November 18-24, 2004

artpicks

Hare Apparent

Photo By: Aaron Cobbett

performance art Promoter Earl Dax brings many a Manhattan-based drag doyenne through Philly—Kiki & Herb for the Fringe, Joey Arias due in December. But none is as fun as what Dax calls the "Dusty Springfield-meets-Don-Rickles mix of potty-mouthed humor, Southern charm and zany Laugh-In-style skits" that is Lady Bunny.

The 1995 documentary on the Wigstock festival of drag-based performance art and comedy may have brought Lady Bunny to wider audiences. But the North Carolina native, with the I Dream of Jeannie flip and super-thick false eyelashes, has been part of New York City's towering-queen scene since 1984, when she traveled by van from Atlanta with a dozen other drag queens to the Big Apple. Lady Bunny's visual presentation of B-52's-style wiggery and outlandishly overstated makeup and muumuus is her calling card. But it's her mouthy, chatty charm that's made her the Rusty Warren of her generation. It's also the thing that's got her speaking parts in otherwise lackluster films like Party Girl and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar and televions shows like Sex and the City. With her lashing tongue and naughty X-rated pop-song parodies as the highlight of her newest act, expect the savage A Work in Regress to be diva-licious bitchy fun for the whole family.

Lady Bunny: A Work In Regress, Sun., Nov. 21, 9 p.m. (doors at 8 p.m.), $15, L'Etage, 624 S. Sixth St., 215-592-0656.

—A.D. Amorosi