Drag Icon VARLA JEAN MERMAN: STAND BY YOUR DRAG

2 min read

Drag Icon and award-winning singer and comedienne Varla Jean Merman will bring her new show Stand By Your Drag to Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood for one show only on Tuesday, April 23, at 8:30 pm, Catalina and Chris Isaacson Presents announced this week.

Varla Jean Merman (aka Jeffery Roberson Loe) starred in the musical Lucky Guy opposite Leslie Jordan at the Little Shubert Theatre in New York City in 2011 and the New York Times said, “If Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman had stood in front of the right pair of funhouse mirrors, they might have resembled Ms. Merman and Mr. Jordan in stature as well as comedic talent.”

More recently, Loe starred in the films Hush Up, Sweet Charlotte, Girls Will Be Girls, and Varla Jean and the Mushroomheads. Off-Broadway audiences have also embraced him in the title role of Giancarlo Menotti’s opera The Medium as well as the title role in the musical comedy farce Mildred Fierce. He played the role of Mary Sunshine on Broadway in the revival of Chicago as well as in the First National Tour.

In 2010, he won Boston’s Elliot Norton Award for Best Musical Performance in Phantom of the Oprah. Loe’s longtime collaboration with the prolific Ricky Graham has produced such hits as Hello Dawlin’!, Gone With the Breaking Wind, Steel Poinsettias, and the hugely successful Scrooge in Rouge which will receive nine productions across the country in 2024.

As Varla Jean Merman, Loe has filled concert halls and cabarets across the world, including the Sydney Opera House and Carnegie Hall. He made his network television debut on All My Children, guest starred on Ugly Betty, and was on Bravo’s Project Runway (Season Five) as the winning model in the show’s drag challenge.

Drag Icon VARLA JEAN MERMAN, Photo credit: Courtesy of Chris Isaacson Presents

Don’t miss Varla Jean Merman’s Stand By Your Drag Tuesday, April 23, at 8:30 pm. Admission is $25–$60 with VIP and Artist Circle seats available (includes post-show artist meet and greet). Doors open at 7pm for cocktail and dinner service (minimums apply) and showtime is 8:30pm. For more information and to purchase tickets online go to www.CatalinaJazzClub.com or www.TicketWeb.com. Catalina Jazz Club is located at 6725 W. Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, 90028.