Is there anything that camp can’t get away with? Plot, character, and substance don’t figure when one is busy being fabulous. No matter how little you may embrace the camp aesthetic the cast of Miracle! (in repertory at Intiman through August 25th; tickets: $30) will make you have a good time by their sheer joy. If that’s still not enough then the pre-show onstage Jello-shots may seal the deal.
Intiman’s strategy for selling this show and forestalling offense among subscribers to its summer festival seems to be the overselling of its offensiveness, and who’s not to offend? This drag adaptation of The Miracle Worker should have it all. In fact there are a few over-the-top moments, but very few, and they come as something of a relief both to our diminishing expectations and the inuring onslaught of drag tropes. Mostly “offense” is just another pair of giant falsies on this production.
Dan Savage’s resetting of the Helen Keller story amongst a family of queens in a drag bar is not great drama; it might not even be good drama, but it is great entertainment. Much of this rests on the bitchy wit of the dialogue and the cast’s commitment to the world of the play with all its masks and identity games.
Where drag queens roam the costumer is empress and Erik Andor’s costumes are dumbfounding, bringing new definition to the term catsuit and nearly achieving intellectual depth with the feminized masculinity of split-football falsies. Jonathon Pyburn’s performance as Hellen Stellar, while appropriately broad, is remarkable in its reserve with little evidence of the improvisation to which such a role might be prone in less professional and more egocentric hands. Burton Curtis could have more leeway in that department as the deaf-dumb drag queen’s fabulous drag mother and biological father, Crystal Pain, who plays host for much of the evening.
Savage’s direction emphasizes fun over quality, depth, or polish, which is all in keeping with the show’s content. It often feels a bit like a bunch of friends goofing around at the karaoke bar, but this group of friends has a lot of talent and great technical support. The script gleefully breaks rules with drag standard-issue self-consciousness and self-reference, devolving into bad jokes and overt exposition. For those a little outside the GLBT world Savage’s gender-identification paralysis exposition may be comforting.
There is also some serious interest in the delineation of the gay/lesbian divisions as Annie Sullivan (Hannah Victoria Franklin) is recast as a lesbian entering the terra incognita of the drag bar. This theme plays out further in the second half, which takes us to the less pop-culturally prominent grounds of a lesbian bar. For those a bit weary of camp this shift comes as a great relief and the lesbian beat poetry delivered by Angela Rose Sink is a highlight of the show.
Miracle! may not be exactly family-friendly but it works hard to take care of its audience. The only real danger here is that “Stop! In The Name of Love” may be running in your head for days to follow, but as it does you’ll likely still be smiling.