TransTainment 12/26/22
Drag Race alumna Miz Cracker is starring in a spinoff of The Grinch at London’s Southwark Theatre. The show is titled Who’s Holiday and Miz Cracker plays a grown-up Cindy Lou Who who is living in a trailer, has an unhealthy relationship with liquor and pills, and has done prison time for killing her husband. But she’s not really a bad girl. The show is billed as adult entertainment and that means it’s filled with outrageous humor and, now and then, doses of pathos. In the end Cindy Lou welcomes her Christmas Eve guests and gets her Christmas wish.
Mason Alexander Park
The J.K. Rowling controversy just won’t go away. But since it is trans news when it’s being commented on by a trans/nonbinary actor it fits in TransTainment. Mason Alexander Park, known for playing Desire in Netflix’s television adaptation of The Sandman, and appearing in the live action Cowboy Bebop, has weighed in on the ongoing J.K. Rowling conversation. Park responded to a tweet from Rowling that attacked filmmaker Jessie Earl for tweeting that “. . .Harry Potter fans should not be blamed for finding solace in previous works from the franchise, supporting new additions to the Wizarding World is extremely harmful to the trans community.” Rowling made a dismissive and shady comment and Park jumped in to remind people that Rowling had equated chat show host Graham Norton’s comment that “we should listen to trans people” with her receiving “rape and death threats.” The woman is just not capable of listening to the truth about transgender women and opens herself to vitriolic responses to her bigotry. But, all this hubbub is happening on Twitter and by next week Elon Musk may have managed to blow it up.
Alexandra Billings
If you’re a science fiction fan who enjoys cyber punk tales you should be watching The Peripheral on Amazon Prime Video. Set in 2030 and 70 years later the show is based on William Gibson’s novel of the same name. It begins by introducing a young woman in the rural south who, along with her military vet brother care for their blind mother and entertain themselves with virtual reality games. (And get paid for testing VR games.) The sister, Flynne, tries out a new type of virtual reality headset that, rather than putting her into a game world, allows her to step into an android copy of her brother’s body in London in the year 2100. Telling you more would spoil the story so no spoiler alert. What we can tell you is that in 2100 the show introduces Detective Inspector Ainsley Lowbeer. The Inspector is played by trans actress Alexandra Billings. As the British say, good show Billings. Learn more, if you like from a review in GamesBeat.
Earlier this month, Spanish company J&B Scotch Whiskey released a holiday commercial with a surprisingly moving storyline about the acceptance of a transgender family member. It is three minutes long and shows a grandfather taking his wife’s lipstick and trying it on in the bathroom. Then he is shown buying makeup at the grocery store. All the while he keeps his feminization activities hidden from his family. Then Christmas time arrives and the extended family gathers. One of them, a young man named Álvaro, the adult grandchild of the grandfather, is ill at ease and looks like he doesn’t want to be there. Grandfather takes him into the bathroom and gives him a makeover with the cosmetic skills he has learned–and then takes her to meet the family as Ana.
An adaption of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull will premier in March at the Pershing Square Signature Center. The play by Thomas Bradshaw is titled The Seagull/Woodstock, NY. Among the just announced cast members is trans actress and model Hair Neff. Get more details on the show from TheaterMania.
Hari Neff
Meanwhile, right now, Hari Neff is starring in a production of Des Moines that runs through January 1. It’s billed as a darkly comic play that brings together five characters in the city of Des Moines through a number of events that include “. . .a plane crash, a rescued wedding ring, and a frightening diagnosis. Complete with karaoke, liquor, and sex.” And the publicity photo appears to show Neff putting lipstick on co-star Michael Shannon. What more could you want? Read reviews in Playbill.
Hunter Schaffer doesn’t need to hunt for work. The Euphoria star has two films coming next year. Arriving in theaters in November of 2023 is The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a prequel to the Jennifer Lawrence-starring franchise. Earlier in ’23 Schafer stars in Cuckoo, a horror-thriller from German filmmaker Tilman Singer (2018’s Luz).
And that’s TransTainment for another month, and another year. See you all in 2023.
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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