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Jeffery Roberson
Varla Jean Merman is a character originated and portrayed by Jeffery Roberson, an American actor, singer and drag performer. Varla's fictitious pedigree boasts that Ernest Borgnine is her father and Ethel Merman is her mother. Merman is perhaps best known for her role in the 2003 independent film '' Girls Will Be Girls''. She also had a co-starring role in the 1997 film ''Franchesca Page''. Merman was also one of the performers featured in the HBO original documentary ''Dragtime''. She has appeared in a number of short films and live cabaret acts since she and her male alter-ego attended the School of Music at Louisiana State University. Merman's shows are a staple of summer entertainment in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She also performs fairly often in New Orleans, New York City, San Francisco, and London and has also enjoyed billing at the Sydney Opera House in Australia and Carnegie Hall. The gay-themed television network Logo commissioned Merman to write and star in an anima ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drag (clothing)
The term "drag" refers to the performance of exaggerated masculinity, femininity, or other forms of gender expression, usually for entertainment purposes. A drag queen is someone (usually male) who performs femininity and a drag king is someone (usually female) who performs masculinity. Performances often involve comedy, social satire, and at times political commentary. The term may be used as a noun as in the expression ''in drag'' or as an adjective as in '' drag show''. __TOC__ Etymology The use of "drag" in this sense appeared in print as early as 1870Oxford English Dictionary 2012 (Online version of 1989 2nd. Edition) Accessed 11 April 2012 but its origin is uncertain. One suggested etymological root is 19th-century theatre slang, from the sensation of long skirts trailing on the floor. It may have been based on the term "grand rag" which was historically used for a masquerade ball. In folk custom Men dressed as women have been featured in certain traditional customs f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Advocate (LGBT Magazine)
''The Advocate'' is an American LGBT magazine, printed bi-monthly and available by subscription. ''The Advocate'' brand also includes a website. Both magazine and website have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) people. The magazine, established in 1967, is the oldest and largest LGBT publication in the United States and the only surviving one of its kind that was founded before the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan, an uprising that was a major milestone in the LGBT rights movement. On June 9th, 2022 Pride Media was acquired by Equal Entertainment LLC known as equalpride putting the famous magazine back under queer ownership. History ''The Advocate'' was first published as a local newsletter by the activist group Personal Rights in Defense and Education (PRIDE) in Los Angeles. The newsletter was inspired by a police raid on a Los Angeles gay bar, the Black Cat Tavern, on Ja ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miss Coco Peru
Miss Coco Peru (born August 27, 1965) is the drag persona of American actor, comedian and drag performer Clinton Leupp, known for her role in the 1999 independent film ''Trick'' and for her series of live theater performances. Recognizable by her "trademark copper-toned flip hairdo", Peru also starred in Richard Day's '' Girls Will Be Girls'' (2003) and was one of six performers featured in the Logo original stand-up comedy series ''Wisecrack'' (2005). She has also appeared in a number of other supporting and guest-starring roles in film and television. For 20 years Peru has starred in various "one-woman shows" across the US and other countries, and hosted LGBT events. Since 2005 Peru has appeared in the "Conversations with Coco" series in which she "interviews and celebrates the lives and careers of the LGBT community's favorite icons." Peru's guests have included Bea Arthur, Liza Minnelli, Lesley Ann Warren, Karen Black, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. Early life and the creation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Gold Dust Orphans
The Gold Dust Orphans are a fringe theater company based in Boston and Provincetown, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1995 by writer/performer Ryan Landry, Scott Martino, Afrodite (aka Andre Shoals), and Billy Hough. It is a group of actors, musicians, writers and visual artists dedicated to the production of shows that are often based on works of film, theater, and popular culture. Many of the roles are played in the classical tradition by men in drag. Production history 1993 *''Psycho Beach Party, Camille'' 1998 *''How Mrs. Grinchly Swiped Christmas'' 1999 *''Charlie's Angels & the Case of the Tobacco Heiress'', ''Medea'' 2000 * ''The Bunny Trail, Joan of Arkansas'' 2001 *Madame Ex 2002 *''Rosemary's Baby - The Musical!'', ''Camille'', ''Scarrie'', ''Joan Crawford's Christmas On the Pole'' 2003 *''The Bad Seed'', ''The Gulls'', ''Who's Afraid of the Virgin Mary?'' 2004 *''Pussy On The House'', ''The Septic Wives'', ''The Exorcissy'', ''Who's Afraid of the Virgin Mary?'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Medium
''The Medium'' is a short (one-hour-long) two-act dramatic opera with words and music by Gian Carlo Menotti. Commissioned by the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University, its first performance was there on 8 May 1946. The opera's first professional production was presented on a double bill with Menotti's '' The Telephone'' at the Heckscher Theater, New York City, February 18–20, 1947 by the Ballet Society. The Broadway production took place on May 1, 1947, at the Ethel Barrymore Theater with the same cast. In 1951, Menotti directed, with the help of filmmaker Alexander Hammid, a film version made to resemble film noir, and starring Marie Powers as Madame Flora and Anna Maria Alberghetti as Monica. A live television production starring Marie Powers took place on 12 December 1948 on the TV series '' Studio One'' and on 14 February, 1959 on '' Omnibus'', starring Claramae Turner. It was also filmed for Australian TV in 1960. Roles Synopsis Act 1 ''The medium's parlor'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti (, ; July 7, 1911 – February 1, 2007) was an Italian composer, librettist, director, and playwright who is primarily known for his output of 25 operas. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. One of the most frequently performed opera composers of the 20th century, his most successful works were written in the 1940s and 1950s. Highly influenced by Giacomo Puccini and Modest Mussorgsky, Menotti further developed the verismo tradition of opera in the post-World War II era. Rejecting atonality and the aesthetic of the Second Viennese School, Menotti's music is characterized by expressive lyricism which carefully sets language to natural rhythms in ways that highlight textual meaning and underscore dramatic intent. Like Wagner, Menotti wrote the libretti of all his operas. He wrote the classic Christmas opera '' Amahl and the Night Visitors'' (1951), along with over two dozen other operas intended to appe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gambit Weekly
