Recently, I had the opportunity to ask a few questions of Stephanie Lynge, Director of The Legend of Georgia McBride now showing at the Hippodrome Theatre. Here is what she had to say.

TM: Hi Stephanie, and thank you for taking time to chat about The Legend of Georgia McBride now playing at the Hippodrome. Why this play?

SL: Warhol Caldwell and I have been interested in this play for about 2 years – ever since it had its run in Denver. The main themes of the play, the hilarious script, and all coupled with the world of drag sounded like a match made in heaven to us. This season, Warhol decided that we had a time slot that would be perfect, and so we made it part of our season.

TM: Mark Chambers is such a larger-than-life personality who's often shared his talents at the Hippodrome both on stage, and behind the scenes. He's a bit of a prankster, isn't he, as well as a profoundly experienced sage. Give us a good Mark Chambers story.

SL: Mark Chambers will have to give you Mark stories. There are so many and they are so wonderful that they would lose their magic if I tried to tell them.

TM: Ah rats. I was looking forward to some spicy content. Maybe my next interview will have to be Mark Chambers. Am I ready for that? Ha ha. Stephanie, what would you say is your unique thumbprint as the director on this production?

SL: My unique contribution – Every director has to decide what story they are telling, and the most important part of this story to me was that every character in the play gets to find the person inside that they want to be, and they get to do that in this wonderful chosen family that they become. Also the transitions were my contribution. Staging on a ¾ thrust stage is always a bit tricky and I hate it when the action of the play has to stop so we can change locations. So incorporating the transitions into the story was something I worked on quite a bit.

TM: Actor Jon Kovach tells me he hasn't done anything quite like this before. What were his unique challenges and how did you help him find the characters of both Casey & Georgia McBride?

SL: Jon is a wonderful actor and he came in having done lots of research about drag and the drag world. Jon worked with Mark Chambers and myself to find the inner feminine movements; how to walk, stand, dance. It was a joy to watch Jon slowly incorporating the feminine into his movements.

TM: Were there any unique challenges of directing a musical for you as a director?

SL: Musical – well, this isn’t technically a musical, but it sure feels like one! Musicals are challenging because you have so many more elements to learn in the same amount of time. Not only do you have to stage the play and explore the characters, but you have to learn the songs and the dancing as well. In Legend we had the performance numbers and we took our time working out the choreography, wanting to bring that drag show feel to the stage while at the same time moving the play forward. I love directing musicals, but its challenge is that it is just that many more elements to juggle.

TM: Were you at all concerned about any negative reactions from the community concerning neo-genderism, neo-feminism, and transitioning all being such contemporary hot-button topics?

SL: Concern – No, I was never concerned about negative reactions. I always assume someone will be uncomfortable with something in every play we do, and that is a good thing. Theater lets us live in a world that might not be familiar, and as we know, the more people we know that are different from ourselves, the less afraid of those differences we become. Gender is a hot button topic, but the wonderful thing about this script is that it just presents people as who they are. The script does not try to make any political statement and neither did we, which is one reason audiences from all walks of life are loving the show.

TM: What is your one great take-away from the experience of directing The Legend of Georgia McBride at the Hippodrome?

SL: My one take away – I only get one? There is such joy in this play and I keep hearing from people seeing the show how much they need that joy in their lives, especially right now. Life is tough and rough and hard, but if we can come together then we can still have joy. So that is my take away. Just joy and warmth and happiness. Oh, and glitter. Lots of glitter!

TM: Stephanie, thank you for taking the time to tell us a little about the play. It's a terrific show with great acting and remarkable entertainment value. Don't miss it. My review can be found here: TOM MILLER REVIEWS THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE AT THE HIPPODROME THEATRE

FOR ADVANCE TICKETS TO THE SHOW:
http://thehipp.org/the-legend-of-georgia-mcbride/

Playing now through Nov. 5, 2017

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
ITEM: HIPPODROME Cinema to screen NOTHING! A New Short Feature Documentary by Tom Miller & Alex Davidowski.

GET ADVANCE TICKETS HERE:
tickets.thehipp.org/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=25912

Monday, November 13 at 8pm, the Hippodrome will be screening Tom Miller’s NOTHING, a documentary short produced by Mirador Studios, Joey Larson, Doug Waltenbough, and Alex Davidowski (Amish Mafia, Grudge Race). This world premiere is open to the public.

