Birdie Bob Watt as A Crab On Uranus
Spring has sprung in the Bay Area (in between atmospheric rivers) and the Cockettes are celebrating with a marvelous musical revue at the Oasis saucily entitled "Res-Erection." Featuring old tunes and new by original composer Scrumbly Koldewyn, who also performs, the show careens joyfully from irreverent takes on the Easter season, to explicit scatological and sexual references, to the kinds of stunning torch songs that Sylvester used to sing with the original incarnation of the group in the '70s. At the performance I attended last night the cast remained fiercely undaunted in the face of minor technical difficulties, and the supportive audience heartily cheered them on and howled with laughter as the performers barely missed a beat. At a frightening time when queer lives are under attack in America, the flamboyant, gender-fluid artistry of the Cockettes is as defiant as ever, and they do it with plenty of glitz and glitter besides.
Masking? I was one of maybe five maskers in the building, not unexpected at a cabaret show but it still would have made me nervous without my immunity.