Transgender actress and singer Alexandra Billings has a combination of charisma, humor and warmth—and a great whisky voice that puts one variously in mind of legends of stage and screen: Lauren Bacall, Bea Arthur, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli and Alex's personal favorite, Judy Garland.
Just off a critically acclaimed gig at Sterling's in Los Angeles, where she did her cabaret show "Everybody's Girl," Billings will open for Leslie Jordan at the Renberg Theater Dec. 10-13 and 17-20. Jordan, who created the role of Beverly Leslie on "Will & Grace," presents his one-man "Full of Gin and Regrets"; Billings will tell a few jokes and perform two songs. She is thrilled to be working with the Emmy-award winning actor and said he is "one of the kindest, gentlest men I've met in this town."
Billings, who teaches at Steppenwolf West, also opened in a play the first weekend in December. "Dr. Frankincense and the Christmas Monster" is a Christmas satire for young audiences in which she portrays Mrs. Noel, wife of the Mayor of Christmas Village. A return engagement at Sterling's is planned for early spring. Focusing her career moves in Los Angeles, she has no plans for appearances in her hometown of Chicago.
However, the real breakout role may be on the horizon and another coast. In November, Billings was in New York to audition for the Broadway cast of Priscilla Queen of the Desert—The Musical.
On the audition trip, she shot a video talking about the experience. "It was a quandary as to whether I should put it up on my blog and YouTube," she said. "I have a thing about auditions and I don't usually talk about them.
"If you don't get the part, you have to keep reliving the experience. I did it because I'm a middle-age person and I don't know if this is really going to happen. But now I'm happy I shared. I've gotten so many e-mails and good wishes and this was one of the best audition experiences I've ever had, everyone was kind and wonderful.
"Rehearsals don't even start until at least August next year, with an opening planned for spring 2011. I may not even hear for practically another year. And they may want big names for the Broadway cast. But if I get it, this would be the first time in Broadway history that a transgender actress would be cast to play a transgender person on Broadway."
While her television roles have centered on story lines concerning transgender individuals, and her one-woman show is autobiographical, Billings has only played one transgender role on stage. As a theater actress she has a string of credits that range from the high camp of Vampire Lesbians of Sodom to dramatic roles at Court Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre and several musical theater roles including Mama Rose in Gypsy.
Her goal as an actress is to land roles that "have nothing to do with my history. And that's more difficult than you'd think. I do not turn down a role because it is transgender. I do turn down cartoonish roles, stereotyped roles. But I am an actor, I want to act, sing, write and create my art."
Billings feels that there has been an increase in the comfort level of theater audiences toward her as a transgender actress. Before moving out to Los Angeles, she appeared in a Lincolnshire Marriott children's production of Princess and the Pea. During a post-performance talk back between the cast and audience at the suburban venue, a little girl raised her hand and asked Billings, "Are you a real queen?"
"Everyone held their breath and I said, 'Honey, you have no idea!' Even if people don't really know, they know there's something funny, something odd. It goes around the audience," Billings said. "But as the '90s started to close, people really started to care less about what I was. I'm an actress."
Despite the advances, there is still a long way to go. "In both the gay and straight communities, transgender people are still struggling with a lack of understanding as to who we are," Billings explained. "In a sense, we do not exist. There is no box for us to check, no place for us to sit. I am not the same kind of female as you are, I do not have the same internal organs. But that is not understood and really, that is our problem and our fault. Transgender people are steeped in our own shame and silence. We refuse to come out and speak. We adhere to the degrading names like 'trannie' and 'drag queen' and succumb to the caricatures and we cannot do that anymore as a community. We need to speak out. Then the bridges will be built and we won't be treated as curiosities anymore. We will be doctors, actors, lawyers, housewives. We will also be transgender."
See www.alexandrabillings.com .
