In 1994, an Australian road comedy about three drag artists heading off in a beat-up tour bus across the Outback felt like a breath of fresh air in a cinematic landscape that tended to focus stories with “gay themes” on the tragedy of AIDS, and that still tended to view being trans as a punch […]
Tag: Honey West
Posted inTheater Review
Far from a drag
It’s been nearly 50 years since the first iteration of La Cage aux Folles flew from the nest in the form of Jean Poiret’s 1973 play of that title. Since then, there’s been a 1978 French film, remade in Hollywood in 1996 as The Birdcage (starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane) and an oft-revived 1983 […]
Posted inPerforming Arts Feature
Welcome to Venus
Back in December, there was a shining sliver of time when it looked like we—as individuals, as artists, as arts institutions—were forging a clear, or at least clear-ish, path forward. Hundreds of people were back at work on live, in-person shows. A Christmas Carol burned bright at the Goodman. The Snow Queen got a shiny […]
Posted inArts & Culture
E. Faye Butler plays Gypsy’s Mama Rose as one great, ferocious growl
The rest of Porchlight’s raucous revival shines around her.
Posted inArts & Culture
The Tall Girls; Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; and eight more new theater reviews
A League of One’s Own for Depression-era women’s basketball and a musical based on the Australian cult classic are among this week’s best bets.
Posted inArts & Culture
On Stage: Dave Awl and the Sultans of Swish
Dave Awl, impresario and mother hen of the performance soiree The Pansy Kings’ Cotillion, is holding court amid the musty clutter of the Neo-Futurarium’s dressing room. The event, billed as “the ultimate sampler pack of the gay male performance scene in Chicago,” may be two weeks away, but the makeup and attitudes are out in […]