What a drag!
Once upon a time men played ALL the roles on theatre stages, and that's the way it is in OUR time, too, in some cases. Michelle Miller reports:
The costumes glitter, the lights dazzle. The music is joyous. And the girls... !
... They're not girls.
They're GUYS, starring in the Broadway hit "Priscilla Queen of the Desert."
Tony Sheldon was nominated for a Tony for his portrayal of a down-on-her-luck transsexual who, along with her (or should we say HIS?) pals embark on a road trip across Australia.
"I think even if people come with some sort of reluctance, or even maybe some sort of prejudice about the show, we sort of win them over," Sheldon said. "Because they do realize that these are just ordinary people who want a family and friends and love around them.
"They just happen to live their lives out loud in beautiful, flamboyant clothes. That's sort of it!"
Well, that's PART of it ...
"There is an attraction of looking at somebody who is apparently a very, very beautiful woman onstage, and thinking, That's a fella!?!" Sheldon said.
And THAT's why "drag" is suddenly in the pop culture spotlight.
There are TV shows, like RuPaul's "Drag Race," and "Drag U," a makeover show in which men-who-play-women help women find their "inner diva."
Of course, Hollywood has always known cross-dressing is good for a few laughs. Remember Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in "Some Like It Hot"?
Or Dustin Hoffman in "Tootsie," and Robin Williams in "Mrs. Doubtfire." Most recently, Adam Sandler donned a dress for "Jack and Jill."
"Drag performers will get you laughing - whether you're laughing AT them or laughing WITH them, they get you laughing," said Troy Dwyer, who teaches a "drag theory and performance" class at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania.
Final assignment: Dressing up in drag.
Dwyer says long before there was Lady Gaga's hit "Born This Way" - an homage to drag - there were men dressing up as women. From Greek classic theatre to the days of Shakespeare to vaudeville.
And there's a reason: "The mere notion of a woman performing on stage was unthinkable," said Dwyer. "It was considered indecent or immoral. It just didn't occur to any of these cultures."
Of course, once women DID make their way center stage, cross-dressing moved to the sidelines ... often, to the very fringes of society.
"I think that if you're a man and you dress up in women's clothing, and you put on the makeup and you put on the wig, you understand that you're breaking a big rule: You've broken the biggest rule that there is to break," said Dwyer.
Gay OR straight, many drag performers are used to breaking the rules. Just ask comedian "Lady Bunny": "It's just a question of saying, 'I don't care what society says about me, I'm going to do my thing,'" she said. "And luckily, from time to time, society will catch on."
Which is how she got cast in "Sex in the City," and how she makes a living.
"There are drag queens who lip synch, there are drag queens who DJ, there are drag queens who record music, like RuPaul. I mean, there are no rules anymore," said Lady Bunny.
On Halloween, at the Oscars, or any other day of the year - drag is no laughing matter!
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