Welcome to a new monthly series in the theatre section of Windy City Times. I had the idea of sitting down two artists to discuss their work, lives, and politics. How do projects start and develop? And who are these artists and what is the passion that drives them to create? In addition to appearing in the paper, you can hear these interviews archived at www.WindyCityRadio.com . ( And with these artists, you will want to give them a listen. )
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Alexandra Billings and Honey West often perform together to raise money for HIV / AIDS organizations. They both work on stages and clubs in cities around the U.S. They both can be seen most Sunday nights at Gentry on Halsted entertaining with hysterical antics and moving artistry. And they both work to change perceptions about transgender performers. They, also, are friends, dear friends, and you can feel this bond when they enter a room. Alex and Honey talked about their new production of Vampire Lesbians of Sodom opening in October, and, let's just say, it was the fantastic mixture of the sublime and surreal that we have come to expect from these two performers.
HW: For those who aren't familiar with this play, it is a Charles Busch show. He has written a lot of things. The most commercial ( of his work ) that you can see is now is on cable, Psycho Beach Party, and also The Allergist's Wife ( coming to the Shubert Theatre in January. )
AB: He was nominated for a Tony for The Allergist's Wife.
HW: And on Oz ( on HBO ) , he played the role of the transgender person who died on death row.
AB: That's right!
HW: Charles Busch wrote the show, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, and it ran Off-Broadway forever.
AB: Yeah. For like six years!
HW: It came to Chicago in 1989 and you starred in the role of the Virgin.
AB: I did! The virgin!
HW: The Virgin.
AB: It was a stretch.
HW: Even then. ( laughing )
AB: But I am the Maggie Smith of Chicago! I can play any role!
HW: Maggie Smith doesn't strike me as a virgin.
AB: I'm just telling you that I'm versatile.
HW: The show had a huge run. You ran for about two years and had a HUGE following consisting of an Alexandra Billings fan club, an Alexandra Billings doll, and miscellaneous vampires and goths.
AB: Yes. And they all came to see the show in a great big vampire clump and they loved it. They had a great time. And then, we did the second revival of the show. Well, I didn't do it. You did it! You did the second revival in what?
HW: 1994-'95 and you joined the cast later.
AB: And then when you left, I was joined by Sekka, the porn star … ( Honey laughing ) who never knew her lines. And one time during the show when she couldn't remember her monologue she literally had a stagehand with her monologue written on a cue card sitting offstage, so during her monologue she never looked at me. She just kept peering out through her one good eye trying to figure out what her lines were. And one time, when she was doing that, I walked up to the guy holding her cue cards, took the cue cards, and threw them away!
HW: You're evil. ( laughing )
AB: And she said nothing!
HW: You're terrible ( laughing )
AB: But it was funny.
HW: My claim to fame is that I shared panties with Sekka.
AB: You did not! ( laughing )
HW: I did. They were actually a pair of black panties that were a part of our costume. ( Alex laughing ) Because when we changed from our opening costume that was like nude clothing to black, we had to wear the black panties. So we shared costumes.
AB: That's scary.
HW: Well, it's titillating for some people. ( Alex laughing ) Titillating.
AB: ( laughing ) Wow!
HW: It was an equity show and it ran for 10 months and we had a great time. And the show is coming back! But you're not starring as the Virgin, because nobody would believe it.
AB: I'm sick of you. I'm so tired of you.
HW: In 2002 you can't play the Virgin role.
AB: This is really not the way I thought this ( interview ) was going to go.
HW: But they still accept me as the Succubus.
AB: Well … THAT says it all. THAT says it all really.
HW: But ( this time ) you are going to be a part of the show in the capacity of director.
AB: Well I'm directing it with my partner. We've been married now for seven years. We've known each other for 26 years. She has been a director here in Chicago for 10 or 11 years, so it's really about me sort of going home and going, "What the heck do we do next," and her sort of telling me.
HW: It's a great team.
AB: Well I hope so. She and I work really well together in life and we work well together professionally. That's Chrisanne Blankenship. She is the Assistant Director.
