Willkommen? NOT. What Won't Be Playing Ric's Kennedy Center

Most Any Play by Charles Busch

In the mid-1980s, playwright and performer Charles Busch drew large crowds to bombed out Alphabet City to the Limbo Lounge on the Lower East Side with his one-act comedy, "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom." It was paired with another of his plays, "Sleeping Beauty or Coma," and transferred to Greenwich Village where it played for five years. Subsequently he had off-Broadway hits with "Times Square Angel," "Psycho Beach Party," "Die Mommie Die!", and "The Divine Sister," in which he starred in drag as each's lead. His Broadway success "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife" played DC National Theatre when it toured in 2002, but not the Kennedy Center. It could play there in the future since none of its characters are played in drag, though its titular character was based on one that Busch had developed in drag.

'Chicago'

The Kander and Ebb musical has been a frequent visitor to the Kennedy Center, having played there five times, including a tour of the original 1976 production. The four other occasions were of the lean and mean current Broadway production, now near its 30th year. If a musical can be called Trumpian it is this cynical take on crime and celebrity, but it will likely be canceled from the line-up of any upcoming Kennedy Center shows due to the pesky character of Mary Sunshine, the saccharine newspaper reporter who in the show's big reveal is shown to be a man in drag. In the show's program, the actors first name is represented only its first letter as to not spoil the reveal. When Varla Jean Merman played the role his real name, Jeffery Roberson, was listed as J. Roberson. And drag has extended to other roles as well, such as "RuPaul's Drag Race" winner Jinkx Monsoon, who took over the role of prison matron Mama Morton for two engagements in 2023 and 2024, selling the show out in the process.

'Cabaret'

There was some drag in Harold Prince's initial 1967 staging of another Kander and Ebb classic, but it wasn't until Sam Mendes' sensational 1993 version with Alan Cumming as the ambisexual MC did it expand on its drag and queer content. It is presently on Broadway in an even more environmental production with copious drag content that would be verboten at the Kennedy Center if it should tour. The Kennedy Center is no stranger to the musical, having hosted numerous productions over the years, including the tour of Mendes version.