Rufus Wainwright Keeps Giving

02/27/09 1:55pm

Rufus Wainwright is in a giving mood these days.

The singer, songwriter and musician will give three benefit solo performances in New York City over the next week, starting tomorrow (Saturday) at Abrons Arts Center.

Wainwright will be part of Folly: The Grand Street Follies 2009: A Vaudeville For The New Depression, an "old school" vaudeville show featuring "comedy, intriguing skits, unusual musical numbers, spectacle extravaganzas and more than a few surprises" that will benefit God's Love We Deliver and Tweed TheaterWorks.

Wainwright will be joined by a lot of people we don't know, including Caroline Rhea, Kristine Zbornik, Robert La Fosse as Isadora Duncan, Jackie Hoffman, Frank DeCaro, David Ilku, Dirty Martini, Flotilla DeBarge, Brenda Bergman & The Bodacious TaTas, Sweetie, Poor Baby Bree, Jim David, The Dueling Bankheads, Carol Lipnik, Todd Almond, The Flute Friends, Wallace Shawn and Deborah Eisenberg, Wallie Wolfgruber Dance, Gina Vetro's Flopera!, Joseph Keckler, Ken Bullock as Ragu Mountain Woman, Hooba Havem, Stine Coen, The Butoh Rockettes and Tony Conniff & The Grand St. Follies Band. It looks like it could be a drag queen's dream.

More familiar names will be part of the Rock-It Science Festival on March 3, where musical scientists and science-friendly musicians will share the Highline Ballroom stage with Wainwright to raise funds for The Sensation And Emotion Network.

The impressive house band will be composed of guitarists Steve Wynn, Lenny Kaye and Peter Holsapple, bassist Stuart Chatwood and drummer Linda Pitmon, while Twisted Sister's Dee Snider is slated to contribute some "heavy mental music."

Anna Copa Cabanna will act as the emcee, while Pamela Luss, The Kennedys, Coles Whalen, Jeff Peretz, Hula Hoop Harlot Melissa Anne, Gary Lucas, The Amygdaloids featuring Joe LeDoux, Daniel Levitin, Pardis Sabeti And Thousand Days and Dave Soldier's Spinozas will rock scientifically, or something.

Wainwright's third benefit is his sold-out March 4 show at City Winery to promote Blackoutsabbath, an energy conservation initiative scheduled for June 21.

We'll assume that Wainwright will be paid for these gigs:

April 24 Great Barrington, MA @ The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
April 25 Harrisburg, PA @ Sunoco Performance Theater
April 29 Anaheim, CA @ House Of Blues Anaheim
April 30 Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
June 16 Paris, France @ Cite De La Musique