by Jonathan Warman
The outrageous new Wednesday night drag revue Hot Mess has definitely set a new high bar for drag in NYC. First of all, its the only full-on multi-performer drag revue in a truly gay venue that I can think of in the city. But it’s much more than just that: the queens at the core of this show, Lady Bunny and Bianca Del Rio, are the smartest, wittiest and most fearless in all of drag, and a show that was just them would be legendary in its own right.
But Hot Mess is even more than that. Bunny is the force behind the whole thing, and she has assembled a cast of the city’s most talented drag divas, and the last time she did that, it turned into Wigstock – the annual festival of drag which ran for 20 years. There aren’t as many queens in this but they are truly a choice selection.
I was talking with a friend of mine who lives abroad a while ago, and we were discussing modes of transportation in the country she lives in. She mentioned the fact that she wouldn’t go into a taxi alone. I agreed. “Yeah, that’s not a good idea, you don’t wanna get…hurt,” I said. The word I had in mind was raped, but I felt uncomfortable saying it. She didn’t, though. “Yeah, since I definitely do not want to get raped or molested or something by a cab driver,” she said.
