For 25 years starting in 1972, Hot Peaches delighted theater audiences from downtown New York to western Europe with their gay camp cabaret theater shows that pulled no punches about whatever the zeitgeist obsession of the moment was, from Andy Warhol to Jackie Onassis to Martha Mitchell to Oscar Wilde to Jean Genet.
Join us to celebrate Hot Peaches, with performances from Michael Michelle Lynch, clips from the archives, and a conversation with Jimmy Camicia, the group’s co-founder, director and playwright, and Steven Watson.
Over many decades, cultural historian Steven Watson has explored the social dynamics of American avant-garde circles—from New York Dada, the birth of Greenwich Village bohemia, and the Harlem Renaissance to the Beat Generation, Andy Warhol’s Factory, and beyond. He has presented his wide-ranging subject in six books, exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery and the Pompidou Center in Paris, and a PBS documentary film. Most recently, with a team of collaborators, he has started an ongoing project, Artifacts, a nonprofit organization that preserves and presents online video interviews of pioneers of the avant-garde, queer culture, and Downtown performance via its online platform www.artifacts.movie. He traces his writing career to his first appearance in print in 1977 in GAYSWEEK: it was an interview with Jimmy Camica and Ian McKay about the Hot Peaches—now, nearly 50 years later, he is again interviewing Jimmy.
This event is the culmination of a week of events on campus centering Hot Peaches’s legacy and history. Learn more about the full week of programming, plus the lobby exhibit at NYU Skirball.
Hot Peaches
The company’s raison d’etre was to openly present shows for gay audiences and about gay life, experiences, and perspectives, written and performed by (mostly) gay people. Their legendary loft space on Christopher Street was a not-to-be-missed late-night weekend venue during the late-1970s. The group also often staged their shows at Theater for the New City.
Many downtown performance personalities of the era appeared with the troupe, including Zamba, Alexis De Lago, Jackie Curtis, Mario Montez, Marsha P. Johnson, Sister Tui, Wilhemina Ross, Lola Starr, Paulita Sedgewick, Agosto Machado, Taffy Jaffe, Ondine, Peggy Shaw, Bette Bourne, Emilio Cubeiro, Julia Dares, Lois Weaver, Nicky Paraiso, Ruby Lynn Reyner, Penny Arcade, International Chrysis, Teri Paris, Michael-Michelle Lynch, Anthony Hegerty (Anouhi), Hapi Phace, Hattie Hathaway, and Lavinia Co-Op. In addition, regular company members over the years included Jimmy Camicia, Ian MacKay, Cynthia Stardust, Lance Narebo, Marie D’Antoni, Chris Kapp, Linda Stein, Billy Bike, Cyril Cyprian, Ned Asta, Ron Jones, Amy Coleman, and Mark Hannay.
Musicians (some well-known) who played in the group’s band included James Morfogan, Luke Viglucci, Edwin Kapinos, Steve Anderson, Joe Longo, Tom Robinson, Jan Robijns, Roy Nathanson, David Neskie, Bobby Kent, Huup van der Lubbe, John Pohlman, Steve Weisberg, and Steve Kaufman — several of them composed original songs for the company’s shows. Kenny Gray often handled the technical aspects of their shows during their final decade.
Archives Onstage
Archives Onstage is a new annual interdisciplinary, cross-campus series that aims to activate and increase access to the NYU Division of Libraries’ significant performing arts-related archival holdings in relation to contemporary art and scholarship on campus, in partnership with NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. The 2025 series will center on the archives of Hot Peaches, a queer performance group that was active from the 1970s-1990s. Through multiple events, an exhibit, and curricular opportunities, the series situates these archives as integral to the past, present and future lives of the university and its surrounding artistic communities.