Kiss Me, Kate

Comments (0) By Hiya Swanhuyser Wednesday, Feb 17 2010

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Time once again to remind you why you put up with it all in order to reside in the Best of All Possible Cities. At “Pretty Pretty (Look at You!),” a lady drag queen gives an extreme-makeup lesson in a vintage clothing shop owned by a superstar who was a drag model on Project Runway before RuPaul’s Drag Race was even around. Your teacher, Kate Richards (drag name Kegel Kater) plays one of the angel/whore/lotus dancers in the looooong-running production of Pearls over Shanghai, a play written and originally produced in the early 1970s by famous gay hippie theater troupe the Cockettes. There. That’s why you live here. So: Watch in awe as Richards demonstrates exactly how to get that much makeup onto one face. (We’ve seen her wearing three sets of false eyelashes at one time.) Gape in adoration as layer after layer builds up to a bizarre, not-exactly-pretty climax. Revel in the knowledge that all the tricks of her trade are available for purchase right in the store, from the necessary contouring fleshtones to pink metallic lashes to any old pastel-aqua beehive wig you could need. Shop diva Steven LeMay is on hand, in person; please don’t touch.
Sat., Feb. 27, 3 p.m., 2010