It’s no surprise that Isaac Mizrahi knows fashion. A winner of four Council of Fashion Designers of America awards, Project Runway All Stars judge, and queer QVC darling, Mizrahi has translated high fashion into affordable garments for anyone looking for a splash of style. But the multi-hyphenate talent has long had a penchant for the stage spotlight.
An alum of New York City’s famous High School for Performing Arts, Mizrahi’s passion for the stage has informed another chapter of his life: cabaret chanteuse. With performances nationwide and residencies at legendary venues like Café Carlyle and 54 Below, Mizrahi embraces his love for musical theater and the American Songbook along with a healthy dose of insider tea.
The New York Times describes Mizrahi as “a founding father of a genre that fuses performance, art, music and stand-up comedy.” He returns to 54 Below for a summer residency where audiences can expect everything from Billie Eilish to Cole Porter.
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Queerty caught up with Mizrahi as he prepared for his latest gig to reveal his dream role, favorite garment, and the queer collaborator he’d love to work with.
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Every time I sing ________, I get all tingly …
Every time I sing the song “Some Other Time” by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Camden, and Adolph Green, I get completely absorbed. It’s like I wrote it myself. I first identified it (not sure when the first time I heard it, probably way earlier) during the 1998 revival of “On The Town” with Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Lea DeLaria. (They were so great in that show, not to mention that fantastic set by Adrienne Lobel). Then I heard Blossom Dearie do it at a club in midtown, and I went berserk and tucked away the idea of trying it someday.
At my first residence at The Café Carlyle in 2016, I did it as my encore, a very spare arrangement with just me and Ben Waltzer, who is complicit with my love for this song; it’s like Ben and I are one musician, like we’ve known each other forever. (Which we have. Sort of.) That was when I bonded with that song, like a best friend.
The show that changed my life …
The greatest musical I’ve ever seen was the original production of A Chorus Line, which played when I was at the High School of Performing Arts on West 46th Street. That show changed my life. The theatre was around the corner from school, and all my friends and I were obsessed with the show. We knew every word, and we would see it many times a week in standing room (which, at the time, cost $6 and was always available).
The LGBTQ+ person I’d love to collaborate with …
I’d love to work with Elton John. Some of his music makes me melt. Him and/or Troye Sivan, who also makes me swoon.
The gayest thing about me …
The gayest thing about me is how easily I cry at the theater or the ballet or the opera. Sometimes, I start crying as the conductor marks the downbeat even before the curtain goes up. The Gypsy overture can make me hysterical.
Revive ______ so I can star in it …
Revive Victor/Victoria so I can be “Toddy.” I mean that. I think I’m so well-suited to that part. It’s a great show based on the great movie that came out when I was 22 or 23, and I remember how fabulous it felt to have a movie that was gay AND Julie Andrews. (Also, is there anything better than Robert Preston?)
Talk is cheap — but I’m not! My new podcast, Hello Isaac, chats with some of today’s most influential tastemakers. One of my favorite moments in the series so far was when …
My favorite moment of my podcast was my conversation with Jon Lovett. The whole conversation was smarter than average. Also gayer than average.
It’s been 30 years since Unzipped, the documentary that charts by the Fall 1994 collection. If the decades have taught me anything, it’s that _________ never goes out of style …
I would say skepticism never goes out of style. Diana Vreeland said something like “elegance is refusal.” I think that’s the truest thing. I think really elegant people accept very little. They are VERY discerning.
The one article of clothing you’ll have to pull out of my cold, dead hands is …
My essential garment is a black cashmere shawl I have from Loro Piana. I’ve had multiples of this item in my life since the 1990s. It’s a huge, thick, heavy, woven, blanket-like thing with fringes and a beautiful lustrous finish. I have many, and spend most of the winter wearing them. I have one in my car that lives there permanently, one on my piano bench, and two in the closet, which get worn almost every day between October and April, and I won’t go on a trip without it. At some point about five years ago, I bought four of them to keep in storage in case they stop making them. And I’m down to my last one. And I’m scared to ask if they make them anymore. I doubt they do. I don’t know what I would do without it. It’s my security blanket.
Isaac Mizrahi: A Brief History, 54 Below, New York City. Performances August 28-31.
