Romanovsky and Phillips

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Romanovsky & Phillips is an openly gay singing duo named after its members, Ron Romanovsky and Paul Phillips. They are best known for their original recordings and live performances featuring songs combining humor with poignant observations about the lives of gay men (and to a lesser extent, lesbian women) in contemporary American society.

Romanovsky & Phillips began their career at San Francisco's Valencia Rose Cafe in 1982, as the musical break for Gay Comedy Open Mike Night. They mounted their first national tour in the fall of 1983. They toured extensively in the United States, Canada and Australia. Over the years the duo released 7 albums under the "Fresh Fruit" label. Sydney Daily Mirror described them as "delightful and entertaining Ambassadors of Homosexuality." Originally a romantic couple, the two ended that aspect of their relationship in the early 1990s, but continued to record and perform together, describing themselves as "a gay Sonny and Cher" (who had also briefly continued their professional collaboration following their divorce). In 1998 they presented their full-length musical, Jayson at the 45th Street theatre in New York. A year later the duo decided to take some time off the road. While Phillips put music on hold to pursue other interests, Romanovsky took up a new instrument: the accordion. In 2002 he released a solo album in French, Je m'appelle Dadou.

In 2004, Ron was comissioned to write a "circus opera" for Nurses for the Rights of the Child, a group of labor and delivery nurses who are conscientious objectors to male circumcision. After two years of writing and and several workshop performances, It's A Boy! was premiered in August, 2006 at the 9th International Symposium on Circumcision, Genital Integrity and Human Rights at the University of Washington in Seattle. The opera featured music written for accordion, violin and five vocalists. A recording was released concurrently.

Immediately following up It's A Boy! came the release of Pittsburgh to Paris, marking Ron's return to song writing.

In December, 2006, Fresh Fruit Records re-released all of R&P's recordings.