GAYLETTER

Miyake-Mugler, Balenciaga, LaBeija, Lanvin, Mizrahi, you know these names, but do you know all of these houses? If you have been reading or following GAYLETTER for the better part of the last decade, you know we are big ballroom fans. There is a beautiful history to the scene, and after years of it influencing mainstreamers like Madonna, and fashion house, Viceland has given the dance-form its own show. I got my life within the first four minutes. The voice-overs (from a range of personalities inside of the ballroom scene) are all great for pull-quotes, and having met many of the shows cast members at our Pride Ball, and on set for photoshoots, it was all the more exhilarating to hear what ballroom has done for them on a national cable channel. My House is a documentary style reality show about the stars of the ballroom scene. The show features Tati, who’s currently “a child with no home,” as she left the House of Mugler for personal reasons, Alex, Legendary-ranked ballroom performer who we featured in Issue 7, and many other fantastic members of New York’s ballroom scene, that extends its reach across oceans. Dancers from Asia, Europe and South America often fly in to show their runway chops and impress the always cunty judges panel. “Voguing is a mode of self-expression,” Jelani (from the House of Mizrahi) says, “It’s way for gay people to overcome the oppression they go through on a daily basis.” I am so excited to see more of the show. Episode 1 is a crash-course in all things ballroom, but there is for sure more depth, emotional unearthing and general fabulousness to come!  —Chris Stewart

In case you are not caught up with 2017 — we now live in a wonderfully scary world where there’s more than one drag competition! For those of you that are slow, let me give you a new tip, you gotta watch this drag show by The Boulet Brothers where they are searching for the “World’s First Drag Supermonster.” The Boulet Brothers (Dracmorda and Swanthula Boulet) are well known in the drag scene in Los Angeles and I am sure many of you around the world might know these scary cunts. They always look frightening and amazing at the same time — good wigs, good makeup, their looks are on point, trust. They describe themselves on their Instagram as “Drag Terrorists, Queer Provocateurs, Nightlife hosts & performers...” I am not gonna give anything away about the show, because I don’t want to ruin it for you — I feel like anything I tell you will ruin the surprise — it’s one of those shows that you gotta see for yourself. All episodes are on Youtube (via the Hey Qween channel). It’s nothing like Rupaul’s Drag Race, Dragula is budget, but it works, the only thing they need to improve is the sound. There’s some interesting talent in the cast, their challenges are absolutely nuts... I can’t tell you anymore about the challenges because I don’t want to ruin your experience. And I definitely can’t say anything about the exterminations (that’s what they called their eliminations). You are gonna gag and probably scream a few times when you see the first one...  —Abi

Back in May, I was blown away by Latrice Royale in her show 'Here’s to Life'. We were set to interview her before the show, but she was very ill and it didn’t work out. Her lovely fiancé told me he’s never seen her like that before, but she carried on with the performance anyway. She sang, she told stories, she cried, I cried. Professional! Flawless! Magical! I usually feel that if you’ve seen a drag queen’s show, you’ve seen the queen’s show. If you go again, it’s similar to watching your favorite movie over and over — you really have to love her. But Latrice transcends that drag generality. She’s a true entertainer of the highest order. And on Sunday, December 11th, there’s even more. Kennedy Davenport is the guest star!!! During the season 7 finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race, RuPaul turned to the camera and told us: If you ever have the chance to get out and see Miss Kennedy Davenport in concert, it will give you life. Trust. I never forgot that instruction. Considering Ru hadn't made this sort of plug for any other queen (and hasn't since), I’m going to listen and take the opportunity while it’s here. Ru Girls don’t come through New York City often and Laguardia Newark Kennedy the Dancing Diva is even more rare. Don’t fuck this up. Click here for tickets!  —Bill Ivy

D’Angelo has been out of the music game for a while. There were stories of drug addiction and record company interference, but that’s none of our beeswax. Nor are the rumors that all those romantic songs he wrote were about mens, not womens. It’s all about the music, and D’Angelo is back in business. Last month he released his first album in 15 years, ‘Black Messiah,’ which according to music critics is friggin awesome (Pitchfork gave it a 9.4 out of 10). Now is our chance to see him live, and best of all it’s at the legendary Apollo Theater, which is now covered in Coca Cola logos but is still an iconic place. My only suggestion about heading to the Apollo is to get buzzed beforehand — drinks at that place cost an arm and a leg. Don’t worry about getting high beforehand however, I can guarantee you that by the time you get to your seat you’ll already have a pretty nice contact high. Puff, puff motherfuckers D’Angelo is ready for you.  —tom

