Stars of the AVT # 72: Poor Baby Bree

This post is one of a series profiling the hundreds of performers I’ve presented through my American Vaudeville Theatre in celebration of its 15th anniversary. Don’t miss the American Vaudeville Theatre’s 15th Anniversary ExTRAVaganza in the New York International Fringe Festival this August!

I’ve written about professional waif Poor Baby Bree several times on this site, notably here, and was also lucky enough to perform on a bill with her at Dixon Place a few months ago. I’m proud to be presenting her (and her accompanist Franklin Bruno) for the first time in my ExTRAVaganza on August 21st. From her dossier:

Bree Benton  has been performing as “Poor Baby Bree” since 2005. Her first one-woman show, Weary River, earned awards from Time Out New York and BackStage, and a Nightlife Award nomination for “Outstanding Cabaret Characterization.” Her newest show, I Am Going to Run Away, was presented at “The Club” at La MaMa E.T.C. in October 2010, after workshop performances at Dixon Place and Don’t Tell Mama. Revue performances and guest appearances include Laurie and Friends (BAM, curated by Laurie Anderson), Our Hit Parade (Joe’s Pub), Folly (Abrons Arts Center, with Rufus Wainwright and Lypsinka), Vanishing City (Dixon Place), “The Afterparty” (Laurie Beecham Theater), “The Meeting” (The Duplex) at at CUNY/Lehman College. Out of character, she has most recently acted in Pic-Up, a drag version of William Inge’s Picnic at Abrons Arts Center, and sung in “A Helen Adam Hallowe’en” at the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church.

To learn more about vaudeville past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.