VARLA JEAN’S INTERNATIONAL TOUR STOPS
AT CATALINA IN HOLLYWOOD FOR TWO SHOWS ONLY
TUES, OCTOBER 8 and WED, OCTOBER 9, 2024 AT 8:30PM
Chris Isaacson Presents and Catalina is bringing back drag icon and award-winning singer and comedienne Varla Jean Merman to Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood with her new show The Errors Tour for two performances only on Tuesday, October 8, and Wednesday, October 9, at 8:30pm. (And if’n you ain’t in Hollywood, check out the Errors tour schedule at Varla Jean.)
Varla Jean Merman is at it again! Faster than you can say, “Ticketmaster site crash,” Varla Jean has swiftly tailored The Errors Tour for her fans. Everyone’s favorite ditzy diva will take the audience through her catalogue of hilarious hits and egregious errors in a show jam-packed with classic bits, giant wigs, over-taxed costumes, and new songs. Written by Jeffery Roberson, Ricky Graham, and Jacques LaMarre. Directed by Michael Schiralli.
Varla Jean Merman is a character originated and portrayed by Jeffery Roberson, an American actor, singer and drag performer. Varla’s fictitious pedigree boasts that Ernest Borgnine is her father and Ethel Merman is her mother. Roberson has almost always been credited as either “Varla Merman” or “Varla Jean Merman” rather than his birth name, though in the role of Mary Sunshine in the Broadway revival of Chicago, he’s credited as the gender-neutral “J. Roberson,” in keeping with the show’s tradition of concealing the performer’s gender.
Varla Jean starred in the musical Lucky Guy opposite Leslie Jordan at the Little Shubert Theatre in New York City in 2011, and the New York Times said, “If Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman had stood in front of the right pair of funhouse mirrors, they might have resembled Ms. Merman and Mr. Jordan in stature as well as comedic talent.” More recently, Loe starred in the films Hush Up, Sweet Charlotte, Girls Will Be Girls, and Varla Jean and the Mushroomheads. Off-Broadway audiences have also embraced him in the title role of Giancarlo Menotti’s opera The Medium as well as the title role in the musical comedy farce Mildred Fierce. He played the role of Mary Sunshine on Broadway in the revival of Chicago as well as in the First National Tour. In 2010, he won Boston’s Elliot Norton Award for Best Musical Performance in Phantom of the Oprah. Loe’s longtime collaboration with the prolific Ricky Graham has produced such hits as Hello Dawlin’!, Gone With the Breaking Wind, Steel Poinsettias, and the hugely successful Scrooge in Rouge which will receive nine productions across the country in 2024. As Varla Jean, Loe has filled concert halls and cabarets across the world, including the Sydney Opera House and Carnegie Hall. He made his network television debut on All My Children, guest starred on Ugly Betty and was on Bravo’s Project Runway (Season Five) as the winning model in the show’s drag challenge.
