The Stonewall Jukebox: A Documentary Concert

Acclaimed New York performer, singer, and producer David Driver recently announced The Stonewall Jukebox: A Documentary Concert, live at City Winery in New York City on June 28 and benefitting The Stonewall Community Foundation. Part jubilant musical performance, part little-known oral history, the show tells the unexpected and profoundly uplifting story of how The Stonewall Uprising came to be, and how it continues to impact contemporary LGBTQ+ culture. Tickets are available now to purchase here.

Through musical performances interwoven with contemporaneous texts pulled from magazines, books, interviews, and songs that were played at The Stonewall Inn, the show pays homage to the very real people who lived, fought, and survived The Stonewall Uprising, and sheds a light on the social and political climate that paved the way for one of the most significant turning points in LGBTQ+ history.

“I was drawn to this material by its diversity. Its joy. Its exuberance,” Driver says. “During the phase when we were researching the material itself, I loved to close my eyes and imagine what it must have been like in that sweatbox of a venue, 50 years ago, surrounded by all sorts of people having all sorts of experiences. Having no clue that they were about to be in the midst of a huge moment in our shared history.”

Joining Driver and his band The Riot Squad on stage are guest singers and narrators like Michael Musto, Aisha de Haas (RENT, Caroline, or Change), Everett Bradley (Bon Jovi, Springsteen), beloved downtown NYC icons Machine Dazzle (Taylor Mac), queer burlesque legend Tigger!, and many more, whose diversity reflects the fierce demographics of The Stonewall Inn circa 1969.

Scant evidence survives from the venue itself, but one major piece of information remains: the music that was on the venue’s two jukeboxes. Through the work of artists like ​​Sly & the Family Stone, Judy Garland, The Flirtations, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Petula Clark, Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Lesley Gore, and The Beatles that, with hindsight, seem eerily prescient in reflecting the queer experience, The Stonewall Jukebox presents an evocative environment of joy and exuberance that shines a light on how and why this historical moment remains at the forefront of our cultural consciousness.