Esther Fallick likes to call herself “Brooklyn’s finest recently blonde trans woman cabaret comedienne,” and it doesn’t take much doing to confirm the accuracy of that description.
Ahead of the second performance of Fallick’s new hour-long comedy show, Esther Updates Her Book, at Joe’s Pub on Sunday, Vogue caught up with her to chat about working with Natalie Walker, writing an anthem for the purple M&M, and her desire to see more vaudeville-inflected comedy on (and off-) Broadway.
Vogue: As a New Yorker, how are you feeling about Zohran Mamdani’s recent election as mayor?
Esther Fallick: I’m honestly feeling so great. Something that I think about a lot is not only, Am I going to be able to live in New York?, but also: Is my audience going to be able to survive here and buy tickets? Zohran’s win is a huge boon for the whole artistic economy.
Okay, equally important question: You’ve recently gone blonde. How has that adjustment been?
Well, it changed everything. When I posted about going blonde, I feel like I got a bigger reaction than when I posted about coming out as a woman. When I came out as a woman, people were like, “Congrats.” But when I came out as blonde, they were like, “Oh my God. That’s amazing.” I do have my recession roots coming out.
They look very Carrie Bradshaw.
That’s so funny, because I went as Curtis Sliwa on Halloween, and three people thought I was Carrie Bradshaw.
What are you most looking forward to about debuting your show at Joe’s Pub this week?
The thing that I’m most excited about is that I feel like the theater world has just not been telling good trans stories. They don’t really know how to include trans people within commercial theater, so the show is sort of a reclamation for trans theater people. There’s a really joyous atmosphere, and in the same way that everyone has been like, “I’m giving myself permission to lib out” since Zohran’s election, my show is sort of like permission to high-school-theater-nerd out.
We need that.
Now more than ever!
How would you describe your show to someone who hasn’t yet seen it, but is cool?
First of all, I’m only ever describing things to cool people, so I’m ready with this one. I would say that it’s part stand-up show, part cabaret, part earnest musical theater, part one-woman show about navigating how your relationship to your art changes as you change. It’s really funny, but also? Everyone cries.
What has it been like, working with Natalie Walker and JJ Maley on your show?
Natalie Walker is, I think, the most brilliant musical theater mind alive, and in a different time, she’d have two Tonys by now. Having her in the room is so exciting—one, because I get to see what her choices are, and two, because it’s like, Oh, maybe we are doing something good if Natalie wants to be a part of it. Working with JJ is so great because JJ is another trans person who’s sort of seen their grasp on the musical theater world change as they’ve transitioned, so we’ve been able to commiserate about what we see and make some really fun jokes about it.
I now have to ask you about co-writing a song for the purple M&M. If you were an M&M, would you be the purple one?
I’m so glad you asked. I wrote the song with my frequent collaborator Clark Baxtresser, and it was a classic situation of writing a song for an ad agency where they were like: “We want it really funny and really powerful and really empowering, but about an M&M. Got it?” We were like, “Yes, we do.” If I were an M&M, I do think I would be purple. I think if you look at the text, if you look at the clues, clearly she’s the queerest one; she’s wearing Dockers.
What do you wish we currently saw more of in musical theater?
Well, vaudeville used to be a road to get into musical theater, so musical and comedy would be intertwined in this integral way. But as BFAs became the road to musical theater, I think Broadway got so much less funny, and Oh, Mary! opened up this road for comedians to bring their stuff to the commercial stage again. I want to see more of that on Broadway; more people who have cut their teeth at Union Hall.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.
