What I liked
The drag performances were so strong. There were amazing dance moves from many of the dancers. The gal who did the Selfie song was cracking us up running into the audience to take selfies with us (the show should totally have an instgram account to post them to!) And when (I hope I have the right name) Essence Jete pulled off her wig at the beginning of “Purse First” it had so much power behind that simple gesture of playing off gender identity— here was a man dressed as a woman, not afraid to be a man.
Carla Valentine steals the show as “Pookie”
When the show veers into high camp during the proposal scene, it works!
What I didn't like
I have to say— I felt cheated— here were these amazing drag performers—ballsy, glamorous, dirty— and then they disappear and actors come on stage to play the parts. Why wasn’t the story presented by the queens themselves? They would have brought both an honesty and high camp, something that seemed to be missing from the dramatic parts of the show.
The script itself has potential—there is a story there about identity, how we present and hide ourselves (Ernesto being on the DL, Tomas lying about being a drag queen, Jeri maintaining her stage persona off the stage)—but it seems the scenes we see are the ones used to link the bigger scenes of confrontation and action, and ultimately, the ones you would cut upon a re-write. So much of what is interesting is missing: we never see our lead queens do any drag, we don’t hear about Jeri being a reality show Diva until almost to the end, we never see why Tomas would put up with Ernesto’s behavior.
I say keep workshopping this— get those queens to learn the lines—and embrace the high camp!
My overall impression
The drag performances were so strong. There were amazing dance moves from many of the dancers. The gal who did the Selfie song was cracking us up running into the audience to take selfies with us (the show should totally have an instgram account to post them to!) And when (I hope I have the right name) Essence Jete pulled off her wig at the beginning of “Purse First” it had so much power behind that simple gesture of playing off gender identity— here was a man dressed as a woman, not afraid to be a man.
Carla Valentine steals the show as “Pookie”
When the show veers into high camp during the proposal scene, it works!
