Dates Set for Sylvester Musical's San Francisco Debut, NYC Comeback

Do you still wanna funk?

Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical, writer and star Anthony Wayne's celebration of late disco legend Sylvester, will live on.

Following an acclaimed off-Broadway premiere, Mighty Real will begin preview performances February 11 and officially open February 14 at San Francisco's Brava Theater Center, where it is scheduled to run through March 1. Brava! For Women in the Arts, which owns and operates the Brava Theater Center, is an arts organization "dedicated to cultivating the artistic expression of women, youth, LGBT, people of color, and other unheard voices."

The musical, which ended its limited off-Broadway engagement October 5 at the Theatre at St. Clement's, will also return to New York with a special one-night performance January 18 at the Gramercy Theatre.

Codirected by Wayne, a 2014 Out 100 honoree, and his partner, costume designer Kendrell Bowman, Mighty Real "pays tribute to the 'Queen of Disco,' Sylvester, telling his story through his music and his point of view," according to press notes. "Beyond all the trials and tribulations of his life -- and the glitz and glamour of his lifestyle -- Sylvester was not only a symbol for being Fabulous, but also a pioneer in the LGBTQ community for showing, unapologetically, you have to be true to who you are."

The off-Broadway premiere of Mighty Real, which was coproduced by Sheryl Lee Ralph/The Diva Foundation, also starred Anastacia McCleskey, Jacqueline B. Arnold, DeAnne Stewart, and Rahmel McDade.

Before focusing on his solo career, which yielded hit singles such as "(You Make Me Feel) Mighty Real," Sylvester performed in San Francisco with the Cockettes, a drag troupe. The androgynous Dance Music Hall of Fame inductee was also a founding member of the Disquotays, a group of black drag queens and trans women. As an activist he spoke out against the spread of HIV/AIDS until his own AIDS-related death in 1988.

"I was inspired by his drive to be who he was regardless of what he went through," Wayne told The Advocate. "Nowadays, people have their own labels for what they want to say. He was just Sylvester."

For more information about Mighty Real visit FabulousSylvester.com.