what: my dinner with divine by jon a. gleason
where: the mammals' zoo studio space in north center
accompaniment: dustin & a slew of SHEPHERD'S DAUGHTER cast members!
drinkability: the ever-wonderful BYOB!
show length: 45 minutes, no intermission
out of four: three/four
when bob fisher took the stage at 10:30pm on saturday night to a standing room only opening night for his pre-show curtain speech- he declared that the mammals were going back to their roots and celebrating late night performances - a nod and a hint to the future of the mammals. unlike a typical pre-show of encouraging the audience to open wrappers and cans at that very moment and to silent themselves and everything around them, fisher led the audience in a wave of cheers as we celebrated the BYO atmosphere and raised glasses to toast to late night theatre.
the energy continued as sean ewert (company member at the mammals, stepping in for the coveted john waters role) entered the house shortly afterwards, announcing himself by picking at audience members (myself included) and encouraging cheers from the spectators. he sets up the night: waters has received an anonymous invitation to dinner - and tickled by the design and work that went into the valentine-esque pop-up card he fashions from his pocket, he decides to attend, allured by creativity and mystery.
hilarity ensues as we enter dinner where the mystery guest turns out to be the famous drag queen divine played by marty grubbs. decked out in a plaid suit and mohawked red and black wig, grubbs entered the audience in the same fashion as waters, picking on various audience members and their fashion choices, at once point telling an audience member she "really shouldn't shop at Target." as divine was historically known to have died in 1988, she has some explaining to do. somehow the news of the reincarnation of divine reaches the ears of connie marble (played enthusiastically by mammals company member erin orr) who stormed into the restaurant minutes before divine's arrival, desperately wanting to put her back in the ground so she can reign on as "the filthiest person alive".
my biggest question going into the night was whether or not i'd understand the show or enjoy myself with having little to no john waters, divine or pink flamingos knowledge, other than what i had picked up from being around the theatre during the rehearsal process. after laughing out loud, shaking my head in surprise and disgust, and cheering along with the other late-nighters - i can confidently say that anyone who isn't familiar with the previous pop-culture oddities i mentioned will absolutely enjoy themselves. i'm sure there are nuggets weaved into the script that will appease flamingos fans that might bypass the rest of our ears, but you can't deny the outlandish comedy that happens before your eyes either way.
MY DINNER WITH DIVINE is not to be missed- a late night show running saturday nights through august 2nd. they will be performing right after SHEPHERD'S DAUGHTER 7/12-8/2, so come and see both shows!
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upcoming june shows:
saturday june 28th, 7:30pm: the inconvenience's love tapes
join me, will you?