TransTainment! 2/19/24

What’s new in the entertainment industry in regards to transgender performers? A lot! We cover it all in TransTainment.

Hunter Schafer

Schafer and Noomi Rapace will star in Palette. It’s a psychological horror film directed by Zach Strauss (SMILF) in his feature film debut. Schafer plays Dolly, a woman afflicted with an extreme case of synesthesia which means she can hear colors. That ability lands her with a job in the color design industry. A place where not all the colors are happy hues. Schaffer’s co-star, Noomi Rapace, is known to many as the star of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Get more info on the film from Variety.

Schafer is also starring in another horror movie that’s currently debuting at the Berlin Film Festival. Its title is Cuckoo and it is her first lead role. In this film she plays a 17-year-old named Gretchen who has to move with her father, stepmother and young stepsister to a resort in Germany, where she soon learns that things are not as they seem. It was her first acting job after Euphoria but the film, which wrapped in July of 2022 has just been released for festivals. Learn more about the film from Variety.

Jinkx Monsoon

So have ya heard the old joke? A guy on the street in New York City asks someone for directions saying, “Hey pal, how do I get to Carnegie Hall? The other guy says one word. “Practice”. Jinkx Monsoon took that advice to heart and after years of polishing her drag act all over the city—from drag bars to Broadway—Monsoon is scheduled to perform at Carnegie Hall. She will play a one-night-only concert there February 14, 2025. Monsoon will be directing the concert performance as well as being the star of the show. Tickets will go on sale August 12 of this year. Playbill reports “The evening’s title and premise is being kept under wraps for now, though press notes share that Monsoon will be backed by a “first rate band” and will be joined by special guests for both original songs and cover performances that span a number of genres, including cabaret, blues, show tunes, torch songs, rock, and pop.”

Speaking of former RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni, Madame LaQueer, star of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 4, has come out as trans—and she’s using a new stage name to celebrate. Her name is now Madame Cassandra Uzumaki LaQueer. Cassie for short. The Entertainment website has all the details.

Laverne Cox

As a last act before leaving British Vogue Editor-in-Chief Edward Enninful chose 40 “legendary” women as cover stars for his final cover. One of those women was Laverne Cox. Among the other 39 women who somehow all got together in one studio at the same time for the photo shoot were Victoria Beckham, Jane Fonda, Oprah Winfrey, Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus, Salma Hayek Pinault, Rina Sawayama, Jodie Comer, Serena Williams, Cynthia Erivo, Gigi Hadid, Simone Ashley, and Anya Taylor-Joy. Learn more about the shoot from PinkNews.

Gender Pioneers: A Celebration of Transgender, Non-Binary and Intersex Icons by Philippa Punchard is a new book but it documents the history of crossdressing and possibly transgender or intersex people during the last 300 years. It’s hard to know if the people featured in the book were transgender. There are motives given that made folks adopt the attire of the opposite sex but without evidence of how crossdressing made them feel the author can’t give them a label. And you say a book review doesn’t fit in TransTainment? It does if I so decree it to be entertainment. Read the whole review in The Washington Blade.

Bianca Del Rio

Bianca Del Rio is touring the world with her new show, Dead Inside. She took a year off to unwind after her last successful tour which consisted of 129 shows, 27 countries, and 99 cities. If you happen to be in the Philadelphia area on February 25 you can see the show at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside. Read about the show in The Philadelphia Gay News and get your tickets from the theatre’s website.

Any fans of Quantum Leap out there? Not the Scott Bakula 1989 show. We’re talking about the new show on NBC with its inclusive storytelling and gender-bending narratives. When Scott Bakula’s character leapt into someone else’s body how much did you wish he would land in a female character? In the new show it could be a woman or a nonbinary individual or even a cisgender person. That’s inclusivity. Before we go any further we can’t forget to let you know that the writer and trans activist Shakina works on the show’s scripts and has acted in one episode. Officially Shakina serves as executive story editor for season 2 and wrote, directed, and starred in episode 112, Let Them Play. Watch the show on NBC or its streaming outlet.

Trans Voices Cabaret is NYC’s premier cabaret featuring transgender and nonbinary performers and rising stars from the musical theater community. They will be making their third appearance at Caveat in Manhattan on Saturday, March 16th at 4:00p.m. Get more information about the performance from Broadway World.

Tags: drag, featured, trans actor