@ The Idolize Spiegeltent, Garden of Unearthly Delights
SUNDAY 19 Feb 2012
To any passerby at the Garden of Unearthly Delights on Sunday night, it would have been clear that something quite spectacular was going on. With seven foot Drag Queens casually drinking by the bar and sequins as far as the eye could see, the stars of DragOrama created an atmosphere rife with glamour and intrigue before the show even began. In the 15 minutes leading up to the big event, the line outside the Idolize Spiegeltent had almost quadrupled in size. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was in part to do with those last minute buyers, fascinated by the atmosphere and eager to get involved in whatever was going on.
An experience in itself, the Idolize Spiegeltent was the perfect venue for this over the top celebration of individuality and style. A long time spent in the line up gave the audience a chance to appreciate the truly dramatic nature of the venue, with ornate carvings and baroque style paintings, complete with gilded frames, surrounding the exterior of the tent. Internally, ornate decorated mirrors and embroidered deep green and red drapes exhume the grandeur fit for this talented group of drag stars.
The seats were packed by an incredibly diverse audience within minutes and it wasn’t long before we were introduced to one of our hosts for the evening, the highly acclaimed and definitely fabulous Shimmer Chernobyl. Shimmer opened the show with a highly appropriate rendition of Here I Am (by Natalie Gauci) and continued throughout the night to introduce and complement her drag babies. We would later be introduced to our other compere Malt Biscuit. With her dry, provocative and often self deprecating humour, Malt provided a stunning and hilarious contrast to the highly energetic and flamboyant nature of the remainder of the performance.
Returning to donate their talent for this Feast Festival fundraiser was an array of our own Adelaide Drag Queens, including Cherry Poppins, Desiree, Luci Furr, Marie Claire, Mercedes Benz, Cleo Cosmopolitan, Judy G Spot, Raven, Misty Munday, Victoria Square, Ali Holic, Helga Handful, Izzie Good, Rouge, Dixie Ryder, Selena, Tina Peechez, Bailey St Cream, Princess Laya, Miss Choo, Rita Demore’e, Brenda Baklava, Scarlett Snatch and Loz Vegas. Each of these very well primped and practiced Queens were strikingly different in their appearance and performances, while still conveying one very strong message as far as this reviewer is concerned – This is who we are, and we are fucking fantastic. And they were.
Each performer had a unique style, whether it was Marie Claire performing Shirley Temple’s On the Good Ship Lollipop (which was actually quite disturbing), or Misty Munday performing a parody on the song Hey Micky, retitled Hey Jesus. It wasn’t uncommon to see audience members dancing out of their seats, particularly when being entertained by the more engaging members of the cast, namely Luci Furr, who stole the show. That said, everyone involved was fantastic on the night and there was rarely a dull moment. Special mention should also go to the one and only Drag King of the night, Mark Fitzpatrick. Mark delivered a fantastic rendition of Don’t Worry, Be Happy (by Guy Sebastian) and blew my preconceptions about gender out of the water. The show finished with a with a collaboration by Malt Biscuit and the too beautiful Princess Laya performing Who Knew (by Pink) with help from some very attractive men. That said, I don’t think they were completely necessary additions, as Malt Biscuit would have had more than enough stage presence standing all on her own. In the dark.
The unfortunate aspect of this performance, which I can’t help but mention, was the fact that the show went 60 minutes over the advertised time of 90 minutes. Having started the show at about 10pm, the previously enthusiastic audience grew weary towards the end. By the 100 minute mark half of the seats had cleared out and it was a relief when the show finally finished at 12:30am. In the future, I think the organizers of DragOrama would be well served to manage their stage time more appropriately, and perhaps cut down on repeat performances. It was simply disappointing to see the life of the show dwindle, and one felt sorry for those performers who hadn’t had the opportunity to showcase their talents early on in the performance, and got very limited attention from a tired audience. However, after all is said and done, the DragOrama performers put on a highly joyful show and I will definitely go again next year if the opportunity strikes – I’ll just know to take in a second bottle of wine, in case of over-time.
