kyle hemingway

yesterday, i joined members of the encore gay men’s chorus in a jaunt to stoneham, massachusetts to see a delightful new musical called “pageant.”  penned (in part) by bill russell, author of last season’s boston theatre sleeper hit, “elegies for angels, punks and raging queens,” it was, as the emcee declared, “a cavalcade of beauty.”

boys played girls in this outrageous sendup of beauty pageants, all clawing to the top for the coveted title of “miss glamouresse.” although the boston theatre season just began, i’m not sure i’m going to find myself laughing quite that hard in a long time. everything was simply fantastic in this production.  bill (like dr. marilyn plotkins, i, too, fancy myself on a first name basis with bill russell) directed, and both the costume designer and choreographer were from actual pageants, adding another level of fantastic realism to the production.  overall, after a while you stopped realizing that these were boys and concentrated on their zany quirks and fabulous talents (miss bible belt’s “banking with jesus” song, or miss deep south’s ventriloquist dummies).

i’m incredibly saddened that yesterday was the final performance of this show because it’s definitely one that i would have sent everyone i knew to go see.