You may not expect to find a beginners’ lesson in female impersonation on Christopher Street — that hard-won, sequin-strewn stomping ground of drag veterans — but, that’s just what you’ll get from The Legend of Georgia McBride, a campy new comedy by Matthew Lopez that opened last night at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.
In the MCC production directed by Mike Donahue, drag virgins with any trepidation can expect a palatable intro to the form, one that tickles audiences with a greatest hits of kitschy clichés, and is primarily designed to convince Joe Flyover State that a straight dude putting on a dress and lip-syncing for money is, like, totally chill, bro.
What follows is the birth of Georgia McBride, and her evolution from a reluctant, bumbling guy in a dress to an energetic, confident drag queen. The process is fun to watch (at least for a while), and fortunately for us, Georgia’s got a bang-up teacher in Tracy. McGrath conjures up a consummate drag persona, by turns wisecracking and sweet, drolly jaded and warmly encouraging. Tracy helps Georgia become a better drag queen, at first from necessity (the show must go on!) and then from a sort of kinship (sisters are doing it for themselves!). One of the duo’s medleys in particular will have both Broadway and country music queens LOLing in the aisles — what comes between them may not lead you to the edge of your seat.
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Follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter: @Mr_NaveenKumar (photos: joan marcus)
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