The Latin phrase “In vino veritas” (“There is truth in the wine”) implies that people are most honest and vulnerable when alcohol has lowered their inhibitions. It certainly helped drag performer Jimmy Pittman-Moore in 2016, when he found inspiration for “Drunk Drag Dizney on Broadway, A Musical Parody,” which comes to San Francisco’s Oasis club this week, in a most unlikely place.
“I saw a version of ‘Drunk Wicked’ on YouTube many years ago and thought it would make an amazing stage show, especially with live singing—a novelty for most drag shows!” says Pittman-Moore, aka drag artist Chyna Maykit.
He took the idea to Heklina, the late San Francisco drag legend and co-founder of the Oasis. That led to the 20-minute “Wicked-ish,” the inaugural show presented by Drunk Drag Productions, known for shows irreverently retelling fairy tales with inebriated narrators and high-camp performers.
After canceling the 2020 show “Little Shop of Whores” due to the pandemic, Pittman-Moore is resurrecting the concept with “Drunk Drag Dizney on Broadway.” As the purposely misspelled title suggests, the show’s cast members (including Maykit, Elsa Touche, Polly Amber Ross, Chester Vandbox, Titus Androgynous, Miguel Velez, Lucinda Puss, Kylie Minono, Tater Tot, Dani Oakley and Bettyie Jane) will unleash their soused sensibilities on the film studio behind “Snow White” and “Frozen.”
The urge to bring show literally screaming back to life has been building since the initial COVID lockdown when Pittman-Moore and fellow performers took their act online.
“What really sealed the deal for me was the call to return from our passionate fan base,” says Pittman-Moore. “[Club owner and co-founder] D’Arcy Drollinger and the fabulous team at Oasis have held space for us on their calendar, which is truly an honor and privilege. I am incredibly grateful to be able to create original and subversive works again. It’s very San Francisco, and I wasn’t willing to let the pandemic pause steal a piece of that magic.”
It isn’t lost on many that Disney makes a worthy target, given the Mouse House’s complicated history with the LGBTQ+ community (though Disney World has welcomed unofficial “Gay Days” since 1991 and Disney-Pixar’s 2022 “Lightyear” featured the first overtly queer couple in the history of Walt Disney Pictures). The studio has contributed to anti-queer politicians, and some of its villains (such as Scar from “The Lion King”) have been interpreted as “queer-coded” monsters.
For the performers in “Drunk Drag Dizney on Broadway”—who have fond memories of the films and the fact that villainess Ursula from “The Little Mermaid” was based on legendary drag queen Divine —the show almost presents a way to work through their own conflicted feelings about the studio and its contributions to queer villainization.
“The [Disney clichés] I find the most troubling are the ‘helpless princess’ trope and the ‘every princess needs/wants a prince’ narrative,’” says Dani Oakley. “So many classic fairy tales are littered with harmful ideas around binary gender, gender roles and heteronormativity. Disney is not innocent of this and performances like these give us the opportunity to not only point out the ways in which these beloved movies are problematic, but also create our own inclusive, progressive and irreverent narratives centered around the stories and music we grew up loving.”
Elsa Touche agrees, saying Disney trafficked in stereotypes more harmful than frequent-conservative-target drag story time: “If you see a recognizably queer or non-gender-conforming (or not-quite-gender-conforming) character in a Disney film, they’re probably evil. Also, the notion that happiness involves finding true love, or that love always starts with love at first sight (or that a person has ‘one true love’) does a hell of a number on a lot of people’s heads. [Still], both drag and parody serve to question and upend stereotypes.”
“Drunk Drag Dizney” and the upcoming return of “Wicked-ish” come at precarious time for San Francisco’s drag scene, along with the 2024 closure of the transgender-focused club AsiaSF. Though Oasis remains a go-to spot (with The Edge, Midnight Sun and Oakland’s White Horse), the community is still dealing with the sudden death of co-founder Heklina (aka Stefan Grygelko) in 2023.
“If anything, Heklina’s passing motivated me to continue a tradition that she created space for,” says Pittman-Moore. “As we celebrated her life at the Castro Theatre, acknowledging the immense impact she had on so many people, I felt an even stronger drive to carry on. The platforms she and her peers like D’Arcy Drollinger and Peaches Christ provided have allowed us to grow and thrive. Continuing to develop this art form in San Francisco feels like an important way to honor her legacy and the pioneering work they’ve done.”
Pittman Moore is up to the challenge of remounting “Wicked-ish” against its powerhouse source. The tour of “Wicked” comes to San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre in August and the big-budget movie starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo has a November release. (“Of course, Ariana and Cynthia were on our shortlist, but their press schedule simply wouldn’t allow them to meet the grueling demands of a drunk drag production,” quips Pittman-Moore.)
That the film opens the same month as the presidential election, which could have repercussions for the LGBTQ+ community, provides even more reason for Drunk Drag Productions to tell its stories, Pittman-Moore says: “Regardless of the election’s outcome, our show will be a space where people can come together, find common ground, and remember the importance of joy and resilience. In times of uncertainty, theater and drag have always been beacons of light and defiance, and we’re committed to shining that light as brightly as possible. Our performances will continue to serve as a reminder that laughter, art and community are powerful tools for change.”
“Drunk Drag Dizney on Broadway, A Musical Parody” runs July 11-27, 2024 at Oasis, 298 11th St., San Francisco. Tickets are $30 to $150 at sfoasis.com.
Charles Lewis III is a San Francisco-born journalist and performing artist. He has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED and San Francisco Examiner. Dodgy evidence of this can be found at The Thinking Man’s Idiot.wordpress.com.
The post LGBTQ+ artists take on major studio with ‘Drunk Drag Dizney’ parody appeared first on Local News Matters.