TransTainment 11/28/22
Toronto Latinx drag star Shay Dee has a hot new dance single called All Eyes on Me. Check it out.
Maxine Angela Opoku
In August 2021, lawmakers in Ghana’s Parliament put forth a bill that would imprison people who are transgender. A singer and musician who identifies as transgender, Maxine Angel Opoku turned away from songs about love, romance and sexiness and has devoted her talents to advocacy. Her new music confronting the oppression of the proposed bill brought her legions of new fans, and some dangerous critics. The country of Ghana has a closeted LGBTQ community and Ms. Opoku is one of the most visible transgender women standing up to the government. The country already has a law making same-sex unions illegal. At the moment identifying as gay, trans, or queer is not illegal and Ms. Opoku hopes to keep it that way. Learn more about her from The New York Times.
A new production of Some Like it Hot is set to open at the Shubert Theatre in NYC on December 11. The original Billy Wilder comedy film got its laughs by putting lead male role stars Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in drag disguises so they could get out of town without being killed by mobsters they witnessed doing the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. The new production knows that when the movie came out in the 1950s the public was unaware that there were transgender people who might be offended by two straight musicians dressing up and joining an all-woman band. To avoid any faux pas the producers have brought on board J. Harrison Ghee, a Black and non-binary actor to play Jerry/Daphne (Jack Lemmon in the film). Ghee wears a dress in daily life and sees it as freeing. Their input has been a large part of the musical’s development. They move the character’s arc so it plays out differently than in the film. In the end Jerry isn’t wearing the dress as a disguise and going for laughs. It’s more the vehicle to self-discovery. Also, the 1958 film cast was almost completely white. In the new show the band is interracial, Jerry is Black and the role of Sugar, in the film Marilyn Monroe, is performed by well known Broadway Black actress Adrianna Hicks. Get more information and one spoiler alert from NYTIX.com.
Alex Newell gets corny.
A new original musical comedy, Shucked, is headed to Broadway in Spring 2023. One of the stars is Alex Newell as Lulu. The show, as you might surmise from the title, is a little bit corny. It opens Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at the Nederlander Theatre in New York City. Broadway World had this to say about the show:
“What do you get when you pair a semi-neurotic, New York comedy writer with two music superstars from Nashville? A hilarious and audacious farm-to-fable musical about the one thing Americans everywhere can’t get enough of: corn. Shucked is the new musical comedy that proves sometimes tearing down a few walls, rather than growing them, is the only way to preserve our way of life. Shucked is about to turn Broadway on its ear and offer a kernel of hope for our divided nation.”
In other Broadway news, it’s been announced that Drag Race star Jinkx Monsoon will take over the roll of Matron Mama Morton in Chicago beginning Monday, January 16, 2023. Monsoon makes her Broadway debut in an 8-week limited run at the Ambassador Theatre.
Visiting London soon? You might be interested in a show that just opened in previews in the West End. It’s a new production of Orlando starring The Crown’s Emma Corrin. Opening night will be December 5. The story is adapted from a Virginia Woolf novel of the same name. Orlando is born during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and lives for five centuries, changing gender at one point. In addition to Corrin, who is nonbinary, Richard Cant appears in three female roles, Virginia, Harriet, and Kitty.
Vestida de azul (Dressed in Blue), is a 1983 documentary in which filmmaker Antonio Giménez-Rico followed six transgender sex worker in post-Franco Spain as they go about their daily lives. The film is back in limited release and will be available on DVD is January. Get more information on the film from Cornell Cinema.
Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment
About the Author (Author Profile)
Angela Gardner is a founding member of The Renaissance Transgender Assoc., Inc., former editor of its newsletter and magazine, Transgender Community News. She was the Diva of Dish for TGF in the late 1990s and Editor of LadyLike magazine until its untimely demise. She has appeared in film and television shows portraying TG characters, as well as representing Renaissance on numerous talk shows.Subscribe
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