The Gay Agenda

 
With the onslaught of new cabaret acts fronted by burgeoning gay Broadway stars, gay Glee-wannabes and gay musical-theater fanatics it’s hard to be gay and stand out in the crowd. But for geek-ish musicians Nicholas Williams and Micah Bucey, going gay was the only thing to do with their Smothers Brothers-influenced cabaret act. “Our goal is to take over the world through show tunes, so I can’t imagine calling ourselves anything else,” declares the rubber-faced Bucey, 30, who by day is studying for his Masters of Divinity degree at New York Theological Seminary. So with tongue firmly planted in cheek they named their band The Gay Agenda (ThatGayAgendaBand.WordPress.com) and have been performing their snarky original songs and mini-musicals (covering everything from Disney to the Virgin Mary) in sold-out shows at La MaMa ETC, Joe’s Pub and the Players Loft for the past two years.
 
“I had always been interested in having a band of some sort,” says pianist and “straight” man Williams, 30, who also works as a music teacher. “But with Micah’s more inherent theatrical sensibilities and our mutual interest in musical theater, the band has become more of a hybrid comedy-theater-musical experience.” Lately the duo has been grabbing people’s attention, with their popular YouTube videos and a residency at Ars Nova. (They will be returning to Joe’s Pub on August 26—as Bucey flirts: “We might take our shirts off and we’ve been working out!”)
 
And big things can be expected from these boys. “I’ve always wanted to write Broadway musicals, and I think we’re heading in the same direction together,” says Williams. “In 20 years, I think we’ll finally have a show starring Laura Bell Bundy running on the Great White Way. But maybe that’ll be the third or fourth one to have made it there.” —Benjamin Solomon