Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman to Present KIKI & HERB: DO YOU HEAR WHAT WE HEAR? Six City Tour

This holiday season, prepare yourself for sleighing belles, rabid yells, and tidings of joy from New York's most iconic "octogenarian" lounge act, Kiki & Herb, created and performed by Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman. A match made in-depending on who you ask-a 1934 Western Pennsylvania children's asylum, the 90s San Francisco club circuit, or the dawn of time, this relentlessly fabulous duo will haunt audiences nationwide on a six city tour starting in Boston with a brand-new holiday spectacular. Kiki & Herb: DO YOU HEAR WHAT WE HEAR? runs Thursday, December 1 through Sunday, December 11. Hot off the heels of their sold-out run at Brooklyn Academy of Music last year, this tour will be Kiki & Herb's first shows out of NYC since 2007.

Whether it's an evening at Carnegie Hall, a sold-out run at Joe's Pub, or Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway (2008 Tony nomination), Bond and Mellman's signature cocktail of boozy banter, pop-culture shmaltz, and claws-out cultural critique has charmed cities across this nation for more than two decades. The infamous duo make their way through a number of seasonal songs, belting Christmas classics off their long-out-of-print (but two tracks will be available on Spotify October 18) album Do You Hear What We Hear and slinging enough cheer to choke down this holiday season.

Tickets will be available on Friday, October 21 at 10 AM Local time. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.

Kiki & Herb is the creation of Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman. Kiki is a washed-up, boozed-up chanteuse, with a voice that is a mixture of Tom Waits and Ethel Merman with a dash of Judy, whose middle age passed her by some time ago. Herb, her piano-battering, lifelong accompanist provides support both musically and emotionally. As Kiki & Herb, Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman have dazzled audiences around the world for almost two decades with their ground-breaking wildly popular cabaret shows. They have played the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre, the Sydney Opera House, and New York's Carnegie Hall. The duo has also appeared at the Bonn Biennale (Germany), On The Boards (Seattle), the Great American Music Hall (San Francisco), and the Knitting Factory (L.A.). Kiki & Herb have performed and toured with The Scissor Sisters and Rufus Wainwright. The duo received an Obie Award for their show Kiki & Herb: Jesus Wept, and earned a Tony Award nomination for their 2007 show Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway. Kiki & Herb have released two albums: Do You Hear What We Hear? featuring Deborah Harry, Isaac Mizrahi, Molly Ringwald, and Rufus Wainwright and Kiki and Herb Will Die For You, a live recording of their Carnegie Hall show.

Mx. Justin Vivian Bond

(they, them, their) has appeared on stage (Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Londonʼs West End), screen (Shortbus, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Sunset Stories), television (High Maintenance, Difficult People, The Get Down), nightclub stages (most notably, a decades-long residency at Joeʼs Pub at The Public Theater), and in concert halls worldwide (including Carnegie Hall and The Sydney Opera House). In December 2019 Mx. Bond made their Vienna Staatsoper debut as Orlandoʼs child in the world premiere of Olga Neuwirthʼs Orlando. In 2021 they appeared as the Lounge Singer in Boston Lyric Opera's streaming opera Desert In, and made several year end "Best of" lists with their shows Only an Octave Apart co-created with counter-tenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, Zack Winokur, and Thomas Bartlett, as well as Kiki and Herb Sleigh at BAM with Kenny Mellman.

Mx. Bond's visual art and installations have been seen in museums and galleries in the United States (Participant, Inc., and The New Museum) and abroad (Vitrine, London). Their memoir, Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels (Feminist Press), won the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction. They are the recipient of an Obie, a Bessie, and a Tony nomination, as well as an Ethyl Eichelberger Award, The Peter Reed Foundation Grant, The Foundation for Contemporary Art Grant for Artists, and The Art Matters Grant.

They have self-released several full-length recordings, including Dendrophile and Silver Wells. As one-half of the legendary punk cabaret duo Kiki & Herb, they toured the world and released two CDs: Do You Hear What We Hear? and Kiki and Herb Will Die for You at Carnegie Hall.

They have a master's degree in live art from Central Saint Martins College in London and have taught performance composition and Live Art Installation at NYU and Bard College. Mx. Bond currently divides their time between residences in New York Cityʼs East Village and the Hudson Valley.

Kenny Mellman

is one half (with Justin Vivian Bond) of the Tony nominated and Obie and Bessie winning act Kiki and Herb. His show Kenny Mellman Is Grace Jones toured the US, Australia and the UK and his one man musical about gay bashing and homophobia, Say Sea Boy You Sissy Boy? was commissioned by Dixon Place. He co-wrote the musical At Least It's Pink with Michael Patrick King and Bridget Everett at ArsNova. He also, with Everett and Neal Medlyn, co-created Our Hit Parade, a downtown NY deconstruction of the pop charts which ran for 4 sold-out years at Joe's Pub. He was in the cast and composed the music for Good For Otto at The New Group in 2018. Mellman was in the band The Julie Ruin. Fronted by Kathleen Hanna, of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre fame, they released two records and toured extensively.. He was a 2021 recipient of a Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant.

The Kiki & Herb: DO YOU HEAR WHAT WE HEAR? national tour is presented in association with Tony Award and Emmy Award-winning producer, Jared Geller.

KIKI & HERB TOUR DATES

Dec 1 - Boston, MA - Shubert Theatre

Dec 3 - New York, NY - Beacon Theatre

Dec 5 - Philadelphia, PA - Miller Theater

Dec 8 - Seattle, WA - Moore Theatre

Dec 9 - San Francisco, CA - The Curran Theatre

Dec 11 - Los Angeles, CA - The Orpheum Theatre

Photo Credit: Eric McNatt