FRIDAY

Suzanne Westenhoefer was once mistaken for former Brady Bunch actress Susan Olsen, inspiring the title of her latest album, I’m Not Cindy Brady. The misidentification arose in an acting class in Hollywood, where Westenhoefer has long been looking for television work (“Sorry, we already had a blond lesbian comedian”). The title of her previous album, Nothing in My Closet but My Clothes, seems to have been aimed at correcting another piece of misinformation making the rounds: That she had gone straight, maybe even—Artemis forbid!—married a man. Westenhoefer quotes her mother’s response: “Oh, honey, don’t listen to that shit. That’s just a lot of people trying to start trouble.” Out and proud since the Reagan era, the Lancaster County, Pa., native first gained national attention in a Sally Jessy Raphael segment on “lesbians who don’t look like lesbians.” She’s built her career on sharply delivered observations about life both far outside the straight mainstream (Amish cokeheads) and knee-deep in the lesbian mainstream (her girlfriend’s psychotic cat). I’m Not Cindy Brady just won Best Comedy Album at the Gay/Lesbian American Music Awards, the latest accolade in a 10-year career that surely hasn’t peaked yet. Catch Westenhoefer before she becomes an entertainment icon like Ellen—or Cindy—at 8 p.m. Friday, June 16, at the Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. $20. (703) 549-7500. (Pamela Murray Winters)