By Michael Barbieri***I’ve seen a lot of drag in my day, but I can safely say I’ve never seen a tap dancing drag queen! As a matter of fact, in all my years in cabaret, I’ve only ever seen one other act featuring a tap dancer, but they couldn’t hold a sequin-encrusted candle to Xana Du Me, in her show, The Rise of Xana Du Me, at the Triad Theater!
Xana Du Me is the alter ego of Brazilian-born Felipe Galganni, a tap dancer, teacher, singer and choreographer. In 2018 he was awarded the Machado de Assis medal for fusing tap dance with bossa nova and Brazilian rhythms; in 2012, he joined the staff of the American Tap Dance Foundation (ATDF) and in 2013, debuted his first choreographed piece in the U.S. at the New York Tap City Festival. He’s also taught at such schools as Steps on Broadway, Broadway Dance Center, the ATDF and the Juilliard School. ButThe Rise of Xana Du Me, while entertaining, at times left something to be desired.
First the good news: Xana is a fabulous queen! She has a fun, lively stage presence, great wigs and stunning costumes. And the tapping! Wow, the tapping! The show absolutely soars when Xana is tapping her bewigged heart out! The big dance numbers like “You’re the Top” (C. Porter), “Old Devil Moon” (B. Lane, Y. Harburg), “Heat Wave” (I. Berlin)—which featured a touch of military tapping—and especially the Britney Spears hit, “Baby One More Time” (M. Martin), were absolute knockouts. Xana told us that she learned her tap from watching Ann Miller on TV, and it shows. Xana has tremendous control over her rhythms and cadences, making her dancing extraordinarily musical.
Her singing, however, was slightly problematic. Yes, she sings live—and kudos to her for that. Her opening number, “Xanadu” (Jeff Lynne), from the campy cult classic film starring Olivia Newton John, was her best vocal of the evening. After that, it sort of went downhill. Some of her songs were pitched slightly too high and might have benefited from dropping the key by a half step. Her rendition of “Where am I Going?” (Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields) was actually so high that her voice began straining audibly towards the end and cracked badly on the final note.
Also, I don’t know if this was a vocal choice, or simply a habit, but she ended nearly every phrase with an upward-scooping little grunt/exhalation which was cute at first, but as the show wore on, became irritating. It was as if she didn’t trust her voice and was trying to oversell the camp value. Even “Xana With an X,” a parody of “Liza With a Z” (J. Kander, F. Ebb), with new lyrics by director Gerry Geddes, just didn’t conn
ect with me. In addition, much of her comedy felt forced. In many instances, it seemed as if the rest of the audience were laughing simply because they knew her personally and were in on some joke that I wasn’t getting. And because I really want to like a performer, there’s nothing more frustrating. Even a sort of “Who is Xana?” video, in which she interviewed herself, had the rest of the crowd going, but fell flat with me and seemed a bit pointless, other than a way to cover a costume change.
As I was watching the show, my first instinct was that Xana Du Me wasn’t ready for a review. After all, as Geddes told me, this was only her second time doing drag. I considered just not writing a review at all. However, even though there were problems with the performance, I still saw a lot of promise! I feel that with more performance time, Xana could be a showstopper in every way—not just with her dancing.
Perhaps some guest appearances around New York with another queen or group of queens could give her the experience and refinement she needs as a solo performer. If she should decide to simply do another solo show in the future, my advice would be to play to her strengths consistently. Rather than open with singing, have the stage go to black, have the lights come up, with her discovere
d onstage and launch right into a tap number. The tapping is what makes her so brilliantly unique, so we shouldn’t wait till the fourth number to see it, as we did with the performance I saw. Let us have it right from the start!
Xana Du Me is a diamond in the rough. All she needs is a little more polish and she could shine brighter than the glittering costumes she wears onstage. She’s already surrounded by a terrific creative team. Her Musical Director, Diana Lawrence; her wig and costume assistant, Eilat Rimon; and her director, Gerry Geddes, could all mold her into the fabulous drag queen I already see lurking beneath the surface. I look forward to The Rise of Xana Du Me—The Sequel!!
