Photo Flash: Gloria Swansong & Maxie Factor Sparkle With Glamour in A NIGHT OF ESCAPE at Don't Tell Mama

On May 15th, our resident LGBTQIA-focused writer, Bobby Patrick, was booked into Don't Tell Mama to see a drag duo named Gloria Swansong and Maxie Factor. Knowing Bobby would need photos for his article, I offered to accompany him as shutterbug, and instead of snapping ten or twelve photos so Bobby would have a choice of pics, I ended up with some six hundred shots of two of the most stunning creatures you've ever seen, just dripping with glamor, and who doesn't love glamor? Indeed, while watching their show A NIGHT OF ESCAPE, a phrase kept running through my head, a phrase from Memoirs of a Geisha that describes a geisha as a moving work of art. Maxie Factor and Gloria Swansong may be drag queens instead of geisha but they are, most certainly, moving works of art. During their evening of first-rate, top-shelf lip-sync entertainment, it was revealed that Maxie does the ladies' hair, while Gloria creates their gowns... and then there is the matter of their immaculately "beat" faces and gloriously perfected performances. Well... suffice it to say this enthusiast of drag and of classic Hollywood filmmaking was besotted by the two drag sisters.

After their performance, I approached Misses Factor and Swansong and requested an interview, so all of our Broadway World readers could learn more about two artists of the highest order, and about the life of two ladies working in the drag community, and I am happy to report that our interview took place two days ago. That interview will be featured on the BWW Cabaret page during Pride month, as a two-part story, and what a story these two ladies have. Until that time, it gives me great pleasure to showcase Gloria Swansong and Maxie Factor in action at one of the first shows to return to the Don't Tell Mama stage since the reopening of the club. Oh, yes, this time the ladies are on a stage and indoors. Because, doncha know, during the shutdown Gloria and Maxie did live shows for Don't Tell Mama's sidewalk audiences... on the stoop... In December. Now THAT'S dedication.

Read Bobby Patrick's review of A Night of Escape HERE
Learn more about Gloria Swansong on Instagram HERE and YouTube HERE.
Learn more about Maxie Factor on Instagram HERE and YouTube HERE

Visit the Don't Tell Mama website HERE.

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