The Kinsey Sicks: I Wanna Be a Republican
84 minutes; $24.99
REVIEW by Steve Warren
I'll have to watch The Kinsey Sicks: I Wanna Be a Republican again. Someone told me after I'd seen it that it's a satire, and that the four women—Rachel, Winnie, Trixie and Trampolina—aren't really Republicans and the event recorded at San Francisco's Broadway Studios wasn't really a GOP fundraiser.
Sure, and next you'll tell me the Kinsey Sicks aren't really women!
Thank you, sir. That lobotomy felt good.
But seriously... Screw it. Who wants to be serious? Certainly not the Kinsey Sicks, four immensely talented drag queens who are often better than their material. This 'dragapella beauty shop quartet' makes beautiful music together and creates vivid characters whose dresses form two-thirds of a rainbow.
I Wanna Be a Republican originated during the 2004 presidential campaign and toured for over a year before director Ken Bielenberg and his partner, producer Alonzo Ruvalcaba, taped two shows in HD video.
Despite the challenges involved in preserving the show for posterity, it may have been a little tired by the time the cameras rolled; or perhaps the problem is that Bielenberg wanted to capture a perfect show and, as we see in the blooper reel, some of the most fun in Kinsey Sicks performances comes when things go wrong and the girls start ad libbing.
The premise is that the women are hosting a fundraiser where President Bush is scheduled 'to deliver his first ever coherent public policy address.' It's like waiting for Godot because of course he doesn't show up—this isn't a Streisand concert. While waiting the women take turns entertaining us with comedy and song, revealing their personalities in the process.
Rachel ( Ben Schatz ) sets the tone, declaring why she enjoys sex with Republicans: 'There's nothing hotter than someone who will do me at night and publicly condemn me during the day.' Trixie ( Jeff Manabat ) tells of doing her 'one-woman U.S.Ho show' in Iraq before singing I've Been Through Parasites ( but I've Never Had VD ) to the tune of I've Never Been to Me. ( S ) he has an amazing mezzo-soprano voice.
Winnie ( Irwin Keller ) is a lesbian whose girlfriend left her for someone she calls 'Blondaleeza,' changing the name in the interest of national security. Finally there's Trampolina ( Chris Dilley ) , with big hair and a mouth like Julia Roberts', except for the words that come out of it. After explaining how God made her Republican she sings Be a Slut, an un-Republican endorsement of promiscuity.
There's little pretense that the show is more than a musical-comedy revue. At one point it not only goes totally off-topic but turns serious as Trixie sings Jerry's Song, a sad, compassionate elegy for Jerry Friedman, an original member of the group.
After that it's back to abnormal with the President's theme song—not Hail to the Chief but When You're Good to Dubya, with a melody borrowed from Chicago—and, to end 'on a hopeful note,' another song parody: We Arm the World.
Although Bielenberg's cameras seem to show the audience almost as much as the performers, the fun they're having never entirely communicates itself to us. I Wanna Be a Republican only makes you wanna see these Fabulous Four live.