About Tom Wilson Weinberg

Tom Wilson Weinberg is a singer and songwriter with a bent for musical theater. He has written words and music for the Off-Broadway shows TEN PERCENT REVUE and GET USED TO IT!, two solo albums, ALL-AMERICAN BOY, and GAY NAME GAME, and the Stonewall 25 commemorative CD, DON'T MESS WITH MARY. His songs have been performed by cabaret singers and choruses and his work has appeared on several recordings by other artists.

Tom's first two albums, GAY NAME GAME (1979) and ALL-AMERICAN BOY (1982), were released on LP and cassette by Aboveground Records under the name Tom Wilson. Among the first gay-themed albums, they were reviewed in gay newspapers and magazines (the few that existed) from New York to Los Angeles to Tokyo, and both found an audience around the country and around the world. At that time Aboveground Records was affiliated with BMI and is now a publisher-member of ASCAP. Tom is a writer-member of ASCAP and also belongs to Outmusic and The Purple Circuit.

TEN PERCENT REVUE opened March 15, 1985, at the Arlington Street Church in Boston, featuring Jean Gautier, Robin White Portnoy, Elliot Pilshaw and joey Brandon with Tom at the piano and Lisa Koch on bass. The Boston Globe and Boston Herald published reviews which filled the seats and put the show on the map. TPR went on to play in major cities around the country, with touring companies and local casts. Increasingly ill with AIDS, joey Brandon left the cast and directed a version of the show for Provincetown, which enjoyed a sold-out summer-long run followed by four summers.

Laura Green, who had produced TPR in P´town, took the show to Washington, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Portland, San Francisco and eventually New York for an Off-Broadway run. With Lisa Joy Bernstein as accompanist and musical director the show ran for ten months, starting at the Susan Block Theatre in Chelsea and moving to the Actor´s Playhouse in Greenwich Village. The show continued to tour, earning two Los Angeles Drama-Logue Awards, three Golden Gull Awards (Provincetown), and the Bessie Smith Award for the author (Boston). TPR has had some 60 stagings.

In 1993, Tom´s GET USED TO IT! was produced by The Glines at The Courtyard Playhouse in New York. The show had a long run, was subsequently published by Broadway Play Publishing Company, and has enjoyed runs in numerous cities around the U.S. Wayne Barker was the musical director and accompanist for GET USED TO IT! in New York, which starred Sebastian Herald, John O’Brien and Todd Whitely. Barker also produced the GUTI CD.

In honor of Stonewall 25, Aboveground Records released the CD DON´T MESS WITH MARY (1994). Featuring Craig Richey, Jan Tilley, Tina Benez, The New York City Gay Men´s Chorus Chamber Choir and Wayne Barker, "MARY" was distributed all over the country that year. Songs include the Stonewall anthem Bricks and Bottles, a Barker-produced remix of Safe Sex Slut, and the Chamber Choir singing Before Stonewall. The title song was featured on the gay TV series IN THE LIFE.

Numerous gay and lesbian choruses have included Tom´s material in their repertoires. Tom´s 15-minute-musical, SIXTY YEARS WITH BRUHS & GEAN, was commissioned by the New York City Gay Men´s Chorus, premiered at Carnegie Hall, and later sung at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center.

In 1996, Tom´s song Lesbian Seagull was featured in the Paramount/MTV film BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD DO AMERICA, sung by B&B’s creator Mike Judge. During the final credits Engelbert Humperdinck sings the version on the Universal/Geffen Records soundtrack. The seagulls nested for 20 weeks on the Billboard charts.

An early version of ELEANOR & HICK played in Philadelphia in 1997 and was later produced at the John Houseman Studio Theatre in New York. It is currently in development with book writer Peggy Stafford and director Darren Katz. Tom subsequently staged two musical revues, THE TOM WILSON WEINBERG SONGBOOK and SONGBOOK VOLUME II.

Tom’s musical THE TEACHINGS OF CHAIRMAN RICK for the 2005 Philadelphia Fringe Festival spoofed Senator (now Former Senator) Rick Santorum and was revived the following year. His play with music After GUANTÁNAMO was staged for Philly Fringe 2006, and a full-length version of SIXTY YEARS WITH BRUHS & GEAN produced by David Perkiss in 2007, starred Justin Damm, Keith Kaczorowski and Melissa Kolczynski, with artistic direction by Kevin Broad.