The short feature chronicles the “instillation” of Tom Miller’s infamous Sculpture of Nothing, which appeared at the Bo Diddley Plaza in May and June of 2017. Several famous art critics weigh in, including one who believes that Miller’s sculpture was a totally phony farce. However, another critic hailed the sculpture of Nothing as a movement important as Dadaism, Cubism, and Realism. The movie introduces us to the crew that assembled the sculpture, and features Gainesville Mayor Lauren Poe and Alachua County Commission Chair, “Hutch” Hutchinson. Nothing is featured prominently in this production.

Both Mayor Poe and Commissioner Hutchinson have said they will be attending the premiere, which is open to the public.

The Film Stars: Gregg Jones, Tom Miller, Michael O'Meara, Carolyne Salt, Oliver Nordon, Nigel Hamm, The Reverend Angeldust, Mayor Lauren Poe, Commissioner "Hutch" Hutchinson.

Also screening prior to the main event is Tom Miller’s short movie, “Burning Lips”, another documentary chronicling Tom Miller’s epic 2-hour stare-down of former Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz’s mouth, and the subsequent burning of Miller’s demon-possessed Ted Cruz Mouth painting in a giant fire at the Bobbitt Compound. Burning Lips is directed and filmed by Tom Miller and Michael McShane.

During the intermission, and post-reception party, Miller & Davidowski hope to raise additional funds to enter Nothing into film festivals in 2018. They hope Nothing will garner significant attention and perhaps Nothing will win something.

WHERE: The Hippodrome Cinema

WHEN: Monday, November 13th at 8pm (Doors open at 7:30pm)

HOW MUCH: Advance Tickets are $10.00 and can be purchased through the Hippodrome Box Office. Tickets will be available at the door for $12.00. This includes admission to the screening and the reception, which will include complementary light food w/ non-alcoholic beverages, and the Hippodrome’s Cash bar will be open with beer, wine, and cocktails.

ITINERARY:
8pm – Documentary, BURNING LIPS. Directed by Tom Miller & Michael McShane.
       * INTERMISSION
9pm – NOTHING – a Tom Miller / Alex Davidowski Short Feature – WORLD PREMIERE!
 
GET ADVANCE TICKETS HERE:
tickets.thehipp.org/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=25912

The Short Feature, "Nothing" is based on Tom Miller's Performance Art Event which occurred in May/June of 2017 and was covered in the Gainesville Sun here:
NOTHING TO BE "INSTILLED" IN THE DOWNTOWN BO DIDDLEY PLAZA!

The Short Feature, "Burning Lips" is based on Tom Miller's Performance Art Event which occurred in February of 2016 and was covered in the Huffington Post here:
FLORIDA MAN TO STARE AT TED CRUZ'S MOUTH FOR TWO HOURS STRAIGHT!

Please include this event in your calendar. FOR QUESTIONS, INTERVIEW, FEATURES:
[email protected]

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Stellar cast and director elevate this fish-out-of-water trope to a great musical hysterical romp.

The Legend of Georgia Mcbride features an Elvis impersonator and drag queens. What’s not to love? Matthew Lopez has penned a predictable conventional fish-out-of-water story—what with the straight Elvis impersonator, whose Elvis bit isn’t impressing the Southern Florida crowd—resorting to learning the ropes of drag performance to keep his job and provide for his family. Yet the stellar cast and solid direction by Stephanie Lynge elevates the play to a hilarious musical romp in which we do find reasons to care about the plight of the characters.

Mark Chambers as the matronly Miss Tracy Mills gets all the best lines as she helps Casey discover his hidden inner woman, Georgia McBride. In one great scene during a tense moment where Casey confesses to his wife, Jo, that he’s doing drag, Chambers-as- Miss Tracy removes herself from the scene with the most unsubtly coy exit-stage-left in Hippodrome history. Chambers also shows his range when, out of dress and as a man, he schools Casey, in the most serious manner, to find who he is on the inside and embrace that true self.

