By Michael Barbieri****These three queens are one remarkable woman! Three Tall Queens is a fascinating, often horrifying and ultimately inspiring serio-comic theater piece based on the life of Lindsey Kay—a producer, manager and assistant who works with drag queens all over the city. In this show, three drag queens tell the story of Kay’s life, a life fraught with drama, illness, assaults, broken relationships and finally, acceptance.
Kay has been stabbed… twice! She’s also been shot… twice! She’s been hit by lightning, stuck in quicksand, held hostage, pursued by a hit man and slapped by a corpse! She’s also, in her words, lived past her expiration date, having been diagnosed with a brain tumor years ago. As dramatized by writer/director Justin McDevitt, Kay’s stories often sounded like fiction, but at the same time, seemed too outlandish not to be true.
The three tall queens who portrayed Lindsey Kay and told her tall tales were Chandilier, Lauren Ordair and Whendy Whaxwood. Chandilier moved to NYC in 2006 to attend Manhattan School of Music. She began working at Lips Restaurant and eventually started doing drag full time. She can be found behind the bar at Lips as well as onstage at The Duplex every Monday night for Shut Up, Chandi! Lauren Ordair is a classically trained opera singer who has hosted her one woman show, The Fat Lady Sings at the Duplex for five years. Whendy Whaxwood has won the title of Miss Stonewall 2016 and competed in two seasons of So You Think You Can Drag? at New World Stages.
Now, most of us are used to drag shows that are campy, bitchy and hilarious, but this is no ordinary drag act. These three girls had true acting chops and while there were some laughs, they also moved us to stunned silence and occasional tears.
As I perceived it, each queen represented a different facet of Kay’s personality: Chandilier voiced the pragmatic, no bullshit persona; Ordair played Kay’s more vulnerable, dramatic side; and Whaxwood was the naive, girlish part of the portrait.
And the stories! Oh, Honey, the stories! Among many others, you’ll hear about how Kay became a sex worker—not on purpose, mind you, but because she didn’t have many female friends and most of her male friends expected something a little more… transactional. Then there are the tales of having sex with someone just for a cheesecake recipe, bedding a curious lesbian for tickets to Hedwig and the Angry Inch and working as a belly dancer and running into one of her closeted teachers who asked her for a lap dance without recognizing her as one of his students. Then there was the story of a bad date which became a date rape, one of over 40 assaults she endured before age 18!
And what would a drag show be without a few songs? The queens gave us one song each, and each song suited their particular Lindsey persona. Whendy gave us a lip sync to She Loves Me’s “Vanilla Ice Cream” (Sheldon Harnick, Jerry Bock), Chandilier lip synced to a mashup of Barbra Streisand’s recording of “I’m Still Here” (Stephen Sondheim) and “Don’t Rain On My Parade” (Bob Merrill, Jule Styne). Lastly, Lauren sang a live rendition of a song called “Behind These Walls” (Scott Alan), which not only showed off her huge mezzo belt, but played to almost reverential silence in the room— a stunning performance!
Needless to say, I don’t want to give away too much in this review, but rest assured there were plenty more stories to the evening, including ones about a hoarding grandma, a hospital wedding, an aneurism, constant seizures resulting from the brain tumor and the unique therapies Kay employed to manage them all! Whendy’s final monologue, which wrapped up the show, showed just how inspiring and courageous the real Lindsey Kay is.
Kudos to all three of the queens, who proved themselves to be more than just great drag entertainers, but terrific actresses as well. Additionally, Justin McDevitt’s direction was appropriately spare, allowing the stories to be the focus of the show. I’d also like to give credit to Armando Bravi for his lovely technical work in creating just the right moods for these unique stories.
Finally, to Lindsey Kay, who was in the house at The Duplex the night I saw the show: I don’t know how you pushed through all of this adversity, but I’m glad you did and I thank you for sharing your tall tales!
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