By Michael Barbieri***On a chilly November night, Miss Rosetta Stoned and Pancake, two down-home countrified queens, served up an evening of chicken-fried drag in Backwoods Barbies, their laugh and music-filled extravaganza on the stoop and sidewalk in front of Don’t Tell Mama.
As my Drag-Tastic readers know, I love a good lip-syncing queen, but I’m always blown away by queens who sing live. Both these queens delivered on that front! Rosetta Stoned is the creation of Ryan Patrick Smith, an actor and singer here in the New York area. Smith cut his teeth as one of the singing servers at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, where he showcased his tremendous vocal talents. I first became aware of Rosetta when she made an appearance on the streaming web series Piano Bar Live!. She has a look that might be described as glamorously messy—over the top outfits with an enormous set of false lower eyelashes placed slightly askew, accentuating her already big, expressive eyes. Pancake is the alter ego of Joseph Redd, an actor, singer and teacher from LaPorte, Texas. Redd studied musical theater at Sam Houston State University and has had extensive experience in theaters throughout Texas, New Hampshire and NYC. His creation, Pancake, is definitely a good Southern woman—curvy, with a sassy attitude and huge hair! You know what they say: the bigger the hair, the closer to God! Both of these girls are relatively new to the New York drag scene. As a matter of fact, the Backwoods Barbies show was Pancake’s first time performing in drag! Regardless of their status as drag novices, however, this show proved that both girls have serious vocal and comedic chops!
As one might suspect from the show’s title, the evening’s set list consisted mainly of country music. I must confess I’m not the biggest fan of the genre—I’ve always found the music depressing and unrelatable. But Pancake and Rosetta gave us what I call country pop—funner, more approachable material. So the evening opened with Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” which showcased their strong voices and nice harmonies.
After welcoming us to Don’t Tell Mama…Total Landscaping, they joked that the country music oeuvre was perfect for them both because they’re both so hospitable and Pancake is so very racist. They also introduced their terrific musical director, Danny K. Bernstein at the piano. They said there’d be no rules that night, just a good time, so Pancake went into Faith Hill’s “This Kiss” (B. Nielsen Chapman, R. Lerner, A. Roboff). Not only did she belt the song beautifully, but she showed her range by modulating up, seemingly endlessly. She also toyed with hapless passersby who had no idea there was a drag show happening on the sidewalk, which of course got huge laughs! Rosetta took a solo with another country classic, Bobbie Gentry’s “Fancy,” recorded memorably by Reba McEntire. And while this story song is quite wordy, Rosetta sang it perfectly, without any slips! Pancake then gave us what became a sing-along version of Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” (S. Twain, “Mutt” Lange), which was perfect for a first time drag diva!
Commenting that Pancake is, in real life, the actual son of a preacher, Rosetta launched into Dusty Springfield’s hit, “Son of a Preacher Man” (J. Hurley, R. Wilkins), and while she showed a great facility with southern gospel-style material, the real highlight came when she added her own rather filthy lyrics about Pancake—“the only boy who could be a drag queen, was the son of a preacher man, the only one who could suck so much ‘ween’, was the son of a preacher man, the only one who could take a whole fist…” and so forth. Hilariously rude, but very funny!
Shifting gears, we got Kelly Clarkson’s “Because of You” (K. Clarkson, D. Hodges, B. Moody), which became a gorgeous duet in which both girls showed off their beautiful harmonies and their belting skills. And while their interplay was occasionally campy, the feeling was still quite lovely.
While the girls went inside to warm themselves, we were treated to a beautiful duet from two more DTM singer-slingers, Tara Martinez and Tommy J. Dose, after which we got the only lip sync number of the night: Rosetta’s pie-themed mashup that included snippets of “Raven’s Pie,” quotes from the infamous poop pie scene from The Help, Warrant’s “Cherry Pie,” and of course, Don McLean’s “American Pie.” While it seemed a little out of step with the rest of the show, it was still quite funny and entertaining. Pancake got the crowd harmonizing with her rendition of Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time” (M. Martin), which even featured an impromptu tambourine performance from Elaine Brier who was in the crowd! Rosetta showed off her strong, confident vocal as she rocked the house with “Wanted Dead or Alive” (J. Bon Jovi, R. Sambora), after which she proclaimed, “That was my last solo, so now…I’ll be DRINKIN’!”
One of the most poignant moments came with Pancake’s performance of Kacey Musgraves’ “Rainbow” (I. Fitchuk, D. Tashian, K. Musgraves), which she confided was the song that got her through the loneliness of Covid quarantine. Here, Pancake demonstrated a sweet, emotional vocal, which swept from a lovely high tenor into a glittering falsetto, and finished by soaring into her belt range. Just stunning!
Backwoods Barbies was an impressive, funny, highly entertaining debut from this fledgeling duo! I’m eager to see what else they have in store, whether it be together or as solo artists—and I think these newcomers will make a big splash on the New York drag scene. Believe me, Pancake and Rosetta Stoned put the “hoot” in hootenanny and the “Ho!” in hoedown!
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