Justine Lindsay
Welcome to TransTainment! Documenting transgender people and stories in entertainment. First on the list of trans entertainers is professional cheerleader Justine Lindsay. Ms. Lindsay is on the Carolina Panthers TopCats cheer squad. She was hired last year and is the first openly trans woman in NFL cheerleading. She is a vocal activist for transgender rights who created a podcast about her experience entering the most macho of arenas to cheer on her team. Being the first trans cheerleader in professional football hasn’t been easy. In a recent interview with Elle she said, “Everything that I’m going through now, it’s bigger than me,” she says. “I’m setting things up for the younger generation. No one is going to stop this show.”
The queer collective in Los Angeles called House of Avalon is getting its own reality show. It’s called Avalon TV and has been characterized as an “off-the-wall, over-the-top, and under-the-wig series.” Two members of the House of Avalon are alumni of RuPaul’s Drag Race. They are Symone and Gigi Goode. To promote the premier of the reality series HoA produced a shot for shot parody of the 1997 Spice Girls movie Spice World. Learn more from Entertainment Weekly.
Avalon TV premieres Oct. 9 on the WOW Presents Plus subscription streaming service.
Speaking of parody videos. . . Drag legend Morgan McMichaels (another RuPaul’s Drag Race star) responded to the anti-trans rhetoric spewed by right-wing politicians with a parody of the Kylie Minogue song Padam Padam. McMichaels’ version of the song is called URDUMB URDUMB. Here’s a sample of the lyrics, “Urdumb urdumb / Stop eating all that paste / Urdumb urdumb / Does the Kool-Aid have a funny taste?” The Advocate has more information about the song.
Trace Lysette
Outfest Legacy Awards will be presented on October 22 to Trace Lysette and Shirley MacLaine. Lysette will be honored with the Trailblazer Award and MacLaine will be given the James Schamus Ally Award. The presentations will be part of Outfest’s gala fundraiser. Lysette takes home the Trailblazer Award as a consequence of the critical acclaim she garnered for her portrayal of the title character in the film Monica. Learn more from The Hollywood Reporter.
Another award, this one not only an honor but $30,000 in cash, goes to trans man poet and playwright Kit Yan. Yan and three other playwrights won the 2023 Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting. Yan is a transgender New York-based artist born in China and raised in Hawaii. Their work has been produced by the American Repertory Theater, Lincoln Center, the Smithsonian, NAMT, Musical Theater Factory, the New York Musical Festival, Mixed Blood, and Diversionary Theater. Learn more about Yan from their website.
The Vivienne
The upcoming U.K. and Ireland tour of The Wizard Of Oz, takes off December 13 at the Liverpool Empire. While casting is still underway for many roles the role that is important to us has been filled by RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner The Vivienne as The Wicked Witch of the West. After appearing on several seasons of Drag Race The Vivienne won her own show titled The Vivienne Takes on Hollywood. The series premiered on April 9, 2020 on BBC Three and follows her trip to Hollywood to produce her own music video. Learn more about her from Wikipedia.
Our Lady J will be in New York City to appear at Joe’s Pub on October 11 and 25. The show will tell her story of working in Hollywood on Transparent, and other projects, with original songs and her brand of comedy. Tickets for the show are $35 with a two drink minimum. Tickets are available online.
Pablo Gómez Jones, Gregory Haney, and Peter Caulfield
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar is coming to the stage in England as a musical. With the title shortened to just To Wong Foo the production will land at The Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester on October 21 for a limited run. The show proudly states it wants to “Make America Drag Again.” When the film premiered in 1995 it was one of the first to treat drag queens seriously and not play every scene for laughs. The stars of the musical are the three queens who travel by car from New York to Hollywood portrayed by Peter Caulfield (Tammy Faye, Jesus Christ Superstar) as Vida Boheme, Gregory Haney (TINA – The Tina Turner Musical, Hamilton) as Noxeema Jackson, and Pablo Gómez Jones (In Dreams, Les Misérables) as Chichi Rodríguez. Tickets are available online.
Some Like It Hot will soon reach the end of the line. The show is due to close December 30 after 43 previews and 440 regular performances. Some Like It Hot received 13 Tony nominations, the most of any production in the 2022-2023 season. The production took home four trophies: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, Best Choreography, Best Costume Design of a Musical and Best Orchestrations. A national tour starts in 2024.
Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment
