UPSTAIRS: THE MUSICAL to Play Pride Arts Center This Fall

"Upstairs: The Musical" by Wayne Self, based on "The UpStairs Lounge Arson," the award-winning history by Clayton Delery, is coming to Pride Arts Center this fall. The show first previewed in New Orleans, La., in 2013 to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the UpStairs Lounge Fire.

UPSTAIRS is a work of fiction, but the events that inspired it are all too real. On Sunday, June 24th, 1973, the fourth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in New York, a gay bar known as the Upstairs Lounge in the "Gay Triangle" area of the French Quarter of New Orleans was set ablaze by an arsonisT. Wooden stairs leading to the bar's only entrance were doused in lighter fluid and set alight. Twenty-nine people perished in the fire itself, and another three succumbed to their injuries afterward, bringing the death toll to 32. It remains the deadliest attack on an LGBTQ population in US history until recent.

Opening intentionally scheduled to coincide with LGBTQ History Month!

IF YOU GO:

UPSTAIRS: THE MUSICAL
Written By Wayne Self
Music and Lyrics By Wayne Self
Co-Produced and Co-Directed by Gary Trick & Eric Coleman

October 27 to November 26
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm / Sundays at 2:00pm
Doors will open 1-hour before for music, dancing, and meeting of the Cast (in Character)

At Pride Arts Center, 4139 N. Broadway, Chicago, IL 60613
Wheelchair accessible

Tickets are on sale at upstairsthemusicalchicago.brownpapertickets.com

Note: Adults only due to content and partial nudity

Watch a preview for the show below!