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A Drag show to be proud of

July 9, 2008

Its one of those things you just dont expect to see, a super fabulous drag show, in of all places, colombo.  the occasion ? the launch of colombo pride…venue for ‘A different drag’ was the city’s finest theater, and a mostly mixed crowd showed up, the 800 seat place was packed to the rafters.  It looked like a very well heeled crowd—the event was a fundraiser for EQUAL GROUND, that does advocacy work on LGBTIQ issues….

but my god, the opeing number featured dazzling gowns and tuxedos as the drag queens and kings took to the stage with the ‘Ascot’ scene from My Fair Lady….with a difference.  The guys playing the gals were decked up with plumes and gorgeous dresses that looked as though they had stepped out of the movie sets each one of them bowing and curtsy-ing, and almost two meters tall with the plumes and all,  while the girls, well, they played the men, in tuxedos and ties, and of course, they all looked like mascots for the women, but that’s where the  fun began.  the role reversals were astounding.  Imagine a lesbian dressed as a guy,, lip-synching to ‘Why cant a woman be more like a man’ .   And then a lovely duo–a massive guy who looked like a carbon copy of Divine–mincing and strutting to the tune of ‘Money, Money, Money’ from Cabaret, with the Joel-Grey type played by a diminutive lady dressed in suspenders and a white shirt, complete with a mustache…fabulous camp.  

And that wasnt all–excerpts from Grease, South Pacific, Moulin Rouge, Mama Mia,…all unforgettable. And they also did a comical version of the Dying swan—only this time the Swan was madame Divine again, replete with the wig, eyelashes all over, in a resplendent black tutu, while the prince, barely coming up to her shoulders, gamely tried to lift her during the pas de deux…cominc timing was perfect.  There were a couple of Bollywood tunes, and a singhalese song featuring what else ? Sri Lankan schoolgirls in flowered frocks and pigtails, very obviously in their thirties and forties, wrinkles and flab and all, gaily  prancing and skipping around as though they were joyfully coming home from school.  The absurdity of it all was really something !  Then there was the West Side Story sequence, where the gals taunted the guys with ‘I wanna be in America’…..There were lots of showstoppers, too from the Sound Of Music, with the drag queens dressed in nuns habits and mouthing ‘how do you solve a problem like Maria’, and the Von Trapp kids, again with boys in drag playing the girls, and girls in pantaloons and overalls playing the boys, sweetly miming to ‘So Long, Farewell…”

A night not to be missed. Conceptually it was just amazing and executed perfectly, even down to the last mis-step,  and the preparation , creative energy that  went into the production was something very, very memorable… 

 

 

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