A gay hip hop opera that opened in an Alberta gay bar and toured the fringe festival circuit in Canada is headed for the cradle of rap, New York City.

Bash'd, performed by Edmonton actors Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow, will open in an off-Broadway run this June.

Nathan Cuckow, left, and Chris Craddock, as Feminem and T-Bag, are stars of the gay hip hop opera Bash'd.
(Bash'd blogspot)

The three-month New York run comes after a U.S. debut at the NY International Fringe Festival in 2007 and a GLAAD Media Award for best musical.

"You know there's stuff that you hope, to take a show to New York City and get as much exposure as possible," Cuckow told CBC News.

"Our experience this summer when we did the Fringe, was that [Americans] were taken by the political aspect of the show and very moved by it," he said.

Cuckow says Bash'd, which centres on a gay couple and a gay-bashing during the debate on same-sex marriage in Canada, has a political message at its heart.

But it's essentially a piece of opera — with a moving love story and a fast-paced rap score that is a homage to rap by two performers who love the genre.

It's also hilarious. "Besides being hugely imaginative, energized and brash, Bash'd is also very, very funny," the Calgary Herald said in a 2008 review.
 
"It's all rapping, all the time," said Craddock. "We go through a love story — there's a country mouse and a city mouse and they get together and fall in love and the one from the city is the victim of gay-bashing during the equal marriage debate and it focuses on the anger that his partner feels until he is driven to go out and create some random violence himself."

Craddock admits the pair are calling rap on its often overt homophobia.

"Being as homophobic as it has [been] in its history, it's also challenged us to flip it on its head," he said.

And despite the main characters' names — Feminem and T-Bag — it's far from a parody of hip hop, Craddock said.

"We believe in form and in the power of the form… Hip hop in its origin was to give a voice to an underclass, initially African Americans. It can be a vehicle for anyone who's lacking a voice today."

The production features music by Aaron Macri and direction by Ron Jenkins.

Stephen Kocis, who produced Altar Boyz and Carl D. White, who produced Naked Boys Singing, are backing the off-Broadway run. The theatre has yet to be determined.