Celebrate Drag with Plasma
Theaterworks
Hartford
Aug. 8, 2024
Theaterworks’ second annual Celebrate Drag was my first drag show. I’d been invited to shows before, but conflicts and commitments always prevented me from attending. I had high hopes for the show, and with one exception, they were more than exceeded.
The show got off to a fast start thanks to Hartford’s own Robin Fierce, who competed in season 15 of Ru Paul’s Drag Race. Robin was both glamorous and hilarious, and commanded the stage with wit and ease as she introduced the performers for the night.
First up was Kenya Mone Heart, another performer who hails from Connecticut. The self-declared “best ass” in the show, Kenya took a moment to explain why she began performing.
“I wanted to slam my pussy onto the stage,” she said to uproarious laughter. She proceeded to do so with style.
For my money, the star of the show was the second performer of the evening, someone Robin described as her “drag daughter,” the appropriately named Natalia Fierce. She managed both a wardrobe change during her performance and a front flip in six-inch heels.
It was awesome to see such outstanding talent from right here in Connecticut. It feels like our shows often get overshadowed by New York and Boston, but this was homegrown talent performing for a local audience, and it was a blast to be a part of it for the first half of the show.
On the other side of intermission, the headliner, Plasma, was a disappointment. A contestant from season 16 of Ru Paul’s Drag Race, she was presented as the star of the event. The entire second half of the show was dedicated to her. She was definitely talented, with a strong, clear singing voice that belted old time showtunes clear across the room.
However, after the high energy, dancing and wardrobe changes of the first half of the show, listening to Plasma sing showtunes, as good as she was, felt sedate by comparison. The energy of the second half was dragged down even further by a humorous but slow bit where Plasma went into the audience and traded shots of alcohol for questions from the audience. Plasma clearly knows how to think on her feet and turn any dull situation into a joke, but that’s what it felt like — a dull sketch that she kept having to save.
Then there was an admission from Plasma towards the end of her performance that seemed to explain everything. She thanked the Connecticut crowd for allowing her to practice some of the material that she would be using next week in Provincetown, Mass. Plasma’s performance came across as a practice set where she held her best bits on reserve for a larger audience. Part of Plasma’s set was leaning into radical authenticity and transparency, but I didn’t appreciate being informed that my ticket price was a dry run for her. Yes, that’s how shows work, but very few performers tell you that while phoning it in.
NEXT
Theaterworks hosts Akin Hobson on Aug. 16.
Jamil goes to the Witch Trials Festival in Hartford.
