Review: Flotilla DeBarge Drops A BIG HUNK OF GHETTO On The Stage At The Green Room 42

Heigh-Ho, My Merry Rainbow Tribe! Bobby Patrick your RAINBOW Reviewer here… Grabbing that silent T in cabareT to bring you all the Tea!

Thursday night’s performance by Flotilla DeBarge of her BIG HUNK OF GHETTO at The Green Room 42 was the perfect way to kick off this month known as Pride... not just for Little Bobby mind you, but for the whole crowd that roared with laughter on the night. DeBarge is drag royalty and has been for years, starting her career around 1991/92 and working hard to become one of NYC’s premier performers. Through the evening, the lady mentioned many of the bars and clubs that she has haunted for the last three decades - some still standing, some sadly gone, but, still, she works and works, in heels, dresses, and makeup, many nights of the week. She has also forayed into the acting world, taking parts on stage and screen. From TO Wong Foo to ANGELS IN AMERICA to the legendary documentary/concert film, WIGSTOCK: THE MOVIE, Ms. DeBarge has honed her craft, honed her drag, and developed her prodigious singing voice and comedy chops. Flotilla is a crowd-work comedian, and no one sitting at a table is safe from her razor-sharp wit. Her comedy is spot-on and in the moment, and she also has topical “bullet points” about which she is laugh-out-loud funny. Gifted comedy queen though she is, and though she started her drag as a lipsynch artist, what Flotilla DeBarge is, more than anything else, is a singer… not just a singer, but a SANGER, and on Thursday night she SANG, children. 

With her wonderful stand-up comedy happening before during and after her musical numbers, Ms. FdeB worked her way through a set list of a dozen songs from the worlds of Broadway (Her audition for Matron Mama Morton should win her that role, especially in the wake of sister Jinkx Monsoon’s casting), Blues, Rock & Roll, and a superb tribute to Miss Tina Turner, where her vocal dexterity and control sent PRIVATE DANCER over the mountain and back home again. For the blues on the program - her uber-nasty rendition plus hilarious crowd work on ROCK ME BABY would’ve made BB King blush… with pride. Her, as she called it, “gut bucket” blues on LOVE ME WITH FEELING called upon her voice to growl & shout with power and precision, and her take on SISTER (Miss Celie's Blues) from the COLOR PURPLE elicited just one note from our quill - “Hottest!” Also, her opening, with CABARET in a jazz arrangement, kicked off the night brilliantly, especially with her impressive scat singing.

A word must be said, in closing, about her closing with a lip sync encore. Harkening back to her beginnings, Flotilla ended her program with two songs she has used throughout the years as her insurance, making sure she always ends on a high note. Lip’ing perfectly to DON’T BRING ME NO BAD NEWS from the WIZ and the JEFFERSONS’ theme, MOVIN' ON UP, she did, indeed, finish big, but it occurred to Little Bobby that it might have been an even bigger ending if she had opted to just sing them herself, in her own voice/s. She certainly proved, throughout the evening, that she had the pipes to kill it on both songs; but the nostalgia of reminding the house of how she started was special, too, and we do not fault the lady, here. In fact, Flotilla DeBarge was all the things on Thursday night, including a reminder of what Gay Pride Month is all about, and, therefore, she does not need any of Bobby’s rainbows… Flotilla DeBarge IS the rainbow, but, still, we can’t escape giving BIG HUNK OF GHETTO our FULL…

5 Out Of 5 Rainbows

Flotilla Wants Us All To Follow Her InstaPictograms: HERE

All photos by yours truly, Bobby Patrick.

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