In BUSTED! THE MUSICAL, actress Bianca Leigh recounts the real-life events surrounding her arrest for alleged solicitation against the backdrop of the 'Black Monday' stock market crash of 1987. While cooling her 6-inch heels in the clink awaiting arraignment, Bianca looks back at her past and tries to make sense of how a skinny Jersey boy with dreams of becoming a great Shakespearean actress ended up as a high-priced dominatrix. In a tour-de-force performance both hilarious and moving, Bianca revisits her past as a young transwoman in early transition and brings to vivid life more than a dozen characters she encountered then, from her disappointed mother to the sadistic corrections officer who enacts the ultimate humiliation. With original music by prominent queer composers and lyricists, this show asks, "If I can be a woman, what could you have been?"

Directed by Theatre Askew artistic director Tim Cusack with musical direction by William TN Hall, this solo show features original songs by Tony winner Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q), OBIE winners Taylor Mac (The Lily’s Revenge) and Ellen Maddow (The Talking Band), Jeff Domoto (Cornbury: The Queen’s Governor), Super Buddha (Debbie Harry, Scissor Sisters), Matty Pritchard and Isam Rum (The Din) and William TN Hall.

Busted! The Musical is part of a week of GenderFluid arts programming at Baruch Performing Arts Center.