Dragmanity appeases all drag genres

By Amber Schadewald Fri., Jan. 16 2009 at 1:16 PM

Categories: Dance/Performance

Sure they danced, they sang (or pretended), they roused gender stereotypes, but "Dragmanity" at Bryant Lake Bowl didn't stick to the standard drag show set list. This particular show was centered on three key words: addiction, obsession and desire, and while that sounds awfully serious, the show did manage to throw quite a helping of humor into the mix. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men and others who stood by ambiguity took their place under the lights and sweat out moves to showtunes, country, Britney Spears and depressing drug songs.

Sometimes sexy and sometimes not, Dragmanity was definitley an entertaining entity.

Sweetpea of Lili's Burlesque hosted the evening, never forgetting to remind the audience about the importance of tipping. The show began with a focus on "addiction." Numbers about drinking too much vodka, something about a "monkey on your back" and the classic K's Choice song, "I'm Not an Addict," got the show off to a somewhat slow start. Things picked up when Heido Ho and Mistress Victoria took the reigns with an eerie rendition of Liza Minnelli's "Money (Makes the World Go Round)," followed by Martina Marraccino's super high kicks and half-balletic spins. During JoJo Mackie's skit to "Champagne Taste", the intimadating woman easily gained a fistful of cash as she mouthed the sassy words and rubbed audience member's heads.

The outrageous and talented Esme Rodreguiz produced Dragmanity and perfectly portrayed "obsession" wither her performance to a song about shoes -- complete with shoe chair, multiple pairs of pumps and hideously gawdy boots. She rubbed the shoes on her crotch, licked her lips and got all the foot fetish folks off in about two-point-two seconds. Ever adorable Switch the Boi Wonder had all the cute gay boys in the room fawning over him; that is until they realized the show was about displacing gender.

My personal favorite moment was handsdown Nikki Vixxon's untraditional choice to be an old, saggy hag with a walker for the song "Does Anybody Wanna Have Sex Tonight?" The audience went nuts as Vixxon clammered across the stage, swinging around her saggy set, bouncing her ghetto booty and even lifting up her skirt to reveal a revolting brown bush. Sick and incredible, Vixxon finished out the song by standing up on her walker, humping the air and mouthing the horny lyrics repeatedly.

Miss Rodreguiz of course had to top off the night's performances with her own stunt: drag on the cross. The curtains opened and there appeared Esme in a cloud of smoke, arms pinned to a massive white cross, Britney Spears' "Womanizer" blaring through the speakers. Eventually coming down off the crucifix, Esme stripped down to sequined underthings and tied up her priest accomplice instead. His eyes fixated on her, she rubbed him while singing the lyrics and jumping around on stage to collect her tips. Jesus may not have been impressed, but shit, I was.