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Star of Light! An Evening of Bi-Polar Witchy Wonder

Justin Vivian Bond returns to Joe’s Pub for a surprisingly upbeat holiday show full of sad stories and songs.

Justin Vivian Bond stars in Star of Light! An Evening of Bi-Polar Witchy Wonder at Joe's Pub.
Justin Vivian Bond stars in Star of Light! An Evening of Bi-Polar Witchy Wonder at Joe's Pub.
(© Zachary Stewart)

At first, you may not see Justin Vivian Bond in the acclaimed cabaret performer's new Christmas show, Star of Light! An Evening of Bi-Polar Witchy Wonder. The band takes the stage of Joe's Pub and begins playing without V (Bond's pronoun of choice)…or so it seems. Yet Bond's distinctive voice incanting a medley of Taylor Swift from behind the scenes is unmistakable. And then suddenly, Bond is right in your face: "Welcome to New York," V staccatos while leaning over your table, "It's been waiting for you."

Bond opens Star of Light with this jaunty tribute to Swift ("our cultural ambassadress of New York City" as Bond calls her), but it's a very misleading overture to an otherwise mellow and reflective evening. "If you want Christmas spirit, drink it," V admonishes. All the while Bond is a vision in teal, wrapped up like a Christmas gift, a velvet red sash serving as the ribbon and bow. This juxtaposition of gravity and levity, merriment and despair, is a running theme.

Bond continues the show with a full-bodied rendition of Kate Bush's "King of the Mountain," swallowing the consonants at the end of each phrase. There's a psychedelic intensity to Bond's voice reminiscent of Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane that works well with the song, lulling the audience into a trance. A buoyant interpretation of Judee Sill's "Jesus Was a Crossmaker" brings us out of that trance. One can't help but be impressed with Bond's skillful navigation of the song's difficult and unlikely rhythmic pattern, which seems to shift on a dime.

Backing V throughout is Matt Ray on piano, Claudia Chopek on violin, and NathAnn Carrera on guitar. All three of these talented musicians prove their worth through some very complex musical interludes, which Bond enjoys while downing a white wine on the rocks.

The show features other, more secular holiday classics including Victor Herbert's childlike "Toyland," which is used here as an intro for St. Vincent's "Prince Johnny," a song about questionable adult behavior. Bond delivers a surprisingly cheerful version of Martin & Blane's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," a famously downbeat holiday ditty that Bond bucks up with the help of Carrera's soft and sweet acoustic guitar accompaniment. Benjamin Smoke's "Somebody's House Always Burns at Christmas" (a perennial Bond favorite) is a highlight of the evening, rousing the audience into a frenzy with the lyrical declaration, "I might be out of work, but I'm the son of God."

Secular, sacred, or downright blasphemous, this eclectic and smartly executed evening of challenging music is broken up by audience banter that would be tragic if it weren't so darn funny. Bond recounts a recent phone call from V's father in which dad said he wanted his son to come home for Thanksgiving, but not "that fake woman." Bond removes the edge from this deeply personal and painful anecdote by quipping, "A lot of trans kids get kicked out of their homes; I didn't until I was 51. So I think I'm gonna make it."

Like any family Christmas gathering, the evening is dotted with childhood stories: boys Bond pined after, girls Bond slept with. Bond remembers the time V used to sit in the back of a white Buick crying while listening to the radio. This song always reminds me of Christmas, V says, before launching into Heart's "Dog & Butterfly," a number that sounds gorgeous in Bond's hearty and expressive voice.

Amazingly, with so much Christmastime sadness all around, one never feels anything close to pity. That is because Bond never asks for it and never plays the victim. Rather, V takes the tragic ghosts of Christmas past and turns them into a festive holiday fruitcake. If that's not witchy wonder, I don't know what is.

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