In Philadelphia, there are two worlds of drag.
On the one side, you have the nightclub divas who regularly play the Gayborhood hangouts, like Tabu, Voyeur, and Venture. These are the queens who mostly lip sync and take to the stage - on an early night - at midnight. There is a lot of booze thrown in for good measure, and tipping is a must. Get out your dollars or get out.
On the other side, you have the theater world drag. Bearded Ladies have made a name for themselves, beginning when head lady John Jarboe did impersonations of Edith Piaf. They aren’t playing the Gayborhood, opting for venues like FringeArts. And they probably aren’t lip syncing, singing live with bands backing them up.
Both worlds are fabulous. Both worlds are disconnected from eachother.
The high queen supreme of the latter is Martha Graham Cracker, about to celebrate her tenth year in lashes and heels. With three shows scheduled this month to celebrate – two in Philly and one last week in New York - Martha is bigger than ever.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Dito Van Reigersberg, the man behind Martha, earlier this week.
He remembered Martha’s first show at L’Etage on August 1, 2005. “I think it was just me and Victor. The band hadn’t fully formed yet. I know that we sang the Beatles medley that we still do sometimes. We did some Elton. I can paint you a picture of me in a blond bob – for a long time that was the only Martha wig. At that time, I was still doing my own makeup. So it was bad. There were like 20 people in the audience and I think I was amazed that there were 20 people in the audience.”
Victor Fiorillo, news reporter at Philadelphia magazine, has been playing the piano for Martha and managing her schedule since the beginning. “I remember that it was smoky. I remember that it was just me and Dito and a small crowd. We charged $5 for people to get in. And I remember I wore a grey suit.”
Approximately 120 shows later at L’Etage, the venue is packed on a Thursday night. “There was a point when L’Etage has been scarily full and you have to weave through people. But it was a humble beginning,” said Van Reigersberg.
There is a line here between actor and character. The actor Dito Van Reigersberg plays the character of Martha Graham Cracker. While a lot of drag divas in the Gayborhood are defined by their alter egos in or out of drag, Van Reigersberg keeps the two separate.
When asked about other differences between the two worlds, Van Reigersberg hesitates. “I feel like I am a little bit isolated, at least geographically. I go from time to time to see a show at Bob and Barbara’s or Tabu and that is awesome. But being all the way over at L’Etage, it’s not in the Gayborhood.”
Another divide is not just geographic, but stylistic as well between lip syncing and live singing. It was a bridge I myself had trouble navigating when I did drag as Tammy Faymous a few years ago. Reigersberg agrees, “I think that is a major dividing point.”
“Having a band is awesome but it also takes up a lot of space. It’s a very technical thing you have to work out. It’s very different then just sticking on a karaoke track and going for it. It’s much more portable as an art form than working with a band. I have nothing but respect for people who lip sync when done well. It is beautiful, demanding and difficult. But it is lighter in personality than what I do.”
“I love this metaphor of the body and that a healthy drag community has all these different parts that are connected but aren’t replicating the same exact thing. They have different functions in the healthy organism that is the drag community.”
Graham Cracker will be joined Thursday by Brittany Lynn, another live singer and a staple in the nightlife community. “Martha has the extravagance of having a band that she has been working with for ten years that know every nuance of what she is doing,” Lynn explains. “She can start singing, put her hand up and they know to stop. She can climb across the bar onto someone’s lap, talk for a minute about the song, what her inspirations are, and then keep moving. All in the same breath. That’s the difference between Martha and the other queens. She is not coming up on stage and singing the same Little Mermaid song over and over and over again.”
We need to bridge the gap between these two worlds, which may mean the Gayborhood crowds venture to new places or the FringeArts theatre goer actually stays out past midnight.
When asked about Graham Cracker coming to the Gayborhood, Lynn replies, “She has her own home and niche. I don’t think the Gayborhood would appreciate what Martha does.”
So what’s next for Graham Cracker outside the Gayborhood? Possibly a musical.
“The woman who runs Joe’s Pub joined forces with the Kimmel Center and Jay Wahl. We did a song writing intensive this summer. We did two weeks of work writing songs. I brought in Dave Sweeney (Johnny Showcase), Eliza Johns and Vince from the Johnny Showcase band. We were trapped in a room and created eight or nine original songs. Possibly conceiving a piece about Martha. I don’t know. I am hoping there is a Martha musical in the works.”
So it seems that Dito won’t be putting Martha’s wig in a box anytime soon.
“It is still fun to me. I really feel like it is still so fresh and alive.”
Martha Graham Cracker plays L’Etage August 13th and Union Transfer August 22nd.