Back row: Tony Sheldon, Sherry Vine, Bianca Del Rio, Will Swenson, and Lady Bunny. Front row:
Nick Adams and BeBe Zahara Benet. Photographed at the Pierre Hotel, New York City. Right: Tuxedo
by Kenneth Cole. Patent leather lace-up shoes by Emporio Armani. Tuxedo by Burberry Prorsum.
White cotton button-down shirt and tie by Emporio Armani. Contrast wing-tip shoes by Trussardi 1911.
Tuxedo by Emporio Armani. White tuxedo shirt by Marc Jacobs. Cummerbund by Giorgio Armani.
Patent leather shoes by Calvin Klein.
The stars of Priscilla meet the queens of
New York
By Steven Thrasher | Photography by Roger Erickson/Out Magazine
The photographer asks the three Broadway leading men and the four
drag queens to give him more "dynasty" in their group portrait.
"Is that Dynasty or 'die, nasty?'" asks Lady Bunny, the founder of
'Wigstock' and onetime roommate of Ru Paul.
The group’s pose is ambiguous. Do they want to ignore,
kill, or screw one another?
"More sexy, less fight," the photographer responds.
His subjects laugh heartily and easily. Despite hours under hot lights,
the men in their tuxedoes and suits and the "ladies" in their
heels seem to be having a good time.
The shoot is a moment of cultural diplomacy. The New York City
drag queens are here to welcome the new Broadway cast of
Priscilla Queen of the Desert -- the musical -- to town.
Drag’s role in popular culture has changed considerably since
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the film,
opened in 1994. "From RuPaul to Jerry Springer to Dame Edna to
Too Wong Foo -- drag is very family-
friendly now," says Lady Bunny between photo setups.
So can drag still pack a punch when the counterculture has gone
mainstream? "Including ours, there are four shows on Broadway
that have drag in them right now," says Will Swenson, a 2010 Tony
nominee (for Berger in Hair) who will be portraying Tick/Mitzi
in Priscilla. To him, drag remains a transformative tool of expression.
Swenson was in London when he found out he got the role.
"I went out for a night on the town in drag to see what it’s like,"
he says. He stepped out with a
friend to discover that it was "scary, surprising, and a lot of fun.
We’re both six-foot-two without
heels, and we put on these eight-inch platforms."
Swenson found it empowering but says it had a dark side. He got
called a "faggot," something
the straight actor had never experienced before. "It was very
troubling," he says. There’s a scene
in the show where Priscilla (the bus) is vandalized with antigay
slurs. When his character sees it,
Swenson goes back to that moment emotionally.
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