Tyler Anthony Smith Archives

Four people stand in a line onstage. Behind them is a tinsel curtain and a table with a doll, a boombox, and other items. On the left is "Frau," (played by a male actor), wearing a red wig and a black jumpsuit. Next are two people dressed as Barry Gibb and Barbra Streisand, holding microphones and singing. They are in costumes and wigs from the late 70s. At the far right is a person in a green wig, wearing a buckled leather jacket and long denim shorts.

On a clear day you can clone forever

by Matt Simonette October 6, 2022October 6, 2022

Dr. Barbra Joan Frankenstreisand (Tyler Anthony Smith)—that ultimate hyphenate: superstar-mad scientist—has commandeered the stage at the Raven Room at Redline VR bar for what she calls a “clone-cert” to duplicate her beloved and very dead pooch. Few theater companies understand characters toeing the line between stardom and monstrousness like Hell in a Handbag Productions. Frankenstreisand, […]

A drawing-room setting. Six people in evening clothes and feathers are seated in a semi-circle in the rear. A man in a combination of plaids is doing a chicken impression before them.

Theater Review

Flying feathers

by Dan Jakes June 30, 2022July 25, 2022

There are a lot of substantive and weighty criticisms to be levied at the RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise and its global juggernaut influence over drag culture. Then there are petty ones, like mine: the series sucks at showcasing scripted camp. Nothing hushes even the most raucous, shoulder-to-shoulder packed bar viewing parties quite like the competition’s […]

Man in drag as Joan Crawford stands center, with actors kneeling or standing in the background

Theater Review

Joan-sing for the holidays

by Albert Williams December 8, 2021December 8, 2021

Hell in a Handbag Productions’ campy spoof of A Christmas Carol replaces miserly moneylender Ebenezer Scrooge with hard-hearted Hollywood icon Joan Crawford, played by author (and Hell in a Handbag artistic director) David Cerda. In Cerda’s reworking of Charles Dickens’s behavior-modification fable, Joan—a tyrannical, tough-as-nails diva who abuses everyone around her, including her loyal personal […]