Watch out RuPaul! He's back and Crawford's got him! That's Lypsinka, not Clark Gable, who marks his theatrical return -- after a four-year absence -- as none other than screen goddess Joan Crawford in a semi-musical adaptation of the movie soap, "Harriet Craig." Southern belle drag diva Varla Jean Merman co-stars with an ensemble of four that includes Jay Rogers, late of When Pigs Fly. The engagement runs through September 12 at Mother. Harriet Craig is no Mildred Pierce (Crawford's 1945 Oscar-winning turn -- and career turning point -- as a mother/waitress turned successful restaurateur). In the 1950 film, now a cult favorite, Crawford is the very model of a ruthless wife who detests dirt and disorder and who'll stop at nothing to run her house as she wishes. And stop anyone who interferes -- particularly her mother-in-law. It's so good to have Lypsinka back where he belongs. Or is this where she belongs? You mean an artist of this caliber couldn't find a theater and had to settle for a tiny (and rather infamous) West Village club, even with sponsors like Dewar's Scotch, which is presenting this production in the Fractured Classicks series of the downtown producing group Tweed? With the dog days of summer upon us, you gladly take Lypsinka wherever you can.
As not everybody knows, drag superstar, tall, slinky Lypsinka is in real life tall, slinky John Epperson, from the little southwest Mississippi town of Hazelhurst. Lypsinka made a name for him/herself lip-synching. Not just to one or two albums, but lip syncing (and acting out the characters) to hundreds of voices from hundreds of famous movie sequences and Broadway cast albums. The vehicle that launched such a glamorous career (that has included haute couture fashion shows and magazine fashion shoots) was I Could Go On Lip-Synching!, which played a year Off Broadway before moving to a successful run in Los Angeles. That show led to several variations on the same theme, including As I Lay Lip-Synching. And to stardom at New York's annual Wigstock event and an appearance in "Wigstock: The Movie." In addition to two HBO specials with Sandra Bernhard, Lypsinka was also featured in the George Michael video, "Too Funky."
"This is my greatest emotional role to date," said Lypsinka at rehearsals. "To prepare for it, I've undergone a rigorous exercise and diet regimen as well as dance and vocal training. I feel as though I've scaled Mount Everest! But I owe it to my fans to reach the summit at every performance. I want to give all the passion, poise, and pizzazz they've come to expect. I want to give blood!"
What will make Harriet Craig a departure for Lypsinka is that finally she has found her voice. Yes, this is a All-Singing, All-Dancing, All-Talking And Some Lip-Synching Lypsinka. "I wanted to prove to people I could actually open my mouth and interact," Lypsinka said. "Even though I'm respected in show business for my achievements, you don't know how many jobs I've lost because people think I can't do anything but lip-synch."
In preparing for the show, Lypsinka noted that she'd found more layers to Crawford, especially after reading "Mommy Dearest," the tell-all book by Crawford's adopted daughter Christina. "But this won't be a Crawford impersonation, though I imagine some little elements will slip in." Like, you want to bet, that famous hysterical phone call scene (from another Crawford film) which inspired Lypsinka's best-known sequence. The 8:30 performance time was specifically chosen by Lypsinka "because that was the time for theater when women wore hats and men wore jackets and ties,"said the star. "The lateness of the hour made it all the more exciting, romantic, glamorous, and breathtaking."
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