I write my own jokes I perform every night,’ and I said, ‘OK, this is what I want to do,’ because at the time … I was like doing two full time jobs, managing a restaurant and being a full time auditioner and performer.” I get to wear the clothes I want, I get to do the music I want. “I went to her one day and I said, ‘Is this your job?’ And she said, ‘Yeah.

Then, life took a hard turn seeing drag queen Sutton Lee Seymour perform at a New York Bar. Growing up in Frankfort, Gilda Wabbit checked a lot of traditional aspiring singer-actor boxes, including the Governor’s School for the Arts, the voice program at the University of Kentucky and a busy career in New York. The Lexington Theatre Company rehearses their production of “Chicago” including three local performers, Haley Fish, Gilda Wabbit, and Brance Cornelius at the Lexington Opera House in Lexington, Ky., Tuesday, August 2, 2022. Less than 24 hours after “Chicago” closes, Fish will be in the first rehearsal for her next show while continuing swing work on “The Music Man.” Velma is a vaudeville performer who tries to parlay a charge of murdering her husband and sister into a media circus and major payday and grows jealous when another woman accused of murder steals her spotlight. “I’ve done this show, but I’ve never played this part before, and it’s so delicious. When she heard the Lexington Theatre Company was doing “Chicago” though, she asked her agent to look into it. From there, Fish went on to “Hello Dolly,” with both Bette Midler and Bernadette Peters in the title role, “Kiss Me Kate” and, after and extended break for COVID, she is now a vacation swing in “The Music Man.” That was her Broadway debut as Rumpleteazer. My stage manager got a good kick out of that one.” “She said we paid for school and you will be walking across the stage. “My mom was not gonna let me skip that part,” Fish says. Fish skipped that and went directly to Broadway - so directly she had to get permission to miss some rehearsals for the Broadway production of “Cats” to walk in her graduation from New York University. Often professional performers from Lexington come back through the Opera House on a national tour as part of its Broadway Live series. Haley Fish, who portrays Velma in The Lexington Theatre Company production of “Chicago” spent many hours performing at the Lexington Opera House in her youth.

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