Jazz singer and performer Spider Saloff comes out of her cocoon in her one-woman musical, The Roar of the Butterfly.  Set at a memorial service, Saloff takes on the role of a myriad of characters as she unravels the story of the deceased protagonist, an Asian drag queen named Butterfly.

Though the setting is a bit morose, the tale is both comedic and somewhat personal.  Through fictional and funny, The Roar of the Butterfly serves as an outlet for Saloff’s own grief.  She lost her husband in 2009.  He died unexpectedly from a heart attack.  Last year, Saloff told the Chicago Tribune’s Howard Reich “in this play, I talk about human loss, and I was able to express the loss of my husband – but through the eyes of someone else.”

The Roar of the Butterfly will have a pre-Off-Broadway run in Chicago from May 3^rd-20^th at Victory Gardens’ Richard Christiansen Theater in Chicago.

Check out this video excerpt of a “documentary” on Spider’s character, Butterfly: