Miss Otis Regrets

Emerging cabaret artist, Francis Garner, has been seen on stages in Boston (Club Cafe,) Provincetown (Post Office Cafe and Cabaret,) New Bedford (The Gallery Bar) and New York City (Don’t Tell Mama, PANGEA.) Critic John Amodeo calls him “one of the Boston-area’s most promising performers.” CabaretScenes Magazine writes that his show Over The Hill: Dating Gay Over 30 was “wonderfully creepy and marvellously theatrical.” Lavender After Dark writes of the same show “for the most part, Garner alternates between two personas throughout the show…the two parts of Garner’s persona are unified by one thing: talent.”

Garner’s new show, Miss Otis Regrets, which takes its name from the classic Cole Porter song, is a darkly comedic one-man musical. Styled after both 1950’s-era radio broadcasts and modern-day podcasts, the show exemplifies the Mark Twain adage “history doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.” Timed to coincide with Pride Week, this show is a celebration of progress in the face of societal oppression.

“Miss Otis Regrets” is a genre-defying solo cabaret show that blends vintage radio drama, queer coming-of-age memoir, American socio-political history, and classic cabaret with sardonic wit and pathos. Framed by the haunting lyrics of Cole Porter’s “Miss Otis Regrets,” the show begins as a fictionalized 1950s radio broadcast detailing the life of Carl Otis, a sensitive young man navigating the dangers of queer desire in mid-century America. As Carl’s story unfolds—culminating in his exposure, public shame, and isolation—the narrative seamlessly shifts to the autobiographical journey of performer Francis Garner.

With musical interludes ranging from Arthur Schwartz to Sara Bareilles to M.C. Hammer, Francis parallels Carl’s repression and marginalization with his own queer youth in the 1990s and 2000s, tracing a path from closeted adolescent opera prodigy to disillusioned adult seeking authenticity. Wry commercial parodies and historical references (Eisenhower’s Executive Order 10450, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the AIDS crisis) lend political and cultural context, while candid monologues and powerful musical numbers bring emotional immediacy. The show culminates in a celebration of self-acceptance and resilience, underscored by a defiantly hopeful rendition of “Defying Gravity.”