''Gambit'' (formerly ''Gambit Weekly'') is a New Orleans, Louisiana-based free alternative weekly newspaper established in 1981. ''Gambit'' features reporting about local politics, news, food and drink, arts, music, film, events, environmental issues and other topics, as well as listings. ''Gambit'' publishes 36,000 papers each Tuesday, which are distributed to 400 locations in the New Orleans metro area beginning Sunday afternoon. In January 2009, the paper changed its name from ''Gambit Weekly'', to which it had been renamed in 1996, back to ''Gambit'', the name under which it had been founded in 1981. On April 9, 2018, Georges Media, the holding company for ''The New Orleans Advocate'', purchased ''Gambit''. Content Regular features include "Opening Gambit" (political news briefs), and "Thumbs Up & Thumbs Down," weekly awards for the city's "heroes and zeroes." ''Gambit'' also publishes a weekly editorial and issues endorsements in many political races, with two notabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucky Guy (musical)
''Lucky Guy'' is a musical comedy written and directed by Willard Beckham. The piece tells the story of Billy Ray Jackson, a young musician from Oklahoma who wins a songwriting contest and is invited to Nashville to record his song. He becomes the target of the used-car dealer Big Al Wright and the fading star Miss Jeannie Jeannine (the "Queen of Country Music"), who want to steal Billy Ray's song and use it to revitalize Jeannie's career. The show premiered on May 19, 2011, Off-Broadway at the Little Shubert Theatre, for a planned run through July 24 but closed after just ten days. The cast included Kyle Dean Massey (as Billy Ray Jackson), Leslie Jordan (Big Al Wright), Varla Jean Merman (Miss Jeannie Jeannine), Jenn Colella (Chicky Lay), Jim Newman (G. C. Wright), and Savannah Wise Savannah Wise (born April 25, 1984) is an American actress, dancer, and singer. She played Jessica on the NBC American musical theatre dramedy television series '' Smash''. She is also known for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer than 100. An "off-Broadway production" is a production of a play, musical, or revue that appears in such a venue and adheres to related trade union and other contracts. Some shows that premiere off-Broadway are subsequently produced on Broadway. History The term originally referred to any venue, and its productions, on a street intersecting Broadway in Midtown Manhattan's Theater District, the hub of the American theatre industry. It later became defined by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers as a professional venue in Manhattan with a seating capacity of at least 100, but not more than 499, or a production that appears in such a venue and adheres to related trade union and other contracts. Previously, regardless of the size ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leslie Jordan
Leslie Allen Jordan (April 29, 1955 – October 24, 2022) was an American actor, comedian, writer, and singer. His television roles include Beverley Leslie on ''Will & Grace'' (2001–2006 and 2017–2020), several characters on television in the ''American Horror Story'' franchise (2013–2019), Sid on ''The Cool Kids'' (2018–2019), Phil on ''Call Me Kat'' (2021–2022), and Lonnie Garr on ''Hearts Afire'' (1993–1995). On stage, he played Earl "Brother Boy" Ingram in the 1996 play ''Sordid Lives'', later portraying the character in the 2000 film of the same name. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jordan became an Instagram contributor, amassing 5.8 million followers in 2020, and published his autobiography ''How Y'all Doing? Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived'' in April 2021. Early life Jordan was born on April 29, 1955, and was raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He graduated from Brainerd High School. Jordan said his mother, Peggy Ann Jordan (née Griffin; 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chicago (musical)
''Chicago'' is a 1975 American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Chicago in the jazz age, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same title by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, about actual criminals and the crimes on which she reported. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal". The original Broadway production opened in 1975 at the 46th Street Theatre and ran for 936 performances, until 1977. Bob Fosse directed and choreographed the original production, and his style is strongly identified with the show. It debuted in the West End in 1979, where it ran for 600 performances. ''Chicago'' was revived on Broadway in 1996, and a year later in the West End. The 1996 Broadway production holds the record as the longest-running musical revival and the longest-running American musical in Broadway history. It is the second longest-running show ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
The ''Pittsburgh Tribune-Review'', also known as "the Trib," is the second largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Although it transitioned to an all-digital format on December 1, 2016, it remains the second largest daily in the state, with nearly one million unique page views a month. Founded on August 22, 1811, as the ''Greensburg Gazette'' and in 1889 consolidated with several papers into the ''Greensburg Tribune-Review'', the paper circulated only in the eastern suburban counties of Westmoreland and parts of Indiana and Fayette until May 1992, when it began serving all of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area after a strike at the two Pittsburgh dailies, the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' and ''Pittsburgh Press'', deprived the city of a newspaper for several months. The Tribune-Review Publishing Company was owned by Richard Mellon Scaife, an heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, until his death in July 2014. Sca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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