Hollywood Comes To Palm Springs For UNSUNG MIDLER

Popular (and most times infamous) podcaster, journalist, on-air personality, and former Palm Springs Pride Media Grand Marshal Alexander Rodriguez returns to the stage after a five-year absence (thanks to procrastination and COVID) for an irreverent night of storytelling and song with Unsung Midler, celebrating the great, lesser-known hits of the Divine Miss M from The Rose, For the Boys, and Beaches to her numerous albums and covers.

Called a "truly gifted singer" by the Los Angeles Times, Alexander is returning to his cabaret past with a new collection of almost too hard-to-believe stories and Milder songs sung in his signature style. Cocktails, jazz hands, and sass are in store...nothing is off limits as the host of "On the Rocks" and lead writer for GED Magazine mixes his grab bag of talents for one fun evening on Friday, February 3rd at 7 pm at Oscars Palm Springs (www.oscarspalmsprings.com).

No stranger to Palm Springs, this Los Angeles-based entertainer spent his childhood summers from third grade to college visiting his grandmother's hotel, El Poco Lodge (now The Andalusian) on Arenas Road. Gifted to his grandmother by original hotel owner Mabel Wagner, who continued to live on the premises, Mabel would recount stories from her friendships with Rosalind Russell, Lucille Ball, and other classic Hollywood personalities to the impressionable Alexander. Alexander would spend many brunches at Melvyn's, alongside his grandmother who had established friendships with entertainment personalities Cornel Wilde, Delores Hope, Barbara Sinatra, Loretta Young, Eva Gabor, and the regular El Poco Lodge visitor Victor Mature. With a penchant for being a ham, how could Alexander not get into the industry influenced by this circle of Palm Springs' Hollywood royalty?

As life would come full circle, Alexander's career has brought him back to Palm Springs as a regular entertainer, serving as an emcee for Palm Springs Pride (and as Media Grand Marshal) and Cathedral City LGBTQ days, hosting events with GED Magazine, The Gay Desert Guide, KGay, and Jeff Hocker Productions appearing alongside popular Palm Springs Queens Rusty Waters, Bella de Ball, Anita Rose, and Rosemary Galore, and at venues that include Hunters, Chill Bar, Hotel Zoso, Margaritaville, The Roost, and more. In addition to serving as the lead writer for Palm Springs headquartered GED Magazine, he hosts the nationally syndicated On the Rocks with Alexander, a weekly talk show that mixes cocktails with celebrities from classic Hollywood, pop culture, TV, screen, and stage. Academy, Emmy, Golden Globe, Tony, Grammy Winners... he's drunk with them all. He concurrently interviews celebrities for Metrosource National Magazine and the Andrew Christian blog and hosts US of Gay, Metrosource Minis, and The Gay News Guy podcasts. He has traveled the nation serving it up as emcee for numerous LGBTQ events, from Pride celebrations to Go-Go competitions, he's hosted them all...how does he keep up with everything? The vodka helps.

As a stage performer, he's sung at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Upright Citizen's Brigade's Inner Sanctum, ESpot, Don't Tell Mama in LA and NY, Rage Nightclub, and Rockwell Table & Stage. Called a "truly gifted singer" by the Los Angeles Times, he began his singing career as a cantor for 13 years at three churches in Southern California, including the Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano, with his mother often accompanying him at the piano. He was inspired by Bette Midler at a very early age as his hardworking, single mom, would unwind from her three jobs a week by singing along to the records (yes, records!) of The Divine Miss M. Belting out notes with lyrics that were probably a bit too mature for him, Bette would become a musical companion at key points in Alexander's life as her new albums would cosmically coincide with his first church solo, going to college, coming out, and entering the industry full time. Seeing Bette live in concert would serve as Alexander's first celebrity concert ever, and that experience left an indelible mark.

The concert is not a retrospective of Bette, she is barely mentioned in the show. Rather, Alexander is taking real-life, almost too hard-to-believe, stories out of the vault. Told in his signature style of sass and brass, with no sense of political correctness, his stories will be accompanied by his performances of music from Midler's five-decade-plus career...not the popular music, but her lesser-known and performed material. Did you know she covered TLC's Waterfalls? The evening promises to be full of laughs, tears, some bad jokes, and plenty of cocktails. This performance of Unsung Midler will be Alexander's first stop before taking the show to NYC's The Green Room 42.

The show is presented by GED Magazine as part of their cabaret series.