The Pansy Craze: history, homosexuality and let's put on a show
15 Jul 2018

by Drew Rowsome -

Hiding in plain sight
Belong in a spotlight
So find it
And point it at me

I wish there were better photos with which to sell The Pansy Craze: A New Musical. It is great fun, empowering and something that we need a lot more of. The Fringe Festival is a great space in which to try out ideas that don't fit the mainstream, and The Pansy Craze is one of those ideas that is just waiting for the mainstream to catch up.

The basic concept is that in the prohibition era there was a brief "craze" for risque acts that included female impersonation, gender bending and homosexuals. Creator Avery Jean Brennan takes this historical nugget and applies it to a backstage rom-com musical with delightful and devastating results. Yes The Pansy Craze is a little rough around the edges but there is so much heart, talent and let's put on a show bravado, that it is irresistible.

Sixty minutes is not enough time for all the weaving threads and thematic political activism to be explored, but short and succinct packs a punch. Basic costuming - cleverly gender-based and sexy - and the use of masks gives an overall thematic consistency but it would be wonderful to see The Pansy Craze given full utilization of the lights, glamour and big stage it deserves.

Backstage musicals hinge on love and thwarted love and love found through combat and competition. Stir in homosexuality and the transgendered and it just becomes more enticing. Teddy Moynihan is the classical leading man channeling the host from Cabaret and he lures us into this delicious den of inequity. We would follow him anywhere. Gladly. He runs a talent agency that will supply anything that the speakeasies demand. And fortunately they are asking for pansies.

Stephanie Hood is the star performer whose broken ankle turns her into a star burlesque stripper. Her routine is sexy, desperate and just needing better lingerie. Her "husband" Shaquille Pottinger discovers his sexuality and gets to bring down the house in a loose-limbed power-voice finale that is a joy to witness. Kira Renee is the lesbian club-owner who is the comic relief with a voice that lifts the rafters, and Peter Mundell (Carrie: The Musical) is the Broadway producer who dashes and fulfills dreams. Sansom Marchand, who bears an uncanny resemblance to kink.com's Sebastian Keys, gets to play all the villains but does it with sex appeal to spare.

But Devin Herbert is the star. A "female impersonator" who refuses to abide by the rules and nails a number, that cribs a little too closely from Jerry Herman's "I Am What I Am," of empowerment that has the audience cheering. They are extraordinary, flouncing, glamorous and strutting perfection. The world needs more defiant drag queens or trans triple-threats or simply star power. When Pottinger rips into a reprise of Herbert's "obscene" theme song, I, and most of the audience, had tears in my eyes.

Tragically, I came to The Pansy Craze on it's second to last performance. I left singing "I Am What I Am" but that is in no way to discount what Brennan has created. Catch the last show if you can, you won't regret it.