THE

FLIRT
BAR

The Flirt Bar Musical

The Flirt Bar

Book by Susan Lambert Hatem
Songs by Michelle Malone and Songs by Amy Ray

How do we get over heartbreak enough to trust in love again?

2022

- Semi-finalist for the SDSU New Musical Initiative
- The Flirt Bar participated in the 2022 OP Forward Industry Week.
- Two-Day Concert Reading by Charlotte’s Off-Broadway! Dec. 17 & 18 at the VAPA Center.

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2021

- The Flirt Bar is thrilled to be invited to the Orchard Project’s Performance Lab!

Susan Lambert Hatem will be working with singer-songwriters Amy Ray and Michelle Malone along with producer Anne Lambert of Charlotte's Off-Broadway to develop the new musical comedy, The Flirt Bar.

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The Story

The Flirt Bar Musical NYC New Musical Broadway Theatre

When Bible Belt wife, HONEY B. DEWS loses everything in the divorce from her cheating husband except a Strip Club he owned, she intends to burn it down or sell it to pay off crushing IRS debt. Instead her book club friends convince Honey to turn the Strip Club into THE FLIRT BAR, where women can go to drink and be flirted with, because what women REALLY want is to be truly seen and admired.

The lead singer of the band that comes with the bar, RAQUEL RAMONE, is Honey’s opposite - a hard-singing, god-fearing, gay Greek chorus. Raquel demands that THE FLIRT BAR must also cater to women of all sexual orientations. Honey is initially reluctant, but gives in hoping it will piss off her ex. Working hard to make THE FLIRT BAR a success, HONEY has to deal with hard-nosed AGENT RONALD from the IRS, the feeling she’s old and over, and a religious uprising from her best friend, DORNA. When Raquel is confronted by an old girlfriend, ALYSSA, and Agent Ronald develops feelings for Honey, everybody in The Flirt Bar has to learn to fully trust in love. Not the just flirty parts. Not just the kissing part. But the full-on, kick-your-guts-in and maybe-get-hurt commitment part.

It’s like Once meets Kinky Boots, but with less boots and more lesbians.

The Flirt Bar - A new musical about heartache, love and flirting. Book by Susan Lambert Hatem. Songs by Michelle Malone and Amy Ray. Come on down. Everyone is beautiful at the flirt bar.

Charlotte's off broawady Cast

The Flirt Bar - A new musical about heartache, love and flirting. Book by Susan Lambert Hatem. Songs by Michelle Malone and Amy Ray. Come on down. Everyone is beautiful at the flirt bar.

Top Row (L to R): Harley Quinn, Veda Covington, Stephanie DiPaolo, Patrick Keenan, Lane Morris
Bottom Row (L to R): Brandon Barber, Johanna Jowett, Isaac Zerkle, Iesha Nyree and Joanna Gerdy.

The Team

SUSAN LAMBERT HATEM (BOOK)
Susan Lambert Hatem is a writer, producer and director originally from Decatur, GA now based in Pasadena, CA. She made her Off-Broadway debut November 2019 with Confidence (and The Speech), a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill. Her company, 134 West, develops new works and diverse voices for theatre, film and TV including An Appalachian Twelfth Night, Homeward LA, O Baby Mine: Sing a Song of Shakespeare, Poison Apple, Ty The Pie Guy and the critically acclaimed, new musical Bend in the Road: The Anne of Green Gables Musical.Susan served as Director of Creative Content for Walt Disney Studios, producing over 100 digital campaigns, including Finding Nemo, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Incredibles and The Chronicles of Narnia. She developed the first Disney Pictures mobile site and holds a patent for Disney’s first online entertainment ticketing system. As a strategy consultant she worked for Dreamworks Animation, FilmDistrict and Google. Before Disney, Susan was Associate Editor at Boxoffice Magazine. She has written for Variety, Produced By and Bald Mountain Books. A Clio and Key Art Award-winner, Susan holds a BA and MFA from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

MICHELLE MALONE (SONGS) Michelle Malone's a wild-haired Rock Goddess, political singer/songwriter, passionate raw performer with early roots in the church choir  – no single characterization tells the whole story. A singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer whose music is informed by roots rock, blues, folk and Georgia soul, Malone's performances can go from contemplative coffeehouse quiet to rowdy and "Deluxe reverb on 10" at the turn of a dime. Her passionate style has won her loyal following worldwide. She’s performed with artists from Gregg Allman to Ellen Degeneres, John Mayer to the Atlanta Symphony, Indigo Girls to Shawn Mullins, released more than a dozen records and went indie when it still took guts. Michelle Malone balances her penchant for ripping it through the roof with masterful lyrical introspection and songs from sublime to raucous.

Amy Ray (SONGS)
Singer, songwriter, and activist Amy Ray broke through to mainstream success in the late 1980s as one-half of acclaimed the folk-rock duo Indigo Girls, whose self-titled sophomore album earned them a Grammy award in 1990. With their defiant messages of LGBTQ rights, environmentalism, feminism, and willingness to take on challenging social and political issues, Ray and her musical partner, Emily Saliers, became one of the most enduring female acts of the '90s, weaving activism with art and building a large and deeply devoted fan base that continued to support them thru the decades.
Ray launched a solo career in 2001 with gritty Southern punk album, Stag. Alternating between Indigo Girls releases, managing her own Daemon Records label, and supporting a variety of causes including gun control, women's rights, and indigenous struggles, Ray released six solo albums from punk to Americana, featuring many guest appearances, including Vince Gill, Brandi Carlile, Justin Vernon, Jim James and Phil Cook. Most recently, the Indigo Girls released their 16th studio album, LOOK LONG.

Anne Lambert (PRODUCER)
Under the banner Charlotte’s Off-Broadway, Anne Lambert and her artistic collaborators produce projects that portray authentic female experiences, dramatize questions of social injustice and inequality, and illuminate the role women can play to advance socially progressive, transformative possibilities and solutions to enduring questions of gender privilege and bias. COB entertains audiences with provocative, innovative, contemporary work that explores popular culture, marriage, adult friendships, career successes and failures, and art. Recent COB productions include: THREE DAYS OF RAIN, I’LL EAT YOU LAST, RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN, STONES IN HIS POCKETS, THE SMELL OF THE KILL and CONFIDENCE (AND THE SPEECH). Anne is a founding member of Chickspeare, Charlotte’s all-female Shakespeare company. Anne has brought many theatrical projects to fruition with Chickspeare, including HOP, DROP & PLAY: Shakespeare in a Day at NoDa Brewery and THE COMEDY OF ERRORS at the Warehouse Performing Arts Center in Cornelius, NC. With Matt Olin, she produced LIFEGAME for BareBones Theatre Group and THE HOTEL PROJECT at the Charlotte Marriott Center City. Anne has performed as an actor with many regional companies, including COB, Chickspeare, Theatre Charlotte, Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte, Warehouse PAC, and Davidson Community Players.

The Music

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