Interview: Alexis Michelle on 50 WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR LOVER at Joes Pub

This week, I had the privilege of sitting in on a rehearsal for 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, the latest from the brilliant Alexis Michelle. We met at Funkadelic Studios on a gray afternoon, but the moment I walked in, Alexis’s radiant smile and genuine warmth cut through the day's gloom. At 5 pm sharp, director Scout Davis and musical director Brandon James Gwinn arrived with band in tow. Alexis greeted everyone with fresh cookies (naturally), and soon, the space filled with the strum of guitars, the pulse of drums, and that unmistakable electricity that only comes when something special is in the works.

Dressed in jeans, a corseted Barbie-pink tee, and silver heels, Alexis was all business—if your business is serving powerhouse vocals and deep emotional truth. As Brandon and the band finessed the charts and transitions, Alexis dove into every lyric, no matter how many times they needed to work a section. This wasn’t just rehearsal—it was a team perfecting their craft in real time.

Billed as a kaleidoscopic stroll through love, sex, and heartbreak, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover weaves together hits from the '60s and ‘70s—including classics and deeper cuts from Paul Simon, Nat King Cole, Heart, Carole King, Patti Smith, Linda Ronstadt, and Bette Midler. With Davis’s deft direction and Gwinn’s sharp musical sensibilities, this show will hit every note.

Spoiler alert: the harmonies alone are worth the price of admission (for real!). But the real magic lies in Alexis’s storytelling. I won’t give it all away, but if her version of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” doesn’t melt the iciest heart, I don’t know what will.

There are just a few tickets left for the April 27th performance (and by few, I mean very few), and a brand-new 6 pm show has just been added for June 8th. Trust me—these always sell out, so grab your seats while you can.

Now, let’s go behind the scenes and talk to the woman at the heart of it all—Alexis Michelle.

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So 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. Why?

I’m inspired by music of that era: singer-songwriters, rock ’n’ roll, and some pop of the early ’70s, even a little late ’60s. And, believe it or not, I recently discovered the original Paul Simon track. And I just love it. The first time I heard it, yes, it’s a song of seduction—it’s very forward. However, I heard two other things: this might also be someone helping another person out of a domestic-abuse situation, or it might be someone releasing themselves from their own shackles. So, even though this is a song of seduction, I heard many different kinds of liberation in it. I immediately thought, Oh, this could be the centerpiece, the cornerstone, the moral of a show about how we relate to one another.

I was a little afraid at first to go down that rabbit hole, because it’s very easy to get stuck in feelings when you’re talking about love and relationships—especially the heartbreaks and the unrequited, you know? But when I talked to Brandon about it (I’ve been collaborating with him since 2016), he said, "You’ve never done a show that’s about love and relationships, and it’s a popular theme in the cabaret medium." So we said, why not?

I love that you found so many colors and meanings in the song. That’s a trademark of lasting art, right?

Exactly. It can mean a lot to many people, or one thing to one person and something else to another. I heard what I think the lyrics are about, but I also heard something else. The part where it accelerates in the chorus was the moment that really made me think of someone getting out of a dangerous situation—it was like, by any means necessary, get out. And that could be danger with someone else or danger you’ve created yourself.

That’s a great perspective. Now, this show is described as a stroll through love, sex, and relationships. So, let’s get to the nitty-gritty: is it all true?

Embarrassingly, yes. I have a reputation for letting it all hang out in my cabarets, which makes me blush and want to cover my eyes—my mom is almost always present at my shows. But yes, the stuff I talk about is true. There’s only one part that isn’t. Could you guess? It's a short moment and it's a song. In truth, it's part of the character I'm building, but I would not say it's true to my exact perspective.

I wonder what it could be. "I Am Not Interested in Love?"

Correct. That’s bullshit. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a grown-up. I wanted to do grown-up things—which to me wasn’t, you know, drinking a bottle of champagne; it was being in love, doing those kinds of grown-up things. That’s what I was in a hurry for. I watched a lot of media I probably shouldn’t have as a child, so I was in a rush to grow up.

