Just ahead of next month’s season opener and holiday show Star of Wonder, and following its collaborative IMAGINE cabaret from August with Bruce Wood Dance Dallas (BWDD), Uptown Players announced on Wednesday two additional shows to its season that include another partnering with BWDD for the new cabaret show TOGETHER to premiere during Pride Month 2026.
In August, the two companies teamed up for the first time. IMAGINE featured vignettes of song and dance with Uptown Player actors on vocals and BWDD company members performing alongside. IMAGINE touched on the queer experiences of coming out, romantic love and pure celebration of self. TOGETHER will follow in a similar vein.
From Uptown:
TOGETHER is more than a performance; it’s a heartbeat, tracing the LGBTQ+ community’s journey from solitude to solidarity.
With stirring power ballads that bare the soul and electrifying anthems that demand to be sung out loud, the show builds from quiet vulnerability to unapologetic joy. Songs like Celine Dion’s “All By Myself” and Pat Benatar’s “We Belong” weave a tapestry of resilience, defiance and love. The result is an intimate yet electrifying evening that reminds us: a single voice can spark change, but it is the chorus of voices united that transforms the world.
The production will feature choreography by Bruce Wood and BWDD Artistic Director Joy Bollinger. Company members will present new pieces as well.
The cast of both companies has also been announced and includes Weaver Rhodes, Elliott Trahan, Cole Vernon, and Megan Storey for BWDD with Peter DiCesare, Seth Paden, Lee Walter, Brett Warner and Kylie Stewart for Uptown Players, with musical arrangements by Adam C. Wright and direction by Clayton Younkin.
Performances will be June 20-21 at the Kalita Humphreys Theater during Pride Month.
Uptown Players will also remount the one-person comedy Application Pending, pictured above, starring B.J. Cleveland. The show will run Aug. 20-30 at Theatre Three in its basement space Theatre 2.
Written by Greg Edwards and Andy Sandberg, Application Pending is a look at the
cutthroat world of kindergarten admissions at a prestigious Manhattan prep school. Cleveland reprises his performance as Chris Evans, the frazzled new head of admissions who juggles dozens of eccentric parents and overzealous administrators over one very memorable day at Edgely Prep.
The company premiered the show online during the height of the pandemic.
“Audiences loved the streaming version, but there’s just nothing like seeing it live,” Uptown Players co-founder and producer Jeff Rane said in the announcement. “The humor, the timing, the energy in the room —it’s pure magic. Watching B.J. inhabit more than 40 characters on stage right before your eyes is a theatrical experience you simply can’t get through a screen.”
Ticket sales for both are now open at UptownPlayers.org.
–Rich Lopez
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