have seen drag shows in my past life. Ones with male impersonators looking and sounding like Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, and some dressed as can -can girls. Yes, I did. But none the likes of which Sasha Velours “A Drag Spectacular”, otherwise known as “The Big Reveal”, which is now playing at the La Jolla Playhouse through Sept. 15.
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| Sasha |
Co- produced by Tectonic Theatre Project and co -written by Moisés Kaufman, based on the book of the same name, Velour’s story unfolds, but first with instructions from Velour that this is not a show that you sit on your hands. Clapping, hooting and noise making are part of the experience.
And we’re off with an entrance of a floating, beautifully coiffed woman dressed to the hilt, holding on to a long (what looked like) a fox tail floating to the ground. And with the descent of this beautiful person, Sasha Velour begins her story.
It’s a history, a coming of age story of a young man who knew as a small child that he/she was born into the wrong body. As a child her grandmother would let her play dress-up with clothes she had in her closet. Along with actual early film clips we saw her transformation in her new dress up clothes. And so, as her life’s story unravels, we learn that these stories are conglomerations or illusions of bygone drag queens.
Told in heartfelt and loving tones we learn to trust, feel affection for, relate to and feel for this very authentic person navigating her new world and never looking back.
Her costumes (Diego Montoya Studio) are simply gorgeous, sequence gowns, to lip syncing, to beautiful wigs ( all the while floating through the air (Angela Phillips) in David Rockwell’s designed set with several doll houses lit up (Amanda Zieve), sometimes exploding, sometimes opening up to show or just burning down, the inside or turning into something else altogether sometimes with rockets shooting out from them.
Directed with expertise by Moisés Kaufman and paint art by Sasha Velour this “Drag Spectacular” has to be one of the most entertaining shows I have seen in some time, because she “Did It Her Way”.
If there was one detraction in this one hour thirty five intermission-less show it was that it went on too long. I know there is a story to tell; she told it “Her Way” (final tribute to Frank Sinatra) but sometimes we have to know when to take our final bow.
More credits include: Palmer Hefferan, sound design, Cosette “Ettie” Pin, projections, musical direction, Stephen Oremus, Video Creation, House of Velour.
Enjoy and make noise.
See you at the theatre.
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 1 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through Sept. 15
Where: Potiker Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, UCSD, La Jolla
Tickets: $30-$63
Photo: Rich Soublet II
Phone: (858) 550-1010
Online: lajollaplayhouse.org
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