Queer Pageantry
by Billy McEntee
The Hard Nut. photo: Julieta Cervantes
Pageantry was the seed to my queerness, and it very likely started at Guardian Angel Roman Catholic Church in Allendale, New Jersey: each yuletide, children would participate in a classic Nativity concert that often turned classique when girls (too many) couldn't be angels but had to be shepherds to balance numbers. Bless the director, Ted Clark, for his balanced staging. And bless the more virile (read: taller) girls for their service, and its residual effects on my gender theory.
Such yummy, snowy, Jesus-jokey goodness can be also found in New York between the time in which you hum "Turkey Lurkey Time" and "Auld Lang Syne." Going to see a batty queer holiday bonanza has become a December tradition for me, and friends, so it is with great pleasure that I share it with you. This list is but a small compilation: you likely have musical and dramatic and choreographic baubles you, too, adore, and I'd be so glad if you shared them with me. Let's be the gifts that keep on giving, shall we?
I must start with a long-reigning triumph: respect where respect is due. I hear Mark Morris's leadership was as bombastic as his choreography is delightful. Anyone who's read The Santaland Diaries knows that holiday cheer doesn't come easy. Nonetheless, the only thing more invigorating than dozens of dancers hurling pounds of fake snow into the sky as they criss-cross in this Nutcracker riff is Morris himself, emerging, in bescarffed regalia, to take the final (and not at all rushed) bow. Amen, king.
The Nativity
No link for this show as there is no word of it yet. Start your prayer circles: this is one, after two successful years, I now can't live without. The Lazours and Mark Sonnenblick (musical theatre writers hot as they are talented) put Mary on a quest to see her gay dads upstate. Genius lyrics (Joseph to the men in town: "Did you fuck my wife?"), debaucherous music, and starry theatre names in the cast make this one an instant tradition.
Sugar & Booze: A Holiday Spectacular
Evergreen since Wicked, Ana Gasteyer now puts some rouge on, too, to get all Christmassy for her holiday concert. It's at Town Hall, so this is a bigger (and newer) show, but Gasteyer — SNL alum, Mean Girls mom, and September L Davis incarnate — has the chops to fill the Colosseum.
A Miserable Evening with Jackie Hoffman and Justin Vivian Bond: Crushed Ice!
For a more intimate affair, head to Joe's Pub. Yes, the tickets are expensive (plus the food/bev minimum!), but, if you venture, consider it a holiday treat to be embraced by two of the greatest stage presences in town. "A Miserable Evening with Jackie Hoffman" tells you all you need to know (this woman is anything but festive, and that her birthday falls during the most joyous time of the year is not lost on her), and "Crushed Ice!" offers even the opposite: warming spice. That's what JVB's voice is, to me, and nothing reaches the cockles like their rendition of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
I've never been, and I'm finally going this year. It has artists I love, is (like Morris) a riff on that ballet that can't die, and supports a theater with all the right vibes. And Nathan Lee Graham is this yea's Rat King?? Come on.
I've gone twice, and the audience is a who's who: Murray Hill! Jeff Hiller! (How I wish Bridget Everett were having a holiday show this year!) Throw on your ugly sweater, guzzle an overpriced cocktail from the bar if that's your thing, and enjoy some manic mayhem from two of the best queens out there
Ratcracker. no photo credit available.