The Bearded Ladies Cabaret is enlisting the talents of local cabaret star Dito van Reigersberg for its latest fundraiser: a live musical, all-queer version of the cult classic film “Mommie Dearest,” Jan. 26 and Feb. 2 at The Wilma Theater.
“Mommie Queerest” turns the bat-crapcrazy drama into a camp opera, in which van Reigersberg — alter ego of drag star Martha Graham Cracker and co-founder of Pig Iron Theatre Company — and Bearded Ladies artistic director John Jarboe battle endlessly over who gets to portray the iconic unhinged and face-cream-smeared Joan Crawford.
“It’s a camp opera using excerpts from the ‘Mommie Dearest’ film and some relevant pop songs,” Jarboe said. “We put together a choir that will be singing behind Dito and myself. It’s pretty hilarious. All the audience members are going to get goodie bags with a wire hanger, hand sanitizer, a swimming cap and a small cardboard ax, so it will feel ‘Rocky Horror Picture’-esque.”
And exactly what kind of music goes well with maniacal narcissism and abuse?
“It’s more than one style,” Jarboe said. “It’s about the juxtapositions of styles. It’s a romantic opera sound mixed with soul and funk.”
Oh, something with a good beat. We get it.
Aside from having the purpose of being a riotously good time, the show also explores the gay community’s fascination with the dark themes at the core of “Mommie Dearest,” which wasn’t much of a critical or box-office success when it debuted in 1981, but went on to gain a sizable cult following.
“Mommie Dearest’ is a special story for gay men in particular,” Jarboe said. “We identify with the domineering abusive mother and the abused child at the same time. It’s the reason why it’s become a cult classic. I feel like the gay community has really embraced it. Joan Crawford has staying power. She’s fascinating. There’s this strange identification that certain generations, especially gay men, have with those characters that keeps drawing us in. ‘Mommie Queerest’ is about that identification and so I start out playing Joan, Dito plays Christina and then we switch roles partway through. Then the choir plays Joan Crawford and we play Christina and then the audience plays Joan Crawford. We keep passing the role back and forth throughout the show.”
Jarboe added that making the production all-queer only ups the entertainment value of the story.
“It’s already pretty queer,” he said of the original story. “It’s been appropriated by queer culture and we are inhabiting that fully and trying to manifest fully theatrically that identification that I am talking about. I think the scenes are relevant, this idea of putting us in that story and queer identification with those stories. YouTube has brought back a lot of old things, a recycling of queer imagery. So it’s in the air.”
“Mommie Queerest” is just the latest in a number of shows starring Jarboe and van Reigersberg. Jarboe said that the two work so well together because they share the same artistic views and sensibilities.
“Dito and I have done a number of things,” Jarboe said. “‘Back in the Army Cabaret’ was the first thing we did together and then ‘My Dinner with Dito’ and then ‘How to be Gay Cabaret.’ We’re cut from the same cloth in a lot of respects. We share a lot of the same questions about what’s happening to the LGBTQ community as there is more and more visibility — what gets lost and what is gained. That is why we are often coming together to perform. We are also cabaret artists and we are both in love with the queer form that is cabaret. We just have a really lovely chemistry and a lot of shared values.”
Naturally, the two also share a competitive streak, which feeds into the plot of “Mommie Queerest” where they vie against each other and everybody else in the room to see who can chew the scenery the most voraciously.
“There is a swimming race that happens through the audience and we’re always arguing over who gets to play Joan,” Jarboe said. “Who is abused and who gets to wear the shoulder pads. Then when one performer does something, we want to do that thing. There’s this running competition the whole show.”
So who is the best?
“I would say that I would make a better Joan Crawford, but Dito would say that he makes a better Joan Crawford,” Jarboe said. “So there is the story.”
At the end of the day, it’s not about who out-vamps who on stage. It’s about raising money for The Bearded Ladies so they can continue to put on outrageous shows like this one.
Jarboe said fundraising will be built in throughout the show.
“It’s a semi-staged concert,” Jarboe said. “We’re going to be collecting money throughout the performance. So for Dito’s entrance, we’re going to have to pool our money to get my adopted child onstage. So there are different things that we build into the performance to gain support for The Bearded Ladies. Then there’s going to be a dance afterwards, a band is going to play in the lobby of the Wilma. Beforehand, there are going to be drinks and popcorn. Basically it’s going to be a party with a camp opera happening in the middle of it.”
But, when the curtain closes on “Mommie Queerest,” Jarboe assured us, that won’t be the last we see of the pair.
“We definitely want to bring ‘My Dinner with Dito’ back and we’re taking about working together on another piece in the future,” he said.
We can’t wait.
The Bearded Ladies present “Mommie Queerest” 7 p.m. Jan. 26 and Feb. 2 at The Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St. For more information or tickets, call 215-893-9456 or visit www.beardedladiescabaret.com.