You gravitated to music of this era, which is interesting because technically, musically, you’d be considered a child of the late ’80s or ’90s, correct?

Yeah, I was born in the ’80s, but I really grew up in the ’90s. I mean, if I did a cabaret based on my love for ’90s music, I’d be doing Alanis Morissette, TLC, and Salt-N-Pepa.

I like where this is going—perhaps something to look forward to in the future?

We’ll see. We’ll see. But no, I’ve always had a very nostalgic taste in music, through any era, of course. When you listen to oldies stations now, it’s ’80s and ’90s music. When they go further back, they play the stuff I’m singing in this show. When I was a kid, I was into ’50s and ’60s sock-hop even, then went through a Beatles stage in middle school, then moved through the ’70s.

Was this musical discovery self-driven, or was it music your parents loved and listened to as well?

Some of my strongest musical influence came from my father—with him, I feel like there was more music listening, whether the radio in the car or albums on weekends. I will say, there’s Patti Smith in the show, and that’s my mom’s influence for sure. I also listened to musicals and classical music with my stepfather.

It’s magical that you had so many people exposing you to such a variety of music.

I’m very grateful for growing up in New York City, being exposed to music, both recorded and live. My mom took me to see Joan Baez when I was in middle school.

That’s epic—legend status.

We saw Joan Baez play in the village. It was wild.

When you were that age, did you realize who you were in the presence of?

I recognized a couple of her songs, so I knew. But I was very observant and I witnessed what my mom's generation was experiencing.

That’s cool. Now, with this show, how did you pick the songs? Was it connected to the moments or was it just songs you love?

It started with “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” as the centerpiece. I originally envisioned it opening the show, but as we wove the narrative, it didn't make sense with the story we were telling— so it ended up being positioned as more of a theme or a moral toward the end. And with the other material, it's a little bit of both. There were definitely some that I was just like, this is where I'm at, this is what's inspiring, and I’m really connecting with this.

In the past, I’ve wondered if that’s the right way to build a show. And I think you have to come from where you are—if I’m truly digging a song, I ask myself, why are you so interested in this? What is it pulling out of you? It’s a combination of vibing with a song, being moved by it, and then extracting why.

It's interesting, both "Beautiful" and "Ramblin' Man," which I recorded on my album Love Fool (that Brandon arranged as well) are both examples of us moving songs into particular places because of what they served narratively.

Is there one song that you just so desperately wanted, but didn't fit the show?

I would say at least five to 10. I mean, there's a song that’s a little bit off the path, "I Saw the Light." It’s definitely not one that everyone will know. And when we charted out the show, it was positioned right next to "It's Too Late." And we have Carole King in the show more than once. And we felt narratively they were essentially the same moment of discovery. So, "It's too late" had to go. But that's a great f-ing song.

So even in the building of your show, you have to kill your darlings?

Yes, you do. You don't get them all. We'll see if everything makes it, because the show is a little long. I hope it all fits. But we might have to trim a little fat.

I'll be so curious to find out, because the song journey is magical. DO you have an absolute favorite song or a favorite section of the show?

Oh, my goodness—so hard. It's so funny when people ask me questions like that, I take it so seriously because I'm like, what if I say the wrong thing? And I've betrayed that other song.

You’re safe to say more than one.

My encore. You actually didn't hear it. It’s my favorite Beatles song of all time. That's a favorite. And Brandon, my longtime friend and collaborator, offered up the song that opens the show. It was not on my radar—but as soon as he offered it up, I was like, lyrically, it couldn't have been more perfect.

For the opening, I think you’re doing a version most people haven't heard.

It’s not the one people know. I was inspired because when I was exploring different arrangements of these songs and, believe it or not, the opening was the most recorded song out of all of them. I found 15 recordings of it and some very different vibes. In the end, we stole a little bit of Ella Fitzgerald's instrumental beginning and then did a left turn with this Bobby Darin arrangement.

It is. When the music started, I knew I was somewhere familiar. But I didn't realize it was that song. That’s fascinating. What makes this show different than other shows that you've done?

