Great musicals even better as drag spoofs
The top of her blond wig nearly scraped the ceiling, and her handbag could’ve rested on my shoulders.
Cruzin d’Loo is one-half of the creative and producing team of the Drag Experience, a quarterly theatrical spoof of a famous musical — done nearly all in drag.
The Drag Experience has sold out every single show that d’Loo and her co-creator Sugah Betes have produced since opening night of their version of “Hamilton” last fall.
[...] it worked for two shows of “Moulin Rouge” until PianoFight, the Tenderloin bar and performance space hosting the show, got a cease-and-desist letter from the actual Moulin Rouge cabaret in Paris.
The Drag Experience’s take on Baz Luhrmann’s musical film “Moulin Rouge” is close enough to the original to make as much sense as the original, which is admittedly little.
Vanilla Meringue takes on Nicole Kidman’s role as the near-death Satine, albeit a plus-size version brought back to life with Twinkies, and Dina Isis plays Christian, a role originated by Ewan McGregor.
Songs and dialogue are still lip-synced like in drag shows, only this version of “Moulin Rouge” involves a few rubber dildos and a cameo from Disney’s “Mulan.”
When Mulan (dressed in full geisha drag) left the stage, a narrator screamed, “Wrong Moulin, you stupid bitch!” The audience went wild.
A few rows back, d’Loo’s 12-year-old daughter and husband sat in the Main Stage Theater of PianoFight surrounded by drunken ladies celebrating a birthday and a lot of men in statement accessories.
“It’s been really exciting,” d’Loo said of working with PianoFight, home to all sorts of live music and theatrical events.
An aggressively loud rock band performed for tables of attentive fans, and servers quickly bused half-eaten plates of burgers.