STORMÉ: A Musical Play

By Carolyn M. Brown

It took one punch to start a gay revolution. It took one gusty gender-bending lesbian to throw that punch. This is her story!

STORMÉ is a historical play with music by GLAAD Media Award-winning journalist and playwright Carolyn M. Brown, which depicts the life and times of LGBTQ+ Icon Stormé DeLarverie. The show follows Stormé́, who in later years is a beloved bouncer at lesbian bars and a guardian patrolling New York City's West Village. Her journey begins growing up in the Jim Crow South as a biracial child learning to fight for her identity. She migrates to Chicago, where she performs as big band singer Stormy Dale, falls in love with a chorus line dancer named Diana, and befriends gay piano virtuoso Billy Strayhorn, composer for Duke Ellington’s Orchestra. Stormé blazes uncharted territory when takes up a Harlem residency as emcee and male impersonator at the Jewel Box Revue (America’s first racially integrated and gay-owned drag show).

Stormé, along with her lover Diana and extended family of friends, exists under constant threat from the NYPD (who harass and arrest cross-dressers and gays gathering in bars) until that fateful day in June of 1969, when she had enough of being under everyone’s thumb. The play is generously peppered with songs (jazz standards and original music) to reflect Stormé’s artistic journey from crooner to crusader.

Stormé is revered for throwing the first punch—or series of punches—at police during the Stonewall Rebellion. Her scuffle with the NYPD in 1969 during a raid at the Stonewall Inn was a watershed moment for Gay Rights. This play pulls no punches in showing rarely depicted details about Stonewall and contributions of persons of color, particularly trans women.

STORMÉ is made possible with support from The NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre by the City of New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment in association with The New York Foundation for the Arts.

Show running time is 2 hours with a 10 minute intermission.

Show contains strong language and sensitive subject matter.

“At times heartbreaking, at times triumphant, but always stirring, Stormé is the definitive depiction of an icon whose story should be heard by all.” ~The Spark that Ignited a Revolution, by Jim Catapano (OUTER-STAGE)

STORMÉ is being presented as part of the ICONS Festival, along with TENNESSEE WILLIAMS.

American Theatre of Actors, Inc. (ATA) was founded in 1976 by James Jennings to promote the development of new playwrights, directors and actors, and to provide them a creative atmosphere in which to work. The plays are dramas, comedies, and hybrids, dealing with the social and ethical problems of contemporary society.

12,000 actors have worked at ATA including Dennis Quaid, Bruce Willis, Dan Lauria, Chazz Palminteri, Danny Aielo, David Morse, Edie Falco and Kathryn Hahn. Our productions are sometimes grouped as 'festivals,' such as a Playwrights Festival or a Directors Festival. In 2016 we began an initiative to feature women in theatre as directors and playwrights, today this is our WIT! (Women in Theatre) program.

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