FIRE ISLAND - Versatile and talented playwright, singer, choreographer, dancer and raconteur Jade Esteban Estrada brought his celebratory and political solo musical comedy "ICONS: the Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Volume 1" to the Community House, under the aegis of the Arts Project of Cherry Grove, for two performances on August 4. Jade has also completed Volume 2 and Volume 3 and someday, with luck, we'll get to experience those as well. Jeff Wills directed; Matt Baney and Alison Brackman were responsible for sound and lights; and Sherri Rase was stage manager.

Playing Sappho, "the first lesbian," in a white robe, curly wig, and assorted leaves, Jade offered a gently sung and danced ode to "the greatest female poet of the Classical age" ("Plato called me the tenth muse"). This Sappho punned on the words lyre and liar and wondered why we put ours in the White House; looked ahead to the Middle Ages, when the church leveled first allegations of homosexuality against heretics-including "my girl" Joan of Arc-and burned them at the stake; and explained the terms "bugger," derived from Bulgarian, and "crime against Nature," formulated by Thomas Aquinas.

Jade's Sappho morphed into Michelangelo Buonarotti, who wants to "kiss all the boys" and "paint the Sistine Chapel" as well ("I believe that mankind is beautiful in all forms-and that is the word of God"), and heralded the Renaissance in a rock power ballad, with baroque musical overtones ("I want to sculpt humanity/I want to paint life's destiny"). As Michelangelo, Jade informed us that, while Japan reveled in the publication of "Comrade Loves of the Samurai," gay lovers were being executed in Prussia.

Jade's Michelangelo took us up to the Victorian Age in England and left us in the hands of his flamboyant Oscar Wilde, an "in your face" "superstar," in a black suit, cape and top hat, with long hair and a walking stick, telling a tale of life "On the Wilde Side" in a music hall-cum-rap-style song and dance.

Jade forsook Wilde's dandified finery to become an aged, dour Gertrude Stein, equally sure of her genius and her love for Alice B. Toklas, and noting that the publication of her "Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" and her departure from France for a lecture tour of America took place at about the same time as the rise of Hitler in Germany and introduction of the pink triangle to identify gay prisoners in the concentration camps. Jade's Stein turned her deathbed statement, "What is the answer? Well in that case, what is the question?" into a sensitive, moving love song that asked, "What is the answer, my Alice? What is the question, my dear?" and juxtaposed the tender intimacy of their love with the tragic chaos, violence and destruction engendered by the Nazis.

Jade shed Stein's understated black to don high heels, a glitzy red and green outfit leaving the midriff bare, a headband, hoop earrings, and rainbow bandanna at the bosom to celebrate Sylvia Rivera, "Street Transvestite Action Revolutionary-a STAR!" of the Stonewall Rebellion, as she declared in a proud rock number. Sylvia's sister Marsha P. (for "Pay it no mind") Johnson put in a brief appearance here, too.

The final ICON of the evening was Ellen DeGeneres, the comic who became a lesbian symbol when she and her television persona Ellen Morgan both came out. In a propulsive solo, Jade's Ellen held a coming out press conference ("Hey, hey, hey/Yep, I'm gay") and determined that she would "make the cover of Time magazine" and conquer the networks.
Jade has many other LGBT historical/herstorical figures in his repertoire and the half-dozen we met in "ICONS ... Volume 1" served to whet our appetites to see and hear the ones he treats next.