Iconic Drag—Fabulous Memories of a Drag Aficionado

By Michael Barbieri***I’m a drag aficionado. I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I certainly am a connoisseur of fabulous drag! From New York cabaret rooms, to Las Vegas showrooms, to the exhibition halls of the Jacob Javits Center, some of the funniest, most fun-filled performances I’ve seen have revolved around the world of drag!

As a technical director in cabaret, I worked with and befriended some of the best female impersonators in the business. And as the creator of the Drag-tastic column for NiteLifeExchange, I’ve been able to see and review some of todays hottest drag queens in venues at home and abroad.

Without further ado, here are some of my most memorable drag experiences:

In 2003, I was asked to design the lighting for the MAC Awards—one of the biggest projects I had taken on. Directed by Lennie Watts, a centerpiece of the show was a production number featuring many of the best gender illusionists in cabaret. The number began with Jay Rogers singing Michael Holland’s “Boys Say Go,” a song about cross dressing and being different. After the second chorus, the curtain parted, and there, in all their glory, stood Rick Skye as Liza Minnelli, Chuck Sweeney as Peggy Lee, Richard Skipper as Carol Channing, Steven Brinberg as Barbra Streisand and Tommy Femia as Judy Garland. Liza gave us a taste of “New York New York,” deadpan; ditzy Peg made us feel the “Fever;” and Carol belted out “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” while tossing giant gemstone rings to the audience. Barbra reminded us of “The Way We Were” and Judy took us to her dear old “Swanee!” They looked spectacular and were absolutely uproarious! As if that wasn’t enough, they were joined by Quinn Lemley as Rita Hayworth and Kristine Zbornik as a fabulously loud, brassy and eerily accurate Ethel Merman. Allison Briner had the crowd in stitches with her scathingly funny impression of Bernadette Peters, and Christine Pedi gave us a hilariously scattered Liza Minnelli. The moment where Skye’s Liza confronted Pedi’s Liza—and they had to be separated by Judy Garland—was a moment that will live in MAC Awards history! The crowd ate it up!

Varla Jean Merman is a true drag icon. The love child of Ernest Borgnine and Ethel Merman, Varla Jean is the ludicrously demure, silly, over-the-top creation of Jeffery Roberson. Some of Varla’s earliest performances were at the legendary Eighty Eights Cabaret in NYC, but in 2011, she appeared in an underappreciated Off-Broadway musical called Lucky Guy. Varla played villainous Jeannie Jeannine, who, with her partner in crime (the diminutive, riotous Leslie Jordan), schemed to steal a young songwriter’s hit song and make it her own. Her first number, “Blue Jean Blues,” was one of the funniest things I’ve seen onstage. Accompanied by a bevy of dancing boys, and dressed in a full, southern belle hoop skirt made entirely of denim, Varla delivered the song sweetly, from center stage. But when she began to move, it turned out she was on a wheeled platform hidden under her skirts, so she glided, spun and careened from boy to boy, almost as if motorized. Hysterical! Years later, in her one-woman show, Wonder Merman, Varla gave us a bovine salute to girl groups: a parody of Dreamgirls, called Creamgirls! Dressed as a threesome of cows, she ended the side-splitting song by singing “…suck on a teat” and squirting milk at the front row from her very own udder! Completely stupid, in the best way!

Lip syncing is an art, and I adore a good lip sync number. But a queen who performs her vocals live will always win my heart. Several years ago, at The Green Room 42, I discovered not just one singing queen, but three! One lucky evening I took myself to see Stephanie’s Child, a drag, pop vocal trio, who absolutely knocked me out! The girls, Lagoona Blue, Jan Sport and Rosé specialize in retro and current pop songs and they belt them out in flawless three-part harmonies! Looking snatched in their color-coordinated outfits—blue for Lagoona, purple for Jan and, of course, pink for Rosé—they slew their adoring fans with upbeat numbers like “I’m So Excited,” “Bootylicious” and “Wannabe.” They also proved that they knew their way around softer ballads like Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide.” And when it came to solo moments, Lagoona gave us a gorgeous rendition of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.” Jan tore into an incredible version of Lady Gaga’s “You and I” and Rosé had everyone in tears with her emotional delivery of Adele’s “Someone Like You.” Of course, once they destroyed us with emotion, they turned the tables with filthy song parodies like “I Will Swallow Him,” so it all balanced out nicely! These three girls love doing drag, and what’s more, they’re each others’ best friends. That love was felt by their ecstatic audience, myself included!

One of the most jaw-dropping performances I’ve witnessed in a nightclub took place at the Laurie Beechman Theatre. I went there to see a notorious trio of drag queens who had a huge hit with a parody of an Alicia Keys song. During their show, which included reenacted scenes from the movie Showgirls and a fabulous lip sync to Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” one of the girls stepped into the audience, selected a young man from the crowd, got down on her knees, unzipped him and… well, you get the picture! I truly don’t remember why she chose to do that, and while the crowd was laughing, everyone was also genuinely shocked. I recently discovered the existence of a YouTube video which documents that outrageous event, and in several shots, there I am in the background! While I adore one of the queens who was part of that trio, and while it was scandalously funny, I was really at a loss for words! Sadly, but not surprisingly, the group has been banned from performing at the Beechman again!

The glorious Charles Busch made me laugh until I cried with a gut-bustingly ridiculous temple dance in his self-penned Shanghai Moon. And in his stage adaptation of Die, Mommie, Die, he flung a pair of gardening shears across the stage and into his daughter’s face, which got one of the biggest laughs I’ve ever heard in a theater! Back in my cabaret days, I had the pleasure of doing lights and sound for James Beaman performing as Marlene Dietrich in Black Market Marlene. Beaman brought Dietrich to life in her impeccably tailored black tailcoat and trousers and that famous top hat perched atop her fabulous blonde curls. Outfitted with a body mic, Marlene was able to wander through the audience and interact with them—especially effective when she selected a beautiful young woman and kissed her gently on the lips. It was like Dietrich was there! And of course, the legendary Miss Ruby Rims, one of my dearest friends in NYC, still pops up now and then at the MAC Awards or on Facebook’s Piano Bar Live to slay us all with her funny, brave and moving performances. Ruby is a survivor and beloved in the cabaret community, and I’m very proud to call her my friend!

And then there’s RuPaul! I first met RuPaul at an infamous dance club called Mars, in the West Village. She was simply a party girl then, hired to mix, mingle and dance with the crowd to put them in a festive mood. Nobody could’ve guessed that she’d create “RuPaul’s Drag Race,’ which would become a cultural phenomenon and the cornerstone of a vast drag empire! The Laurie Beechman Theatre has become the home of many of the “Ru Girls,” as they’re known, and I’ve seen many of the show’s former contestants perform their live shows there. Between that and RuPaul’s DragCon, a yearly convention featuring drag queens from around the world, I’ve met some of the most talented queens around. From RuPaul herself, to Scarlet Envy, Ginger Minj, Raja Gemini, Detox, BenDeLaCreme, Latrice Royale, Mrs Kasha Davis, Darienne Lake, Miz Cracker, Monet X Change and many others, seeing and meeting them has been my honor and pleasure!