Adelaide Mestre’s Musical ‘Top Drawer’ Comes To Sag Harbor - 27 East

Arts & Living

Arts & Living / 1825501

Adelaide Mestre’s Musical ‘Top Drawer’ Comes To Sag Harbor

icon 1 Photo
Adelaide Mestre

Adelaide Mestre

authorStaff Writer on Oct 12, 2021

On October 22 and October 23, The Church in Sag Harbor will host two performances of “Top Drawer: Stories of Dysfunction and Redemption from Park Avenue to Havana,” Adelaide Mestre’s award-winning show of her journey to Cuba to seek out her deceased father’s piano, left behind when her family fled in 1960.

The show takes place in both the past and present as the audience follows her on her quest to reclaim her family’s heritage. In flashbacks, she chronicles her life growing up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side with her mother, a thrice married, opera-singing socialite with impossible top-drawer standards, and her father, a gay, Cuban, manic-depressive concert pianist. In story and song, she shares about her parents doomed love affair, her father’s struggle with his homosexuality, and his eventual tragic suicide.

On her journey, she learns of a famous speech her grandfather gave against Castro and recovers old recordings of her father playing the piano with an orchestra in Havana in 1954. With sentiment and humor, she spins a tale of dysfunction and redemption and, ultimately, shares her discovery that art can be a kind of alchemy that transmutes loss and abandonment into freedom.

“Top Drawer” will make you laugh, cry and maybe even … sing. “Top Drawer” premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2011, and has enjoyed multiple, return engagements at NYC’s Stage 72. In 2013, it was presented, in sold-out shows, at New York’s Symphony Space by The Cuban Cultural Center of New York and in Miami by the Cuban Museum. “Top Drawer” was produced in Boston for Friends of Caritas Cubana and most recently in the 2017 Sarasolo Festival in Sarasota, where it won the Bill Bowers Award of Excellence.

Performances at the Church are Friday, October 22, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, October 23, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $40, payable at the door, or purchase tickets in advance through the website. Proof of vaccinations and masks will be required to enter. The Church is at 48 Madison Street, Sag Harbor. For details, visit sagharborchurch.org.

You May Also Like:

'Bonnie & Clyde' Cast and Crew Announced for Bay Street Musical

Bay Street Theater has unveiled the complete cast and creative teams for its pulse-pounding musical ... 7 Jul 2025 by Staff Writer

Claes Brondal Makes a Scene of Jazz

The day after the successful Hamptons JazzFest summer launch party attracted several hundred guests at ... by Dan Ouellette

Hamptons Fine Art Fair Returns to Southampton for 19th Edition

Jackson Pollock, the Abstract Expressionist painter who spent years on the East End, once quipped ... by Dan Stark

‘Six In The Mix’ Exhibition Showcases East End Artists at Ashawagh Hall, July 11 to 13

“Six In The Mix,” an art exhibition featuring local artists Kirsten Benfield, John Kneapler, John ... by Staff Writer

'The Westhampton Beach Project' Returns for an Exciting Weekend of Dance and Music

There’s no shortage on the East End of places to enjoy live music, fine art ... by Dan Stark

'Luminosity: LongHouse Benefit & Auction 2025' Preview Vernissage

LongHouse Reserve invites the public to an exclusive preview vernissage of “Luminosity: LongHouse Benefit & ... by Staff Writer

Ellen Wiener’s ‘Green Shade’ Grows Wild at Dan Welden Gallery in Noyac

Dan Welden Gallery in Noyac will present “Green Shade,” a solo exhibition by North Fork ... by Staff Writer

In Conversation: Carol Saft and Elaine Sexton, Sunday, July 13, at Duck Creek

Join artist Carol Saft and poet and critic Elaine Sexton for an intimate conversation Sunday, ... by Staff Writer

Feel the Groove: Joy Jan Jones Brings Jazz Vibes to East Hampton Library

Joy Jan Jones, a seasoned performer who has appeared at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, ... by Staff Writer

Bee Gees Gold Tribute Returns to The Suffolk for Two Shows

The Suffolk will welcome back “Bee Gees Gold: The Tribute” for two performances on Saturday ... by Staff Writer