Have you ever gone to a play and wondered why the characters all speak in such tight, well-honed sentences—so unlike the usual clusterfuck of normal speech? Well, you won't have that problem with At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen, the rhythmic romp of words and subject matter that is on fire these days at Dobama Theatre.
Have you ever gone to a play and wondered why the characters all speak in such tight, well-honed sentences—so unlike the usual clusterfuck of normal speech? Well, you won't have that problem with At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen, the rhythmic romp of words and subject matter that is on fire these days at Dobama Theatre.
Courtney is who we meet from the start, and in that role Jason Eno cuts a powerful image with his serious guns and to-die-for legs. After she informs us that she's just died at age 23, she proceeds to attack a drag number with all the muscularity of Travis Kelce crossing over the middle to snag a bullet pass.
Anthony talks about his grandma and how, after she got a sense of the challenges her gay grandchild would face, said"You gotta find a way to stand up straight in a crooked room." And he recalls his mom's gasp when she saw him dressed for the first time:"Oh, you look just like me." The songs that are performed vary in skill, as you might expect from young artists who are still laboring in the minor leagues of drag. But each song casts their its own spell especially when Courtney dresses up as"Wizard of Oz" era Judy Garland.