ON THE TOWN WITH CHIP DEFFAA … STEPPING INTO THE WORLD OF DRAG…

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If you’re thinking of seeing “Drag: The Musical” at New World Stages, Off-Broadway in New York City,  I’d advise you to get to the theater early.  The night I went, there was the longest line I’ve seen for any show in years, stretching from the theater (at 340 W. 50^th Street) all the way to 9^th Avenue, and it moved very slowly  Some patrons stood on line for nearly a half hour. (I might add, that’s really  too long to ask of older theater-goers; the producers need to find a way to make that long line move more quickly.)

“Drag: The Musical”—which I enjoyed a lot—is clearly finding an audience.

It has the feel of a winner from the very first words that we hear, spoken in a freshly recorded voiceover by Liza Minnelli (who happens to be one of the show’s producers).   The musical–with book, music, and lyrics by Tomas Costanza, Justin Andrew Honard, and Ashley Gordon–is a glitzy, bitchy, over-the-top celebration of the drag world.  The mostly young audience packing the house the night that I attended was enthusiastic throughout.

Production values are terrific.  I liked the colorful mix of style and wit in the costumes by Marco Marco (especially the funeral scene).  And Jason Sherwood’s scenic design was a treat.  There’s even a little runway extending a bit from the stage  out into the house, to give some patrons  a sense of being in a drag club.  (I wish the runway could be extended from the stage to the very back of the auditorium; it would give more audience members a connection to the action, and give the drag performers an even greater opportunity to strut their stuff).

 Performers come from both the worlds of drag—including “Alaska Thunderfuck” (a/k/a Justin Andrew Honard), Jujubee, Jan Sport, and others–and theater—including Nick Adams, Eddie Korbich, and other veterans of Broadway and Off-Broadway.

 Joey McIntyre, who rose to fame as a member of the “New Kids on the Block”—I was on Joe Franklin’s TV show with them a million years ago, when they were just starting out—does an excellent job playing the oh-so-straight, oh-so-responsible  brother of one of the drag stars.  (He sings proudly that he doesn’t watch “Golden Girls,” he only watches the news; and he really is perfectly cast.)  He’ll no doubt attract  his fans to the theater.  And the essential likeability that he’s always had serves him well.

 And director/choreographer Spencer Liff  has staged the show in grand, utterly camp style, with a heightened sense of drama.  I’ve always enjoyed Liff’s work, going back to the days when he was an exuberant young performer on Broadway in “Big.”

* * *

An actor-friend of mine who’s in his 20s caught “Drag: The Musical” at an early preview, and told me: “You’ve got to see this show; it’s groundbreaking!”  He’d never before seen a “live” drag show.

Would I call “Drag: The Musical”  “groundbreaking”?  Well, no and yes.  And here’s what I mean by that.  In spirit, tone, and attitude, “Drag: The Musical” actually reminds me very much of drag shows  that I saw before my actor-friend-in-his-20s was even born.  To my actor-friend—who sees a lot of theater—this show may feel “groundbreaking” simply because he’s never before seen “live” drag entertainment.

 But the witty, catty zingers offered today by Alaska Thunderfuck,  Nick Adams and others in “Drag: The Musical,” are exactly the same sort  of lines  that my friends and I enjoyed hearing  a good quarter-century ago at places like the Barracuda Lounge (a popular Chelsea gay bar), where Flotilla DeBarge and others reigned as drag queens.  The tone, attitude, and overall feel of “Drag: The Musical” was, for me, very reminiscent of shows I saw in clubs when I was young.

Back then,  drag shows were considered   “underground.”  You might see Flotilla DeBarge (or such talented drag contemporaries as Sherry Vine, Lady Bunny, or Jackie Beat)  at a gay bar, doing shows they created themselves on shoestring budgets.  They wrote their own material, designed their own costumes, performed with lots of spontaneity, and hoped the sound-and-light operators captured them well on-the-fly as they performed.  Their  shows were proud and funny, filled with ad libs, and sort of “inside.”  The drag stars of that era were pretty much known only in gay circles.  The best of the stars—like Flotilla—also somehow managed to let you share in their humanity.  They could be caustic and bitchy, but in a good way.  You knew it was an act, and they’d manage to let their humanity touch you as well.

So, to me, “Drag: The Musical”  is not really groundbreaking in terms of content. I saw and heard similar material when I was younger.  But what was considered  underground” 25 or more years ago–what you had to go to gay clubs to experience back then—has become part of the mainstream in the intervening years. There’s been a process of assimilation and acceptance of large parts of gay culture.

And now you have a musical like “Drag”—which anyone, young or old, straight or gay, can enjoy—packing one of Off-Broadway’s very best theaters.  There’s a big cast—16 performers, without a weak link in the bunch—in a handsomely mounted show.  Clearly a lot of money has been spent—and spent well—on this glittering production.

The drag queens I enjoyed when I was young would have died to have costumes, lighting, and set-design on this high-end level, and to have an original score created for them by people who’ve created chart-topping hits.

 So, this production is groundbreaking in the sense that it offers the essence of a traditional drag show, with everything now refined,  buffed and polished to a high shine, and presented to the general public.  “Drag: The Musical”  will be new to many young theater-goers (like the actor friend who urged me to see it)—and, I might add,  to plenty of people of all ages,  who might never have thought of setting foot in a gay club to see a drag show.

My favorite drag shows, back in the day,  were ones that managed to mix a little heart into the camp humor.  And on this count, “”Drag: The Musical” succeeds especially well.  Surprisingly well.

About halfway into the show we meet the youngest character in the show, “Brendan.”   At the performance that I attended, “Brendan” was played by Yair Keydar.  The role is double-cast.  It is played at some performances by Remi Tuckman; at the press performance I attended, it just happened to be played by Keydar.  And he was absolutely wonderful, and made a huge contribution to the show.  I’d love to go again some time to see how the other actor plays the role. (If I go, I’ll let you know.)

Yair Keydar–playing a 10-year-old boy who wants to try on the feather boas and other bits of drag costuming because “they’re pretty”–gives the show heart.  His performance is utterly natural, and utterly winning.  He does not appear to be an actor in a play, just an awkward, uncertain, ordinary boy.  And I like that a lot.

Keydar  sings like angel.  He  has only two numbers.  But no one in the show earned greater applause than this young  boy, now making his New York stage debut.  Just a beautiful, unspoiled—and sweetly tender–performance. No attitude.  No guile.  Just singing from the heart.  And the audience sure responded to him.

He had good rapport onstage with both Joey McMcIntyre, playing his conservative, conventional father, and Alaska Thunderfuck, playing his more adventurous uncle.  And his character is an important one.  He helps bring his father and uncle back together again.  And he helps us all to connect emotionally with the older drag entertainers on stage, who we realize might have been much like this child when they were young.

The second half of “Drag: The Musical”—following the introduction of the “Brendan” character–has greater emotional impact than the first half; the storyline becomes richer, as we get to know the characters a bit as people.

I left feeling good.  If you go, I bet you will, too.

                                                                                                                                                                –CHIP DEFFAA