Cabaret celebrates a century of queer music during Pride festival in Truro, N.S.

Crystal Garrett speaks with one of the performers of the "Rainbow Reveries: Queer Voices for a Queer World" concert in Truro, N.S.

The Pride festival arrives in Nova Scotia this weekend, bringing performances and celebrations to venues across the province.

“Rainbow Reveries: Queer Voices for a Queer World” brings a pair of world-class performers home to Truro, N.S., for a 75-minute journey through the last century of queer music – from Noël Coward to “Pink Pony Club.”

Andrew Morrisey is one of two performers in the traditional cabaret.

“It’s just me, the singer and a pianist,” Morrisey said. “The show is an exploration and also a celebration of queer music from the last hundred years.”

Morrisey said he tried to highlight composers and lyricists who were underappreciated in their lifetimes when he curated the show.

“(I) wanted to kind of shine light on them,” he said. He also tried to find music that “addressed the moment we find ourselves in today.”

The cabaret is an intimate art form, said Morrisey, similar to theatre, but he addresses the audience directly and brings them into the show.

“The queen of cabaret, Julie Wilson said, ‘cabaret is speaking heart-to-heart,’” Morrisey said. “There’s something so beautiful about that and it’s so true.”

The pianist performing “Rainbow Reveries” is celebrated composer Andrew Boudreau, a lifelong friend of Morrisey’s since they grew up and went to school together in Truro.

“We were dear friends and collaborated together several times growing up,” Morrisey said.

The friends went their separate ways during college but they both ended up in New York, where they reconnected. Morrisey said they’ve been working together for five or six years.

“Rainbow Reveries” brings the Big Apple back to Truro for a world-class performance in a town that’s become busy and vibrant enough to punch above its artistic weight class. Morrisey said the town has completely changed but the arts community was always robust.

“I felt so supported by the people in Truro,” he said. “Without that support, I don’t think I would have made it to New York.”

“Rainbow Reveries” begins at St. Andrew’s United Church in Truro on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available on the website.

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