times right now. It’s important that the transgender voice is heard and honored.
This adventure that me and Honey are embarking on needs to be seen and amplified. Putting on a show is not about ego. It’s about creating portals for understanding and information. That is what Honey and I have tried to do throughout our lives performing.
WCT: If a movie is made about your life who would play you in it?
HW: Kathy Bates!
AB: If they don’t have to be alive, I would pick Katharine Hepburn to play me!
Billings and West tackle two shows at 3745 N. Southport Ave. on Aug. 9 and 10. For tickets sashay over to biggaycabaret.com today.
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