THE DRAG Comes to EgoPo This Month

EgoPo’s first mainstage production of their Queer Revolutions season will be Mae West’s censored camp classic, The Drag. This play was shut down immediately after its premiere in 1927 for its representation of homosexual life and the struggles of living an alternative lifestyle during the roaring 20s. Featuring West’s iconic innuendo-filled wit, this production explores  the way gay and queer life is expressed, understood and experienced–both in 1927 and in 2025.  The show previews at Christ Church Neighborhood House on Jan 29, opens Jan 31 and runs through Feb 9.

Mae West’s legacy as an icon of the silver screen is well known, but prior to her time in Hollywood she had an illustrious and controversial career on the stage. Beginning in vaudeville and fighting her way to Broadway, her first leading role came when she wrote, directed and starred in Sex, which was met with outrage followed by the city shutting down the show, raiding the theater, and imprisoning West and her collaborators. The Drag was her next project and was a response to The Captive by Édouard Bourdet, which she felt did not accurately represent the complexities of the gay community within which she lived and worked. 

Under the pen name “Jane Mast”, West developed this show in collaboration with her gay friends and collaborators as an early attempt at authentically representing gay life. She hosted parties and invited her guests to contribute language and stories to the script, leaving certain parts of the script for the cast to improvise and inject their own work into the piece. Director Rebecca Wright has partnered with playwrights Thomas Choinacky and AZ Espinoza, to create new “interventions” in West’s script: additional scenes where the actors “interrupt the show” in order to celebrate or challenge the way we interact with this work. This new version of The Drag confronts the good, the bad, and the ugly of historical and current representations of gay and queer lives on stage. 

The Drag’s story centers on closeted socialite Rolly, whose affections for his business partner Allen and propensity toward hosting drag balls is entirely unknown to his wife Clair and her father Dr. James Richmond–who just happens to be the leading “expert” in New York for gay conversion therapy. When jealousy turns deadly, everyone must face the harsh truths about a society centered on repression, and deal with the personal costs of secrecy.

EgoPo will transform Christ Church Neighborhood House’s theater into a fantastical and colorful 1920s ballroom that invites the audience into an underground drag ball scene. Audiences will be invited to partake in 20s inspired drinks before the show and during intermission. 

EgoPo welcomes back Doug Green (Vieux Carre, Spring Awakening, etc.), Vanessa Sterling (Life is a Dream), and Lexi Thammavong (Life is a Dream) alongside the following cast making their EgoPo Debuts: Anna Lieberman, Donovan Lockett, Chris Davis,  Jameka Wilson, Eli Lynn , Joyous (Taxi Driver)  and Pax Ressler* (Clem). The Drag features the design work of Chris Haig (Scenic Design), Krista Smith (Lighting), Adiah Hicks (Sound Design), Ilycia Buffaloe (Costumes), Shane Dreher (Props Design), as well as Paule Turner (Choreographer) and Randi Alexis Hickey (Stage Management). 

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