Carolyn Strang plays Casey’s young wife with all-natural subtlety, imbibing the role with gentle affectation which brings the audience into sympathy with her situation. See, she doesn’t know her husband’s new success bringing home the bacon is because he’s putting on a dress in a gay bar. And to top it all off, she’s pregnant. She is the least “caricature” of the cast and makes some terrific breezy choices.

Her husband Casey (the multi-talented Jon Kovach, whom you may remember from his balls-out physical master performance in Hand of God) earns the audience’s support through his earnest desire to do the right thing for himself and his family—his wife being newly pregnant adds a turn of the screw. He does some extraordinary physical comedy, especially in his first number in which he awkwardly wears padding, false breasts, a dress, wig, and makeup, and throws down on the stage an Edith Piaf song in French with zero rehearsal time. Quite a switch from Elvis’ hip-displacing Jailhouse Rock. He’s never learned to lip-sync before, so Tracy Mills volunteers the secret to drag queen success: Mouth “watermelon motherfu**er” over and over again. (This actually works, by the way. The late great legendary Lady Pearl (RIP) told me this story on more than one occasion.) Kovach plays Casey affably, earnestly; we really want this guy to succeed. Casey is also the only character to actually sing rather than lip-sync in a couple of effective moments with an acoustic guitar.

Veteran actor and theatre professor, Charlie Mitchell plays club-owner Eddie. He’s got to close the bar if he doesn’t start making some rent, and whether it be Elvis or Drag, he’s got no qualms with switching up the joint to a gay bar, so long as the money is green and plentiful. Some reviewers have questioned the plausibility of such a move. Having seen many a straight bar go gay time and again in Gainesville, I know better. I totally buy the convention. Eddie is large and in charge—a guy who’s potentially threatening, but too much of a marshmallow to deliver a punch. Mitchell somehow manages to discover Eddie’s good-guy nature and shares this with the audience. The skill of Mitchell is to make this fellow likable, warm and funny, when in truth, he’s basically a profiteer who will dump his employees and his customers to turn a dime. We don’t love him, but we like him. Especially when he evolves from Ed-Sullivan-type show host to full blown participant. Who says money doesn’t buy happiness?

Most interesting to me was actor Kevin Kantor in a dual role as Mrs. Rexy (brazen burnt acid-queen) and Jason (Casey’s young landlord and pal.) And while Casey was the least developed of the characters by the author—not the actor—it is as Rexy (a.k.a. Miss Anorexia Nervosa) that Kantor shines. I know this character. I have met this character many times in real gay bars, and Kantor nails it. In the play’s most real and heartbreaking moment, we discover why Rexy is such a world-class high drunk shady bitch, which immediately humanizes her with a proverbial slap to the audience’s collective face for judging before we got the whole story.

Ultimately, the playwright does not dig too deep into more serious issues of gender, sex, morality, which may be for the best. This is a light musical entertainment at its core, and as Casey gets his footing as Georgia McBride, the numbers go from wonderfully tacky to glitzy to outright glamorous. The musical numbers are real-deal drag performances, and the audience gets the benefit of the show within the show, and a sneak peek backstage in the drag dressing room; always an adventure in real life and in this play. The audience will learn in no uncertain terms, “…drag is not for sissies.”

The set design (Timothy J. Dygert) overcomes limitations of the modest HIPP thrust stage and effectively represents the sense of location, the club interior (before & after), the backstage area, and Casey and Jo’s rental home. Especially nice is the show lighting design (Robert P. Robbins), and the Cleo’s road sign, bursting with eye-scorching neon colors that change and pop for the rags-to-riches Panama City establishment. Sound and musical choices (Amanda Yanes) were perfectly placed, just the right volume throughout, and seamlessly delivered. And you have simply got to give a hand to the costumes (Lori Gann-Smith) – the soul of any good drag; even delivering the goods for “what-would-this-Elvis-jumpsuit-look-like-as-a dress?!”

You will laugh a lot, you will be thoroughly rewarded for your ticket price, you will stand and cheer at the end. It’s not Shakespeare, but it’s damn near Ru Paul, with some of the sauciest bitch-banter you’ll ever hear from men in dresses.
 
INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR STEPHANIE LYNGE – COMING SOON!
TICKETS: http://thehipp.org/the-legend-of-georgia-mcbride/