Thu - Jun 25, 2026 - 7:30 PM
ShakesQueer A bawdy, Bard-y ballyhoo event
June 25, 2026
Doors open at 7:00 PM, Event starts at 7:30 PM
Get ready to party with CSC! Join us for a Pride bash like only Cincy Shakes could host🌈 Cincinnati Shakespeare Company teams up with Queen City Cabaret and Smoke & Queers for a Shakespeare-themed cabaret and burlesque show, celebrating queerness in the Bard's plays.
Queen City Cabaret will present hits from Shakespeare-inspired musicals like West Side Story, The Boys from Syracuse, Kiss Me Kate, and Something Rotten as well as some Pride-ful pop and jazz!
Admission
CSC requests a $20 ticket donation to support our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access (DEIA) commitment, which will help us continue our mission of bringing Shakespeare and the Classics to life for ALL.
NEW! $50 Bubble Trouble Tables- these premium Cabaret style seats are at tables on the floor and come with 2 Rhinegeist beverages and Pride Swag!
Don't miss out on the drinks – alcoholic and non-alcoholic options - available at Bob’s Bar in the lobby throughout the night!
Event is recommended for ages 18+.
For additional accessibility needs, learn more online here or contact Patricia Ryan.
Queen City Cabaret is a Cincinnati-based arts organization and musical duo that brings captivating performances of vintage jazz and pop to venues across the country.
Founded by professional musicians (and friends!) Sarah Folsom and Matthew Umphreys in 2018, QCC celebrates the beloved songs and stories of 20th century American commercial music with intimate cabarets, large-scale concerts, and everything in between. With their signature twist of whimsy, QCC’s expertly-curated performances are designed to take listeners on a “sentimental journey,” reviving and refreshing timeless classics from the Great American Songbook that still resonate deeply with today’s audiences.
At this event, QCC will be featuring hits from Shakespeare-inspired musicals like West Side Story, The Boys from Syracuse, Kiss Me Kate, and Something Rotten as well as some Pride-ful pop and jazz!
Smoke & Queers is a queer-led, co-ed burlesque, drag, and performance art troupe that encourages all weird and wild expressions of self, gender, identity, and sexuality. As a budding nonprofit arts organization, their mission is to help connect and unify the LBGTQ+ community in Cincinnati (and beyond!) and to create a space where those outside the typical standard of beauty come to feel sexy, celebrated, and empowered. Photos in Gallery by Shonali Alm Basu
Gender nonconformity is woven throughout Shakespeare’s work. In Shakespeare’s own time, all female roles were performed by men, and beyond that, nearly one-fifth of his plays feature a character who steps outside prescribed gender roles as a central part of the story. These characters resist conformity for many reasons: to find freedom within a patriarchal society, to live more fully in their own truth and pursue their desires with agency, or to claim the love and partnership they seek. The thread that still feels deeply relevant today is the universal human need to have agency over one’s own life. CSC is proud to celebrate Pride Month with this “Shakes-Queer-ian” experience, where all bold expressions of self, gender, identity, and sexuality are welcome.
Pictured: Courtney Lucien in As You Like It. Photo by Mikki Schaffner.
Why Give To The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, And Access (Deia) Fund
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company strives to be an inclusive space for all races, ethnicities, genders, identities, orientations, abilities, creeds, and ages, where artists and audiences of all backgrounds see themselves and their stories represented, where voices that have been historically silenced are amplified, and where the experience of live theatre is reachable for all.
Your gift to support the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access Fund helps us become Cincinnati's Shakespeare Company, fostering a community of theater makers, patrons, supporters, and stakeholders who are representative of Cincinnati, united in their desire for artistic excellence, and unabashedly welcoming to all who wish to be a part of it. Because a world in which theatre matters to more people is one worth living in and one CSC commits to help to build.
