Catskill, NY — Bridge Street Theatre launches its 2026 SoloFest series this weekend with Palatable Gay Robot, a bold, fast-paced solo comedy written and performed by Broadway actor and comedian Stephen Brower. The limited three-performance engagement runs March 6–8, 2026, and kicks off the theatre’s annual festival of intimate, artist-driven performance.
Part stand-up special, part theatrical fever dream, Palatable Gay Robot introduces Billie Bowtie — a gay robot engineered to entertain straight audiences with “crowd-friendly” humor. But when his preloaded punchlines begin to short-circuit, Billie is instructed by The Moderator — a god-like, omnipresent engineer voiced by Broadway’s Julia Murney — to download a personal history in order to make himself more “relatable.”
The update doesn’t go as planned.
What follows is a razor-sharp, high-energy exploration of identity, code-switching, corporate assimilation, and the pressure to be just palatable enough. As Billie cycles through stereotypes, pop culture references, and stand-up tropes, he begins asking a dangerous question: what happens when authenticity isn’t marketable?
The show premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has since played to sold-out audiences nationwide.
Blending biting satire with surprising emotional depth, this 70-minute solo performance delivers laugh-out-loud comedy with an undercurrent of urgency that feels distinctly of this moment.
“SoloFest is built to give bold, singular artists the room to take risks,” says Mark Perry, Acting Artistic Director of Bridge Street Theatre. “Palatable Gay Robot is fearless, funny, and unexpectedly moving — exactly the kind of work that thrives in an intimate space and sparks conversation long after the curtain call.”
Directed by Zachary Prince
Produced by Klif Entertainment
PERFORMER BIO — STEPHEN BROWER
Stephen Brower is a New York City–based actor, comedian, and writer. He made his Broadway debut in Anastasia and has toured nationally in An American in Paris and Pippin. Most recently, he appeared in the original Broadway musical Lempicka. As a stand-up comic, Brower has headlined venues across New York City, and his online comedy content reaches a combined following of over 400,000. Palatable Gay Robot debuted at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and continues to tour nationally.
DIRECTOR BIO — ZACHARY PRINCE
Zachary Prince is a New York–based actor and director whose work spans stage and screen, bringing sharp comic precision and emotional intelligence to contemporary theatrical storytelling.
Performances
March 6–8, 2026
Friday & Saturday at 7:00pm
Sunday at 2:00pm
Tickets: BridgeSt.org
ABOUT BRIDGE STREET THEATRE
Founded in 2014 in the Village of Catskill, New York, Bridge Street Theatre is a professional producing theatre dedicated to bold new work, adventurous revivals, and intimate, artist-driven performance. Through its MainStage and SoloFest series, the theatre brings nationally recognized artists and emerging voices to the Hudson Valley, creating vibrant cultural experiences in an up-close, accessible setting.
