The Rose Room Comes to East Williamsburg, Offering “Nights of Mystery and Wonder”

The Rose Room, a nightlife variety show coming to queer bar and performance space 3 Dollar Bill on May 13th, is here to answer the prayers of live performance-deprived Brooklynites.

The queer, inclusive, body-positive experience is hosted by New York-based entertainer Mister Dusty Rose, whose shows – like Ghost Show, which toured in the U.S. and U.K. – typically present an immersive audience experience. At The Rose Room, likewise, guests can expect to feel personally taken care of.

There are 25 tables available at each show, which seat either two or four people (guests book by table), and Mister Dusty Rose — who goes by Dusty — personally seats every guest, he told Bklyner.

Billed as “the secret place where the queers and bohemians gather for nights of mystery and wonder,” The Rose Room isn’t actually a secret; it is, however, a place where guests share a private moment with the host.

“When you come to the show, you’re greeted personally by me at the door. I bring you in. I get you all the way through check-in, and I seat you at your table,” Dusty said. “This is our secret space – you and me, between me the host, and you the audience.”

A few resident company members — those that will perform regularly — come from Broadway, the interactive theater experience Sleep No More, and Bushwick-based burlesque and dance group, Company XIV. Several guest performers have been headliners in London and Las Vegas.

Aside from offering a ‘Broadway-quality’ experience, Dusty said, he wanted The Rose Room — which runs through Pride month, in June — to serve as a place where the queer and trans communities could feel welcome, as well as represented on stage.

“When I was working together with the producers and we were putting the show together, it was important for us to consult with other members of the community,” said Dusty. “It was kind of the goal in casting the show that no matter who you were, you would be attracted to them.”

Under the “brand” of The Rose Room, said co-producer — and professional magician — Zach Alexander, it makes sense to have people with so many different skill sets together in one room.

“It’s like a Justice League moment; so many people would never perform in the same space, because they weren’t even in the same art form.”

For performers like Sam Urdang, Resident Circus Artist, The Rose Room’s opening night will be the first time in over a year that they’ll have performed in a live, recurring show in a brick and mortar venue.

“I am ecstatic at the idea that people are actually going to be sitting there actually watching a show that I’m in again – it’s going to be lovely,” Urdang told Bklyner.

Urdang, who kept busy over the last year by teaching himself tricks like flair bartending – a type of performance that combines juggling with the manipulation of bar tools – is excited to build a new act around these skills.

“Because Dusty is such a theater-based and theater-driven performer, I think his sensibilities allow to inject theatricality into what I’m doing in a way that other places sort of haven’t – or not as much,” he said.

While producers are taking extra precautions to make the show COVID-19-safe, “everyone is going to get a special moment that is just for them in the show,” Dusty said. “Just because we are physically distanced doesn’t mean that we are not going to try and connect with each and every person that comes.”

Tickets for The Rose Room can be purchased on the 3 Dollar Bill website.