Butches on Broadway
Austin's Kings N Things do The Time Warp again for Drag Kings: The Musical 6
Shake weights, honey pots, fake cocaine, diamond-encrusted dildos, and glitter canons: just some of the props used in Friday night’s Drag Kings: The Musical 6 by Austin’s premier drag king troupe, Kings N Things.
The Blue Theater was packed to the rafters both Friday and Saturday nights for Drag Kings: The Musical 6, a raucous variety show featuring lip synced performances from musicals like The Producers, Oklahoma!, RENT, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and even the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
Produced by drag king Eaton Johnson (who performed as Elvis in a number from Paradise, Hawaiian Style), the latest production in the series of Kings N Things shows included the talents of Mirandom Violence, Tad Bitter, Rhythm Method, James Bondage, Shelby Mine, Jimmie D. Sparklefingers, Herculise, Ms. Tasche, Clint Beastwood, Gage West, and Herculise.
But the shows weren’t just about drag kings this time around. There was also a fair amount of comedy provided by the evening's fabulous hosts, the spangly and glittered Stanley Roy and Erica Nix, plenty of dry humping, vogueing, a tap dance number, and burlesque strip teases.
Overall, the feeling at Drag Kings: The Musical 6 was a magical, accepting night celebrating gender diversity and the queer community that made me feel a little more at home in Austin.
When the person sitting next to me politely asked me, “What is your preferred gender pronoun?,” it felt like, for one of the first times since moving to Austin a few weeks ago, I could really relax and breathe easily in this community where I knew I belonged.
When Chola Magnolia ended her performance of “I Have Confidence” from The Sound of Music by proudly holding up a sign that read “Femme Dyke Por Vida!” I knew I would definitely be coming back for more shows by Kings N Things.