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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

THE FLEA
ANNOUNCES
THE NEW YORK PREMIERE OF
THE RAZOR-SHARP, MUSIC-FUELED INTERROGATION OF IDENTITY
“GREY ARIAS”
DEVISED, WRITTEN, DIRECTED BY, AND FEATURING
ADRIENNE TRUSCOTT & LE GATEAU CHOCOLAT 

STRICTLY LIMITED ENGAGEMENT AT THE FLEA
THURSDAY, MARCH 5 – SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 2026

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

New York, NY (February 17, 2026) – The Flea announced today the complete creative team for the New York Premiere of Grey Arias, the internationally acclaimed, genre-defying collaboration between Doris Duke Award-winning choreographer, acrobat, and comedian Adrienne Truscott and Time Out London’s Top 10 Cabaret Star Le Gateau Chocolat.

Grey Arias will play a strictly limited engagement from Thursday, March 5 to Saturday, March 7, 2026 at The Flea Theater (20 Thomas Street). Tickets are on sale now by visiting www.theflea.org.

Devised, written, directed by and featuring Adrienne Truscott & Le Gateau Chocolat, the creative team for Grey Arias includes Rose Jarboe (co-director & dramaturg), Connor Lovejoy (lighting design), Kim ‘Busty Beatz’ Bowers (sound design), and Carmine Covelli (video & additional sound design).

Part music performance, part comedy duel, all play, Grey Arias dismantles easy binaries and invites audiences to live in the uncomfortable in-between. Through virtuosic musical numbers and disarming humor, Truscott and Le Gateau Chocolat upend allyship, cultural interpretation, race, power, and performance itself, all the while wondering: How does one walk the fine line that delineates marginalized perspectives? In this case — in heels.

For key artwork, photos of all lead artists, and the Flea logo, please click here.

For production photography (credit: Tamarah Scott), please click here.

Co-creator Truscott says, “I’m so thrilled to bring this show to my theater-hometown of NYC. It’s perfect for NY because it’s a little bit downtown and a little bit Broadway, you know? It’s sophisticated, and queer and twisty and drag-y and a bit triggering, but also has a bonkers, fun finale, which is, you know, sometimes rare in downtown theater!”“Grey Arias embodies the kind of rigorous, irreverent, and deeply human work we champion,” said Niegel Smith, Artistic Director of The Flea. “Adrienne Truscott and Le Gateau Chocolat make hay out of hot topics – bringing the boozy fantasy of the bar room into the legitimate theater. This comedic romp refuses easy answers — and trusts audiences to sit inside spectacular complexity.”

Co-creator Chocolat adds, “Who thought one could successfully (or not) find a throughline that connects Puccini’s Madam Butterfly, The Little Mermaid, Annie and Radiohead… Maybe that’s the “experimental” element of our piece. Does it succeed? I couldn’t give a solitary f*ck, we’re doing it!”

Originally commissioned by Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre, Grey Arias has earned international praise for its fearless theatricality and razor-sharp wit. Theatre First called the piece “off-the-wall, but tackles some vital questions and has the depth of work we expect from both of these performers, whose shows challenge an audience and themselves and the nature of theatre.”

Its New York premiere continues The Flea’s commitment to presenting artists who stretch form, entertain audiences, and ignite cultural conversations.

ABOUT “GREY ARIAS”

Le Gateau Chocolat is a man. Adrienne Truscott is a woman.

Le Gateau Chocolat is a gay, black, English-Nigerian man and drag artiste. Adrienne Truscott is a cis white feminist American female performance artist.

Le Gateau Chocolat is a multi-award-winning, plus-sized, bearded, drag diva feminist. Adrienne Truscott is a multi-award-winning comedian and provocateur who enjoys chocolate cake, up to a point.

They are dear friends and here, as in everyday life, they perform a multiplicity of identities: perceived, lived and projected. As their comical banter turns personal, political debates erupt, and grey areas (and arias) are exposed. Between musical numbers, they spring rhetorical traps designed to catch any who overstep the blurred lines of the politically correct and interrogate the boundaries of allyship.

When the ‘faggot’ faces the ‘feminist’, they ask: “How does one walk the fine line that delineates marginalised perspectives?”

In heels, obviously. Crack!

Grey Arias was originally commissioned by Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne. Its New York premiere is a co-production of Grey Arias, Ltd. and The Flea.

Running Time: 1 hour

Purchase $36 tickets at www.theflea.org.

BIOGRAPHIES

Le Gateau Chocolat (Creator and Performer). Voted by Time Out London as one of its Top 10 Cabaret Stars, Le Gateau Chocolat is a one-man, larger-than-life musical phenomenon, wrapped in dazzling sequinned lycra. His work spans drag, cabaret, opera, musical theatre, children’s theatre and live art, and his bewitching baritone has been heard from Sydney Opera House to Royal Albert Hall and Bayreuth Festival. His bewitching baritone has been heard in previous works Le Gateau Chocolat (2011), I Chocolat (2012), In Drag (2013 Royal Festival Hall commission) and BLACK (2014 Homotopia  commission), which toured with music ensemble Psappha in 2017.

His recent production ICONS has toured to Sydney Festival, Wales Millennium Centre, Soho Theatre, Underbelly Southbank and more. ICONS has also been presented with accompaniment from the Little Coco Orchestra, a Le Gateau Chocolat initiative to support diverse musicians  through the creation of an ensemble formed entirely of women of colour. This up-scaled production premiered at SPILL Festival in 2018, with a subsequent presentation at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire as part of SHOUT Festival.

