We’re proud to announce the return of Jill Sobule to our theater for this intimate, seated show. Jill has released a dozen of albums spanning three decades of recording, tackling such topics as the death penalty, anorexia nervosa, shoplifting, reproduction, the French Resistance, adolescent malaise, LGBTQ issues, and the Christian Right, to name a few – with her trademark wit and aplomb.

 

The Denver-born songwriter/guitarist/singer’s work is at once deeply personal and socially conscious, seriously funny and derisively tragic. While her songs cover expansive thematic ground, they benefit greatly from Jill’s subtle intelligence and skillful light-handedness. No sloganeering flag-and-fist waving here, but rather portrait-&-story songs about human beings, real and imagined, which allow us to step back from the issues they tackle, be they individual or societal, and to relate to them as we would to a close friend.

 

On stage, she entertains, amuses, provokes, and more often than not, takes her audiences on an emotional roller coaster, from comedy to pathos in a few bars of music, often within the same song.

 

Jill Sobule’s recording career began in 1990 with the album Things Here Are Different , produced by Todd Rundgren. Radio took notice thanks to the single’s “Too Cool To Fall In Love.” Her 1995 self-titled album brought her mainstream commercial and critical success with two hit singles: the satirical gem “Supermodel” from the movie Clueless and “I Kissed A Girl” (the original), the first ever openly queer-themed Billboard Top 20 record.

 

Sobule has performed with Neil Young, Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, Cyndi Lauper, Tom Morello, Warren Zevon, and John Doe. She inducted Neil Diamond into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. She has shared billing with Don Henley, Joe Jackson, Warren Zevon, the influential LA punk band X, and Lloyd Cole & The Negatives. She regularly co-stars with comedian/actress/author/SNL alumni Julia Sweeney in their Jill & Julia Show, an unusual and mesmerizing combination of song and storytelling. A road warrior, she plays more than 100 shows a year.

 

In November of 2019 Jill sang a song as herself on an episode of The Simpsons. Her latest record is “Nostalgia Kills”, produced by Ben Lee and released on her own Pinko Records label. Jill’s theater credits include a musical adaptation of the Broadway classic “Yentl”, “Prozak and the Platypus”, and “Times Square”. Her latest, “Fuck 7th Grade”, was postponed due to Covid, but was performed and filmed for three days at a make-shift drive-in over the Summer. The musical is a finalist for the Lambda Literary awards in LGBTQ Drama category this June.

 

“Jill Sobule can claim her place among the stellar New York singer-songwriters of the last decade. Topical, funny and more than a little poignant …grown-up music for an adolescent age.”  -New York Times