If you've been to my shows, you've certainly seen a lot of standards and a lot of showtunes. I can almost say there's no showtunes. But the second number that's part of my opening is a very short showtune. It feels akin to something you might hear in Hair. It's written by the same composers. But aside from that, there's no show tunes, no standards. This is all singer-songwriter, pop, and rock of the late 60s or the 70s. So genre-wise, it's different for me.

You've been at Joe's Pub a lot. Would you start to call that maybe your creative home?

Yeah, it does feel like my cabaret home base. I've been really grateful to work at some of the best rooms in the city. They all have a different energy. I went from the most beautiful room uptown to a whiskey-smelling, dimly lit, teeny place in the East Village, which I love, too. At Joe's Pub, I feel at home because I'm born and raised in downtown Manhattan. And I’m a downtown girl at heart. And it's The Public Theater. And it's beautiful. It's always been a great venue, but it's been brought up to the utmost elegance. The tech is wonderful. And the food is to die for.

The food is excellent.

I think it's some of the best food you can have in a venue of this kind. Last June, I ordered the salmon backstage and I was blown away. I would run to that restaurant to eat the salmon. I love Joe's. Everybody's great. It's got real downtown energy. Plus, it is the home of my greatest cabaret inspiration, Justin Vivian Bond. I've gained so much inspiration from Viv's work, and getting to see her here is always a thrill.

In the journey of this show, is there anything that you've learned about yourself?

Wow. The first thing that comes to mind—I don't know if it's something I've learned about myself or something I'm learning to do. I think that when you deal with love and relationships, heartbreak, or heartbreak in the context of the world—which feels really relatable right now. I think it’s easy to succumb to the grief and the despair. What I’m working on, what I'm learning, and what I’m trying to do at the end of this show—is bring it around to say, there's hope, there's light at the end of the tunnel. Pursue happiness. Pursue your best life because you will be better suited to resist, or fight if you are your best, healthiest, happiest self. I don't know if I've learned that about myself, but it's something I'm working on. And I've tried to channel that in the show.

That’s a beautiful message, especially in these times. And 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, this is the kind of show people can come to and find a million different things in it.

We've all lived. We've all loved, in one way or another. There's many kinds of love. So, yeah, this cabaret is meant to be relatable. And love is one of the most relatable themes.

Beyond the show, catch us up.

I’m exploring a new chapter, if you will. I’ve always felt confident about my ability to use my words. And I've always wondered how that would translate to writing. I took the plunge and contributed some essays to a book about drag that’s coming out in the fall. It's called No Tea, No Shade. I share the writing credit with Nina West, Lagoona Bloo, Julie J, and Kennedy Ann Scott. I’m excited for the world to get a deeper look into the world of drag from some amazing queens. You'll learn about us as and our perspectives. You can preorder it now.

And, for the fourth year, Tina Burner, Scarlett Envy, and I will be spooking it up in Witch Perfect, our loving tribute to the Sanderson sisters. It’s all live singing and there's a little bit of everything musically in that show. So if you've seen it before, come see us again. We always make it fresh each year. And if you haven't seen it, you got to because there really is something for everybody— today's pop favorites, Disney villains, Broadway. We've got it all.

And just continuing to find the appropriate work life balance. And not let work be the definition of self. But to keep a curious and broad view.

Is there any closing thought you’d like to end with?

The world feels really challenging to a lot of people right now, and it doesn't just feel challenging, it is challenging, and frankly it's dangerous for a lot of folks. Making art feels more important as ever, especially within and for the queer community. And, with this show, I tried to be very present to what's going on, to my feelings, to what everybody's feeling, and create something true, authentic, and relatable. You come think, come feel, come laugh, cry if you want, I just might. We'll see.

I think it's safe to say the show is all of those things, and at the same time, something that could not be done at the Kennedy Center.

No, it couldn’t. Thank God we have Joe's Pub for that.

Thank God. And thank God, we have Alexis Michelle. It's going to be a fantastic show.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. Thanks for spending time in the studio with us.

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For tickets to the show, click here. 

To pre-order No Tea, No Shade visit Amazon. 

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