When Show Tune Queens click their heels three times and pray for home we know that they don’t mean Kansas with Toto, but the one place in the world which is the nearest they will ever get to heaven. It’s called Marie’s Crisis Cafe and for the past 40 years (and maybe more?) it’s been New York’s most treasured piano bar where local gay men and musical theater performers gather round the keys nightly and sing their hearts out to their favorite Broadway show tunes. What they lack in talent (!) is made up for in boundless energy and passion. As the pianist says each night ‘Welcome to Marie’s Crisis, where showtunes come to die!’
It’s a little like stepping back in time as you enter and walk downstairs as after all there has been a bar there in the West Village since the 1850’s. Initially it was a prostitutes den, then became a boy bar in the 1890’s and it lasted right through Prohibition. It’s curious name came from The Crisis Papers by Thomas Paine who died in the house, not it must be said from an overdose of sentimental renditions of numbers like ‘You’re The Top’ or ‘Climb Every Mountain’.
Now the American Theater Wing has produced this rather wonderful tribute to one of New York’s most venerated venues. As bartender Doug Thompson (pictured above) aptly sums up “Marie’s is the island of misfit toys for people who love show tunes,” And don’t be confused by the fact there are women in the video, Marie’s has always been a hetero friendly place too.
