The Light Between: A Modern Cabaret at Biello Martin Studio

THE LIGHT BETWEEN Brings Music, Magic, Drag and Storytelling to the 2026 Philadelphia Fringe Festival

The genre-defying theatrical experience created by Tom McCormack and PJ Casbar will play two intimate performances at Philadelphia's Biello Martin Studio.

PHILADELPHIA — The Light Between, an original theatrical production blending live music, theatrical storytelling, drag, sleight-of-hand, humor, and original songs, will make its Philadelphia premiere as part of the 2026 Philadelphia Fringe Festival with performances on September 18 and 19 at Biello Martin Studio in Old City.

Created and performed by Tom McCormack and PJ Casbar, The Light Between has already drawn sold-out preview audiences in New Jersey. Rather than presenting a traditional cabaret or musical revue, the production unfolds as an evening of interconnected stories, music, theatrical illusion, and unexpected moments of wonder that invite audiences to reconsider the distance between who we are and who we pretend to be.

Every Fringe season begins with the hope of discovering the performance that lingers long after the curtain falls.

This year, that room may well be the Biello Martin Studio.

Blending original songs with re-imagined classics, live piano, theatrical illusion, drag performance, humor, and intimate storytelling, The Light Between quietly shifts from entertainment into something more personal. Just when audiences think they understand the evening, the show becomes something different than the thing they believed they were watching.

"We've realized the show isn't really about the stories we're telling," says McCormack. "It's about what begins happening in the room between people. What interests me is recognition—that strange moment when you stop watching the show and realize the show has quietly started watching you."

Casbar adds, "The conversations after the show have become one of my favorite parts. People don't walk out talking about the same thing. One person can't stop talking about Vivian. Somebody else is still thinking about Elvis. Someone is trying to figure out how Tom plucked a bubble out of thin air. Another admits they spent the last ten minutes trying to keep the people beside them from noticing they were quietly coming apart. They all saw the same performance. Somehow, they each experienced a different evening."

Presented inside Biello Martin Studio—the intimate Old City performance space long recognized as one of Philadelphia's most distinctive homes for experimental, queer, and interdisciplinary performance—The Light Between embraces closeness rather than spectacle. With an audience of only thirty people per performance, every evening becomes unique because every audience is different.

There is music. There is drag. There is laughter. There is stillness. There are moments of genuine wonder.

And beneath all of it runs one simple invitation: Pay attention.

Some things only happen once.

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Performance Information:

The Light Between
Part of the 2026 Philadelphia Fringe Festival

Friday, September 18, 2026
Saturday, September 19, 2026

Biello Martin Studio
148 N. 3rd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

Tickets are available through the Philadelphia Fringe Festival at https://phillyfringe.org

Instagram: @thelightbetweencabaret