Elizabeth Dahmen front; Photo by Liz Liguori
Elizabeth Dahmen is a comedian, actor and singer who's performed in countless productions in NYC over the last 10 years. She's been featured in The L Magazine, and in GO Magazine’s “100 Women We Love.� She also hosted karaoke at Meow Mix for three years before it closed down and starred in the hit lesbian short "Bar Talk " directed by Cheryl Furjanic. She starred in "Ex-Antwone" a controversial play directed by Juan Souki that had an English language world premiere at PS 122 last fall, and just recently shot a scene in Madeleine Olnek's upcoming film.
She's also Terry Tone of The Lesbian Overtones. Here's Elizabeth...
How would you describe The Lesbian Overtones and your performances? What do you think you bring to the group?
Our performances follow a very specific formula. We enter wearing one of numerous costumes (usually black
button downs, white bowties and white belts), I blow a “C� on the pitch pipe, we do a scale where we substitute L-G-B-T-L-G-B-T for do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do and then I introduce the band. I act as the director, manager, producer and lead of the group. We all use aliases when we perform to give the impression that we’re a family. Not a biological family, but a lesbian family. I’m Terry Tone, and over the years we’ve gone through a number of singers, including: Tina, Tammy, Tonya, Toni, Tasha, Tiffany, Taylor, Treasure, and Trinity tone. After introductions we sing an a cappella medley of classic lesbian songs. The catagory of “classic lesbian songs� is a big one, and we’ve included everyone from Ani Difranco and The Indigo Girls, to Cyndi Lauper and Bette Midler.
If I were to list my skills in order of strength they would go performer, comedian, singer. I’m not the strongest singer in the group, but I’ve had years of experience performing live comedy and well as working as a stage actor. I feel more like a team captain than a director, I keep morale up when our audiences don’t get us and I can make split second decisions about our set depending on what the venue, show, or energy of the night calls for.
Also, I wrote and directed our latest musical adventure "The Lesbian Overtones: Behind the Harmony." This show was a full length musical that premiered in July at the Dixon Place HOT Festival to a stellar response.
How did The Lesbian Overtones come about?
About four years ago my friend and creative partner Cheryl Furjanic and I were standing in line for a play in midtown Manhattan when she abruptly turned to me and said, “Wouldn’t it be funny to start an a cappella group called the Lesbian Overtones?� I laughed out loud, agreed, and then we went into the play.
Cheryl and I had been producing our own comedy shows since 1996 (from our all-girl sketch group “neon tina� to our wildly successful short film about the lesbian bar scene, "Bar Talk" and it was not unusual for Cheryl to blurt out something brilliant like that, and then not give it another thought.
In the mean time, I was premiering a new seasonal cabaret comedy show called “Lip Service� and I was scouting for some new numbers. I called Cheryl up and asked her if she remembered the Lesbian Overtones idea, and would she like to gather a group of singers together and perform it at the next “Lip Service�? She was thrilled and a few weeks later the Lesbian Overtones performed live for the first time! The audience went crazy for us and we decided the idea was a keeper and we had to make the band official. We’ve been performing continuously since then.
The Lesbian Overtones with Cindy Lauper; Elizabeth Dahmen left; Photo by Liz Liguori
Are your overtones always understood? What are some examples of overtones that are often harder for audiences to get?
Audiences react to us in a huge variety of ways. To say that we have lesbian overtones (literally) is an understatement. We are blatantly, overwhelmingly, and intentionally lesbian. From our tag line, “all lesbian, all a cappella, all the time� to our costumes, we are intentionally (and quite stereotypically) lesbian with a capital L. We take our music and style from the mid-to-late 90’s lesbian music scene. We’re a comedy troupe and a lot of people don’t want to believe that we can make fun of ourselves so well. People often think we’re “real.�
We introduce ourselves as an a cappella group from Northampton, Massachussetts, however none of us live in Northampton. It’s part of our schtick, but I can’t tell you how many times people come up to us after shows and ask, “Do you guys come down from Northampton a lot?� And then we’re faced with the problem of either breaking character and saying, “Actually, we’re a comedy troupe and we all live in Brooklyn,� or continuing the performance offstage by saying, “Oh yes, we come down to New York City all the time!� We say we’re from Northampton because that’s where Smith (a lesbian and a cappella mecca) is. It is believable and funny. What’s amazing is that anyone would believe that an actual lesbian a cappella group from Northampton would book shows at the Gotham comedy club, or with Murray Hill for example.
However I feel it’s important to stress that we are actually all self-identified lesbians. We’re not straight girls making fun of lesbians. The music that we sing is the music that we came out to. We look back at the mid-to-late 90s and we laugh at how earnestly we sang along to songs like Melissa Etheridges “Yes I am!� or Ani’s “Both Hands.� And now when we sing these songs it’s funny to sing them with the same degree of earnestness, but with a wink and a nod to the other people in the audience who recognize that time in their life. Some people laugh because they get it, other people laugh because it’s a cappella, and I’m sure some people laugh because they just think lesbians in flannel singing the Indigo Girls is so classically stereotypical. Granted, some people just stare and don’t laugh at all. I think that’s good.
Where can readers see The Lesbian Overtones?
We’ll be performing our musical again this fall at select venues, visit us at www.myspace.com/thelesbianovertones for updates and details.
What do you love about a cappella?
Women's voices singing in harmony is one of the most beautiful things in the world, and watching a cappella is one of the most hilarious things in the world. We love a cappella because it’s cheesy and beautiful all at the same time. For the folks that don’t get the joke, they can always just sit back and enjoy the music.
Any upcoming Overtone projects?
Our musical!! “The Lesbian Overtones: Behind the Harmony� will be going up again this fall, check our myspace for details!
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