DEAF, DUMB, BLIND–AND FABULOUS!
Right now there’s a lot of noise in the attic–Mary’s Attic in Andersonville. The uproarious occasion is Miracle!, a gender-bending, cross-dressing romp created by sex guru Dan Savage, the seminal spokesperson (“Savage Love”) for most matters GLBTQ. Losing not a laugh, it was inevitable that Hell in a Handbag Productions, Chicago’s favorite camp followers, would do the Midwest premiere after its debut at Seattle’s Intiman Theatre. Skirting good taste at every turn, this lavender-laced, two-act parody of The Miracle Worker is the feel-good tale of Helen Stellar, a young deaf and blind drag princess who’s been trapped in her own fantasies for too long. The poor butterfly must break from a closeted cocoon of darkened eyes and empty ears. How she pulls this off is surprisingly touching–considering that this fiercely flamboyant show spares no subtleties.
Helen Stellar (adorable and well-named Steve Love) is a wild child who’s found a second home in an old-school drag club (“All hands on dick!”) called the Brass Connection. Prone to panic, Helen is overly protected by her biological father (and drag mother) Crystal Pain (David Cerda, magnificently maternal). A lip-synching, sequin-busting, lipstick-laden phenom, Crystal stirs up her stage with veteran fellow-flamers: Donna Summer-impersonator and sassy lassie Gloria Blaze (Ed Jones in a wig to rival the mushroom cloud at Hiroshima); Andrews Sisters’ wanna-be Sizzy Jizzmor (Jamie Smith, a lustily laden maiden); and nasty newbie Bailey Legal (sizzling Kristopher Bottrall, Cindy Lauper on steroids). Teasing their adorers (“I’ll make a victim of your rectum”) and discouraging the dreaded “panty-chasers,” the Brass-y ladies and their beautiful barboys (Joshua Peterson and Christopher Young) are more forces than freaks of nature. But even they are hard put to keep Helen in check: As determined as she is disabled, the girl erupts into spastic dance routines, her self-made makeup grotesquely misapplied. But she wants to please and that’s normality enough at the Connection.
Offering Helen a chance to discover the power of language and laughter, 26-year-old social–and miracle–worker Annie Sullivan (Elizabeth Lesinski, ranging wildly) has been sent by DCFS to investigate possible child abuse. She finds instead another form of love in a different kind of family. Believing that words mean more to the mind than light does to the eye, this tough-loving ministering angel makes a deal with Crystal: She’ll connect Helen to the real world, provided she has total access and no restrictions.
Treating Helen on her own terms and pushing past the pity that’s hobbled her, Annie transforms herself as well. She becomes a drag avatar graphically named Kitty Bukake (“Tranny” Sullivan was deemed insulting). “Kitty” slowly becomes fabulous in her own right–or wrong. Her psychic makeover includes a lot more than playing the “finger game” by signing on Helen’s hand: To the Brass dames’ despair, Annie removes Helen for three crucial weeks to a totally opposite world–the Clambake dyke bar.
Suddenly surrounded by actual women (a third family in effect), Helen finds herself in the therapeutic company of no-nonsense lesbian slam poets and similar stereotypes–no fag hags here–(Caitlin Jackson, Sydney Genco, and Rachel Hadlock). As sharply as the playwright–well–savaged the drag world, he good-humorously spoofs lesbian artistic austerity and political correctness with equally merry mockery.
It’s an absolute joy to watch Helen’s transformation, as she learns to use lipstick as decoration, not self-sabotage. More importantly, the blossoming beauty discovers that sounds make words and words make the world. (Here her big breakthrough comes when she can hand-spell, not “water” but V-O-D-K-A!) Not just sending up Anne Bancroft and Patti Duke, this “miracle” is up there with Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle singing about the rain in Spain, Galatea coming to life before an astonished Pygmalion and “Baby Louise” becoming Gypsy Rose Lee.
Captivatingly crazy, Derek van Barham’s gorgeously garbed, contagiously hilarious staging grabs the brass ring at the Connection–and, yes, this was a real nice Clambake. We get the best of both worlds. The Handbag’s dirty dozen are zealous zanies to beat the band, and, yes, Savage’s sweet folly IS its own miracle in the making. Glitter and be gay.
photos by Rick Aguilar Studios
Miracle!
Hell in a Handbag Productions
Mary’s Attic, 5400 N. Clark St.
ends on July 10, 2015
for tickets, visit www.handbagproductions.org
for info on this and other Chicago Theater, visit www.TheatreinChicago.com