Penny Arcade aka Susana Ventura has been absent from our social calendars for a while. Now I know why. Penny has been on a massive, non-stop tour of Europe, but this Saturday she’s back in NYC and performing at Joe’s Pub for the first time in 3 years. She’s bringing us a new show ‘Longing Lasts Longer.’ Her performances are always wonderful, invigorating and full of truth, but it’s often hard to pin down a theme or a topic. Not that she needs to be that formulaic — she generally just unleashes her brilliance upon the audience, and the audience sits back and takes it, gratefully. However here’s what we have been told to expect: “An evening of dangerous ideas and radical inquiry by the undisputed Queen of Underground Performance into what it means to be human, right now! Right here!” Sounds like the perfect way to spend Saturday night. Welcome home my dear.  —tom

420 already? I know right? It’s probably a good idea to go and see this show while you’re high. It’s called The Meeting and it’s a “comedy/variety show...A combination of outrageous comedy, politics, and cultural commentary,” brought to us by Justin Sayre. This is the latest engagement and it’s a very special one — because it’s on 420, and they’ll be celebrating John Cameron Mitchell “just in time for the Broadway debut of his celebrated musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” As I mentioned a month ago (you’ll know if you read our newsletter) he’s pretty much good at everything: acting, writing, directing, drag, singing and who knows what else… The Meeting had a successful season at 54 Below and now Justin is bringing it back downtown to one of our favorite venues: Joe’s Pub. Basically a whole bunch of talented artists will be singing homages to John Cameron. Performers for the night include Mx. Justin Vivian Bond (who we went to see last weekend, and was really feeling it after a few cocktails), Angela DiCarlo, Scott Matthew, Marty Thomas, Sven Ratzke, Paul Dawson & PJ DeBoy, Shane Shane and Derek Smith. I’m not sure if John Cameron is going to attend, but he should, it would be a great ego booster for him — not that he needs it.  —Abi

If you never saw legendary actress Isabella Rossellini’s Sundance Channel TV show Green Porno then you’re in for a real treat with her one woman show of the same name at BAM. I first saw clips of the the tv show online and to be honest thought she’d lost her mind. To be fair the website I was on, totally framed it that way (another reminder of why I should ignore 99% of Internet). The show is actually very smart, and very fascinating. Yes Isabella dresses up as various insects in full green body suit and face paint, but it’s all in the service of science! “With day-glo costumes and paper puppets, Rossellini reveals the surprisingly kinky and confounding mating rituals of insects and marine life based on a text by the influential French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière (The Mahabharata, 1987 Next Wave; The Tin Drum).” To me this show sounds like the greatest thing since the Lepidoptera Amphiesmenoptera learned to fly. Tickets are a little pricey at $120, but if you show up 90 minutes before show time they sell a limited amount of “rush” tickets for $30. I’d give that a shot.  —tom

In case you couldn’t tell from that time I wrote an in depth post about lactobacillus rhamnosus probiotics, I’m a bit of a nerd. Which is why I was super excited to get invited to the premier screening of the new American Museum of Natural History, Hayden Planetarium show: Dark Universe. The planetarium has had a bunch of interesting talent narrate past films (Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Redford) and this show is no different. Astrophysicist and prolific science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson takes the viewer on a journey through our universe exploring the after effects of the Big Bang, and the phenomenon of dark energy and dark matter. The visuals (by Carter Emmart, the Museum’s director of astrovisualization) are really mindblowing. While not in 3D, when projected onto the dome ceiling the visuals give the viewer the sensation of flying through the stars. The sound is so good, at some points it literally shook my seat. We didn’t plan ahead when we went to the screening last week, but FYI this show would obvs be even more awesome stoned. Either way it’s a blast.  —tom

Take advantage of the punk rock spirit people! Don’t call them fabulous. This is the kind of night where you can get really sloppy and wild without turning any heads in disgust. 285 Kent is hosting a night with punk rock teen-queens Hunx and his Punx. There will be cheap drinks, great music and surely flamboyant stage antics to get you in the mood for dancing, debauchery and delinquency. Hunx (Seth Bogart) is the best thing to happen to queer music since Freddie Mercury and if the new album, 'Street Punk,' is anything to go by expect loud noises, violence, leather, sweat and sex. Lovers Lane isn’t relevant anymore because he’s got Bad Skin. The opening acts, Chain and the Gang and Juan Wauters (The Beets) with Carmelle, are also really tremendous so I recommend going early — being on time is so punx.  —Thomas