Dorothy Bishop is New York City meets Paris, The Opera House meets Studio 54, Auntie Mame meets Carmen!

Dorothy Bishop (The Diva of the High C’s) has captivated and enthralled audiences across 5 continents with her glamorous musical  extravaganza –  VIVA LA DIVA.  This superstar singer/comedienne melds a soaring soprano with side-splitting comedy and a boundlessly versatile imagination. 

When Dorothy takes the stage, Shirley Bassey, Donna Summer, Norma Desmond, Carmen, and Sarah Palin all dance together to a disco beat.  Audiences gasp at her vocal pyrotechnics, shake their heads in disbelief at the bravery of her witty sense of humor, and wipe away a tear as they are touched to the core by her soulful poignant ballads.

Dorothy is influenced by the great musical comedians of the past and present– Victor Borge,  Anna Russell, Joanne Worley, Madeline Kahn, Liberace  and Bette Midler, to name a few.  Still, it is hard to put this diva “in a box”.  Possessing  an unprecedented and unequalled combination of humor, beauty, talent, skill, intelligence, perception, and taste, Miss Bishop is truly her own brand of “Diva”.

The enormously broad range of her audience appeal is reflected by the theaters and venues who have hosted her triumphs center stage and extended invitation after invitation to return.

In New York City alone, she has won the hearts and minds of incredibly diverse audiences.  From classical music-lovers at the legendary CARNEGIE HALL; to discriminating theatre-goers at THE NEW YORK SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL while starring at JOE’S PUB in THE PUBLIC THEATRE, from fashionistas and performance artists while appearing in an experimental one-woman show at the avant-garde ZIPPER THEATRE,  to the crème-de-la-crème of New York City’s gay life at its largest and busiest dance club SPLASH, from the mammoth JAVITS CONVENTION  CENTER  where she was a headliner at the GAY LIFE EXPO, to the intimate, downtown Off Broadway theater crowd, BLEECKER STREET THEATER, where she starred in her first successful run of VIVA LA DIVA!

It will come as no surprise that Dorothy was selected from thousands of actresses to play the Opera Diva opposite Hollywood legend Faye Dunaway in the FIRST BROADWAY NATIONAL TOUR of Terrence McNally’s musical play MASTER CLASS.  More recently, she was chosen as a NATIONALLY TELEVISED FINALIST on NBC’s AMERICA’S GOT TALENT, Season Four.

Dorothy was born in Atlanta, Georgia and grew up in the heart of Dixie: Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and finally Jacksonville, Florida.   Though her father was a businessman from Harvard, he played the piano every night and Dorothy grew up singing tunes from The Great American Song Book, American jazz, pop and classical favorites.

With an undergraduate degree in theater at Florida State University, and a Masters in Opera from Yale University, Dorothy headed straight for New York City and began her professional career as an opera singer.

After a ten year roller coaster opera career that included such glamour roles as Tosca, Violetta, Lucia, and Madama Butterfly, Dorothy began singing more contemporary works and collaborated with such renowned modern day composers such as Ricky Ian Gordon and John Corigliano (The Red Violin).  Rediscovering her passion for American music and her natural gift for making people laugh, she booked a brief but highly successful cabaret run at Danny’s Supper Club in New York City.  Dorothy  could no longer supress the urge to parody and salute the “aging diva” – all of her quirkiness, beauty, glamour, paranoia and fierceness!  Teaming up with Parterre Box creator and renowned opera critic, James Jorden, and music theater coach and Broadway conductor, Phil Hall, Dorothy began her sensational journey with VIVA LA DIVA in 2006 …..and has since, never stopped working, and never looked back.

Viva to all the divas!