Review: Blair St. Clair Aces LEGALLY BLAIR Debut at The Green Room 42

When they appeared on the television program RuPaul's Drag Race, Blair St. Clair had to lip sync for their life but these days the drag artist is singing for their supper in their very first ever nightclub act, a musical cabaret appropriately (and cleverly) titled LEGALLY BLAIR. For this debut outing, Mx. St. Clair wisely chose as their director musical theater maven and cabaret & concert creative Ben Rimalower, who, as a writer, performer, and director, had all the wisdom and tender loving care to guide to the stage of The Green Room 42 an actor so fresh and appealing as to leave a room full of club goers smiling and satisfied, the beneficiaries of Blair's benevolent storytelling. By the end of their Drag Race experience(s), Blair St. Clair was considered a star. With the start of this cabaret chapter in their life, Blair St. Clair is placing two well-heeled feet into a broader field of flourishment because Blair St. Clair deserves to be considered a star, they deserve to be called a star, and they deserve to be cast as a star.

Blair St. Clair was a revelation.

When you watch a reality television show, a competition program, you don't get a full and honest representation of what an artist can do. We all knew that Blair was beautiful. We all knew Blair was fashionable. We all knew Blair had talent. But during their musical memoir cabaret, Blair St. Clair showed the audience that they have training and, more than that, they have talent. They also have a point of view that has been deftly applied to the story being told in Legally Blair, one to which many have been exposed before, but only in a certain light. Blair St. Clair is adding shades and colors to that light.

Legally Blair tells the story of an actor trying to get a job while also trying to find love and acceptance. We all want to find a job, we all want to find love, we all want to find acceptance. Blair St. Clair must do all three as a non-binary actor and person, fighting against the prejudices the world already has for queer people while also dealing with the new prejudices people have for the non-binary. Men on dating apps don't know what to make of the non-binary person who looks just as good without the coif and fresh smear of lipstick as they do when decked out in the full Marlene (as Blair outlines in a hilarious send-up of "The History of Wrong Guys") and casting directors don't know what to do with the non-binary actor that could, just as easily, play a Plaid as they could Cassie. We who have either been or known actors have full knowledge of the quest to get cast - but this is a new story for a new generation, and Blair tells it with style. We who have either been or known queer people have fully experienced the drama and trauma of gay dating, online or otherwise - but this is a new experience for an evolving group of people in the queer community, and Blair tells it with humor and candor. The entire show, from start to finish, is an honest yet theatrical, vulnerable yet empowering, well-constructed piece of cabaret theater, led by an actor who hasn't only been meticulously instructed and mentored, but one with more than mad skills: they have magnetism, they have a spark, they have (dare I say it) charisma.

Legally Blair gives Mx. St. Clair ample opportunities to showcase those skills - all of them. Built like a play, the script provides Blair with opportunities as singer, as actor, and as orator, as they transition from one well-executed musical number to another. They have built most of their script upon dialogue written for Cassie in A Chorus Line, with stellar Musical Director Eric Svejcar serving up the Zack dialogue from behind the piano. It's universal, we understand it, and because the dialogue is so famous, we relate to it. This writer would offer that Blair's storytelling skills are so strong that they and Mr. Rimalower might consider, at some point, throwing out the Chorus Line dialogue in favor of some real, personal stories from Blair's own life, which would make more resonant the proceedings and turn their cabaret into a play. This is a lot of ACL and a lot of Cassie, and although everyone has those fictional characters whose trajectories have paralleled their own, the stories from individual lives will always draw audiences to us faster and stronger.

In the process of taking these pre-existing chunks of script and songs, St. Clair and Rimalower have made delectable little tweaks to make the tale being told truly theirs, which works for the programming because everything said or sung has been arranged for application to Blair's journey, except for a segment toward the end of Legally Blair during which the conceit of Blair discussing their own life is abandoned for what kind of sort of appears to be a fantasy sequence using the famed "Roxie" number from Chicago. There is a slight disconnect here because of the obvious fact of the name Roxie and the inclusion of the original Roxie monologue. If Ben and Blair took this moment back to the drawing board, perhaps they could make it clearer that this is a dream sequence (if that's what it is) or they might revise it with definitive verbiage making it Blair's story, something along the lines of "The name on ev'rybody's lips is gonna be St. Clair" and "And Jinkx Monsoon will sh*t I know, to see her name get billed below I declare St. Clair" - since they have already made the Jinkx Monsoon reference in the number, taking it one step further. As it stands, the moment lacks clarity, even though the number itself is sensational.

Also landing on the sensational side (in an evening of first-rate musical performing) were an "I'm The Greatest Star" that steps out of the shadow of Streisand, a beautiful "One Perfect Moment" that was immediately followed by a show-stopping "Me And The Sky," a gasp-worthy performance of "Pretty Funny" and the finale of finales "Never Enough." Team St. Clair has crafted a truly enjoyable musical theater cabaret that has been ideally built to suit the abundance of Blair St. Clair's estimable talents. Indeed, although St. Clair is considered a drag performer, this writer is reluctant to call this a drag show. In an era of fluidity, and with more and more non-binary artists bringing their individual styles as performers and writers to the stages of the cabaret and concert scene, Legally Blair is, more than anything, a cabaret show. There are those who go to see drag shows and there are those who go to see cabaret shows. While the former might enjoy both genres, not everyone is interested in the art of drag (more's the pity). This is a cabaret show for anyone to see, for everyone to enjoy, and for every club to book. It should not be sold or advertised as a drag show, even though the publicity for Legally Blair points out Mx. St. Clair's CV, reality television background, and status as a drag star. Legally Blair is a musical cabaret play. And Blair St. Clair is an actor, an artist, and a star.

The Legally Blair Band is Sean Murphy on Bass, Jeremy Clayton on Drums, and Musical Director Eric Svejcar at the piano.

Visit the Green Room 42 website HERE.

Visit the Blair St. Clair Instagram page HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher; Visit the Stephen Mosher website HERE.

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