Props to Pageant

I thought I’d share a little more about the play Todd and I went to see this weekend.  We didn’t really know what we were getting into until we got there, but for some reason I wasn’t totally surprised.  The play, “Pageant” was and actual beauty pageant – except… the contestants were men dressed as women. I think the joke was it wasn’t supposed to be like a drag show.  They were really supposed to be women, or as the first song said, “Natural born Females” but “With Something Extra” as hinted at in the second song.  Frankie Cavalier was the “Master of Ceremonies” and he did a great job of being smarmy yet sincere with his bombastic descriptions of each of the women.  Just like a real beauty pageant host.

My favorite part was the way they had regions instead of states that each of the contestants came from.  There was Miss Bible Belt, Miss Deep South, Miss Great Plains, Miss Industrial Northeast, Miss West Coast, and Miss Texas.  And of course each of the women embodied the areas that they came from.  Miss West Coast, Karma Quinn, was spacey and did a hilarious interpretive dance for her part in the talent competition.  Miss Texas, Kitty-Bob Ames, tap danced with ridiculous horse get up attached to her that was absolutely hilarious.  

In between competitions, the women came out and showed us their “spokes model” abilities by demonstrating various products developed by “Glamouresse,” the sponsor of the show.    I can’t remember what the products were right now.  But a few of them were pretty darn funny.  And, the whole thing was very interactive.  People from the audience sitting at different tables were chosen to be judges, and according to the program they really do chose the winner.  In the message from the director, Bruce Saathoff, “the outcome is truly unknown and in the hands of our audience judges.”

Overall I’d say it was a lot of fun and definitely worth the price of the ticket.  Oh wait…I didn’t pay.  (Thanks Todd!  Let’s do it again soon!)