Most singer-songwriters rely on their lyrics to communicate life’s joys, heartaches, and everything in between. But for the musical artist who calls herself Bitch, that’s not nearly enough. To tell her complete story, she conjured a new musical play titled “B*tchcraft,” which boldly recounts her fraught trajectory from a timid “big-boned” girl in suburban Detroit to a brash queer feminist rockstar.
Directed by Margie Zohn, who helped Bitch conceive the concept and co-write the book, “B*tchcraft” is part rock concert and part jukebox biomusical. (It shares the same DNA as Melissa Etheridge’s Broadway show “My Window” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”) Several of her hits are interwoven into the narrative. Her self-described “poet-pop” style of music taps into topical themes close to her heart, like feminism, environmental advocacy, and fighting fascists.
This earnest yet rough-around-the-edges endeavor opens with Bitch as an insecure young girl (her birth name was Karen Mould) at home, hiding from her bitter, derisive parents and scribbling poetry in notebooks. They bark orders at their daughter, often making her sweep up messes with an old-timey corn broom. Her aim is to make herself small so she doesn’t take up much space and be criticized. “I was a quiet child,” she sings, not so quietly.
Bitch transforms the broom, a tool of oppression, into a vehicle to escape her stultifying childhood. Donning a cape, she fantasizes becoming a witchy superhero, hopping on that broomstick and flying away.
And, in a sense, that’s exactly what she did. In the late 1990s, she adopted the name Bitch as a way to reclaim an ugly term used to demean women. Having studied classical violin throughout her childhood, she started a band along with her partner, known as Animal. It didn’t take long for Bitch and Animal to became an indie success. After a summer stint in Provincetown, they were an opening act for Ani DiFranco. After Bitch went solo, she shared stages with headliners like the Indigo Girls.
The ambitious production, however, packs so much action into its relatively brief running time of 80 minutes that it can feel overwhelming. We are flooded by wave after wave of autobiographical details, metaphors, and images of her childhood home, feminist icons, and so much more. We witness the moment she got her period, punctuated by a veritable earthquake. We hear an audio snippet from “Sesame Street.” There’s a scene from a women’s studies class where she learns about the evil “male gaze.” Her tour bus, dubbed “Camp TWAT,” is bound for destinations like “Matriarchy or Bust” and “Power to the Pussied.” Occasionally she is joined by a giant furry dancing beaver.
B*tchcraft, now playing at Off-Off Broadway’s Wild Project in the East Village, is amped up considerably with mind-blowing projections by Brian Pacelli, lighting design by Amina Alexander, and sound by Sean Hagerty.
The costumes, designed by Andrea Lauer and Dusty Childers, are dazzling confections that transform Bitch into a fierce warrior-witch. One looks straight out of “Mad Max,” featuring a top with imposing shoulder pads and a sort of Day-Glo colored tutu combined with a tool belt, holding, among other items, a small whisk broom. Rounding out the look, she sports a defiant shock of neon green hair.
One of the most powerful moments is when Bitch gets canceled by the trans community for remarks made in connection with the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. She was branded a TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist) and it spread across social media like a fatal virus.
“Isn’t it ironic we’re getting protested by women, the people we’re out here fighting for?” Animal says in disbelief.
The unapologetically queer artist is at her best in full-on performance mode, wailing on her electric violin and railing against perceived injustices. Her songs have titles like “Be Bitch,” “Boy Girl Wonder” and “Pussy Manifesto.” She delivers them with a raw intensity, clearly in her power and her glory. “B*tchcraft” is a testament to her resilience, proving that her cancellation only pushed her to come back stronger than ever.
B*tchcraft: A Musical Play | The Wild Project | 195 E. 3rd Street | $35 | TheWildProject.org | Through March 1, 2025 | 80 min., no intermission