His opera work includes works with contemporary composers; Julian Phillips, Varjak Paw, Royal Opera House and tour. Jocelyn Pook, ‘Anxiety Fanfare’ Wigmore Hall and tour. Orlando Gough; Imago, Glyndebourne. Porgy & Bess, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. Most recently he appeared in Wagner’s Tannhauser, starring Stephen Gould, which opened the 108th Bayreuth Festival in 2019 and attracted headlines around the world for the reaction to his participation as a black drag artist.

Adrienne Truscott (Creator and Performer). Adrienne’s work crosses methodologies from dance, theater, comedy, and performance art, as drag, evening-length pieces, dances, and solos. She’s a Doris Duke and FCA grantee and her recent collaboration MASTERCLASS (with Brokentalkers), won a Fringe First Award for best writing and had its US premiere at NYU Skirball and Bard Fisher Center. Other collaborations, Grey Arias (with Le Gateau Chocolat), Wild Bore, THIS, continue to tour. She’s one half of NYC denizens and centuries-old Wau Wau Sisters, and her critically acclaimed Adrienne Truscott’s Asking For It: A One-Lady Rape About Comedy Starring Her Pussy and Little Else is considered a game-changer at the performed intersection of rape culture, gender and comedy, and precursor to Nanette. The intentional breadth of venues where her work’s been presented illustrate her commitment to making art that can speak to many different audiences: Sydney Opera House, Sophiensale, Fusebox Festival, The Moth, MIT, Weirdo Night, CBGB’s, PS122, The Kitchen, MoMA (Chicago), Parkside Lounge, The Slipper Room, 40 Watt and The Whitney. She’s performed with Kiki & Herb, Le Tigre, Murray Hill, John Cameron Mitchell, Lucha Va Voom, Sarah Michelson, David Neumann, and Deborah Hay amongst many others. She is attracted to the possibility of failure as a mandate for rigor and revels in the destabilization of genre and form.

Rose Jarboe (Co-Director and Dramaturg) (she/her) is a director, producer, writer, performer, and the founding artistic director of The Bearded Ladies Cabaret. For the past 15 years she has created and performed work for organizations including Lincoln Center, Works and Process at The Guggenheim, La MaMa ETC, Joe’s Pub, The Wilma Theater, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Barnes Foundation, and Opera Philadelphia. Jarboe was named best drag performer in Philadelphia (2018) by Philadelphia Magazine is a 2025 Pew Fellow. She has toured original work to Miami, Seattle (Seattle Symphony) France, Poland, New Zealand (Performance Arcade), and Australia (Malthouse Theater). She has written for and directed original cabarets for famed opera star Anthony Roth Costanzo and is the drag dula of Stephanie Blythe. Her original solo show Rose: You Are Who You Eat, commissioned by Works and Process, has toured to FringeArts, La MaMa and Wooly Mammoth. As resident artist at The Fabric Workshop in Museum she debuted her first installation of films and objects called The Rose Garden in May of 2024. www.beardedladiescabaret.com and @johnjarbeaux on Instagram.

Kim “Busty Beatz” Bowers (Sound Design). An internationally renowned Musical Director, composer, sound designer, writer and maker, Kim ‘Busty Beatz’ Bowers has been creating art to Activate, Pollinate and Liberate for over 25 years. As Co-creator, Co-writer, Musical Director and Queen Bee of powerhouse Australian female performance collective, Hot Brown Honey, Busty’s prowess has stormed stages from Southbank Centre London, Sydney Opera House, Cultch Vancouver and more.

Carmine Covelli (Video and Additional Sound Design) (he/him) has spent 30+ years in the music industry as a professional drummer, 20+ years in film/video – working across multiple departments including cinematographer, editor, director, actor, writer, soundtrack and 20+ years in theater – as a stagehand, audio engineer, video designer, actor, and musician. As a member of the alternative rock band The Julie Ruin fronted by feminist icon Kathleen Hanna, he has toured the world and performed on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and “Last Call with Carson Daly.” He can also be seen behind the drums for comedy/cabaret superstar Bridget Everett and The Tender Moments, Meow Meow, Alan Cumming, among others. www.carminecovelli.com

Eugyeene Teh (Development Collaborator) is a theatre maker and designer across various artforms on works that push boundaries and dismantle the patriarchy. He has worked extensively on shows throughout Australia and internationally including the Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre and Sydney Chamber Opera. He is a recipient of a Green Room Award and three Sydney Theatre Awards nominations and is also a recipient of the prestigious Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship and a placement through the Besen Family Artist Program.Amelia Lever-Davidson (Development Collaborator) is a lighting designer based in Melbourne, whose practice encompasses theatre, dance, live art, television and events. Recent works include Every Brilliant Thing (Belovir), The Nico Project (Associate for Paule Constable, Melbourne Festival). Amelia is a multiple Green Room Award winner and nominee. Amelia was awarded for her work on Contest (2018), Looking Glass (2017), and for her 2015 body of work.

ABOUT THE FLEA

Founded in 1996, The Flea Theater is a New York City–based nonprofit theater dedicated to supporting adventurous artists and producing bold new work. In 2021, The Flea was refounded with a new mission to support and invest in experimental art by Black, brown, and queer artists. The Flea provides space, financial support, producing partnership and other resources so that they may develop and share their vision in community with audiences. The Flea owns and operates a state-of-the-art, LEED-certified performance center in Tribeca that houses three distinct, intimate theaters designed to encourage creativity while supporting production economies of scale. Recent world premieres include WE COME TO COLLECT: A FLIRTATION, WITH CAPITALISM by Jennifer Kidwell, BATHHOUSE.PPTX by Jesús I. Valles, and HANG TIME by Zora Howard.

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