HW: Well a lot of people have asked me … If you are going to do something again, ideally you want to bring something new to it. You don't want to just do the same show. And as a director, after being in the show for years, you must have certain ideas and specifics about how you would do it differently.
AB: I do. And since this is my de-butt.
HW: It's "Debut."
AB: It's "de-butt." ( Honey laughing ) It's really sad your whole …
HW: I'm just trying to class up your act.
AB: It's sad your whole grasp of the … Anyway, so, what I wanted to do ... The first time it was sort of fluffy and cute and the second time we did it, it was big and huge.
HW: Highly stylized. Slapstick.
AB: How big was that? It was BIG.
HW: In your face like a three-ring circus!
AB: My God. Sekka herself was Big. We had to widen the doorway just to get her in. ( Honey laughing ) Anyway … I'm really harping on Sekka!
HW: You really are.
AB: I don't mean to. I really like her. That's not true. Anyway, this third time we really wanted to make sure that it was a combination of the two. It's not quite so broad, but it is edgy. I mean, the very end production number is very Las Vegasy with really cute boys with nice bodies and little tiny pants and fabulous looking girls with little topless things on and a big dance number where you get to sing "Oops, I Did It Again" by Britney Spears.
HW: ( singing ) "Oops, I did it again…"
AB: Don't sing it now because it's not good.
HW: Well I don't know it.
AB: Well you probably won't know it then either. So ... we wanted to do that, and we are also giving you a really nice moment in the show where you get to be a little bit more real. So the show is really fun and really campy, but it also has a lot of different aspects that are completely unique from the other two.
HW: A little bit more intimate is my overall feeling. I'm excited about doing the show again. So the people who are fans of the show and especially the Chicago versions, they are going to see something completely different.
AB: Well, you know what is really interesting? You and I being transgendered and being actors and being singers, we don't make a career out of playing those kinds of characters. We play roles that interest us.
HW: And in this particular show, they're not drag queen roles. They're actually lesbian roles.
AB: And how is that for you as an actor?
HW: You know what? I started out my career as a singer and a personality, a comedian, so I never played drag. I never really did a typical drag role of lipsynching. So to me it seems normal. But for somebody that is expecting ( drag ) when you come to my show, it's not really a drag show. I'm a singer.
AB: Right. And what's great about ( Vampire Lesbians ) is it's a funny piece. It's a light piece. It's not about one particular thing. You won't go, 'This is a great big drag show.' You go ( and ) you have a good time.
HW: Everybody can find something in this show. We're gonna be here the whole month of October in Chicago at the Theatre Building, 1225 W. Belmont.
AB: Look. You know the address!
HW: I do. Son of Fire. Dirty Dreams of a Clean Cut Kid.
AB: We did a lot of shows together. Remember when we did Son of Fire together and you had to be a girl and a boy?
HW: I started off as a man, went to a woman, went to a man, went to woman, went to a man, went to a woman, and ended as a man. I didn't do the extension. It was too much!
AB: ( Both laughing ) And they paid you what? About a $1.25, didn't they?
HW: Yes.
AB: I made a LOT of money in that show.
HW: And my dressing room was upstairs up a barn ladder.
AB: And when you were dressing and changing in and out of drag, what was I doing?
HW: You were sitting in your panties, naked, except for your panties, smoking a cigarette and you said "God you're working hard." That's exactly what you told me.
AB: I had a tough job in that show.
HW: When you go backstage … and you see the barn ladder, you will see little holes in the wall ( where ) the plaster ... I never knew why my little toes were always white. ( It's ) because of the plaster. As I would climb up the stairs ( of the ladder ) in pumps, I would tear away the plaster.
AB: Listen. I had to die of a brain tumor in that show. I had a LOT to go through. ( Honey laughing ) It was a lot of emotional baggage.
HW: Yeah. Yeah. Well, come see us the whole month of October, the perfect month for Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.
AB: Please come see us. Honey will not be drunk. ( Honey laughing )
HW: Not every performance.
Charles Busch's Vampire Lesbians of Sodom became one of the longest running plays in Off-Broadway history. Part sultry burlesque, part B-Horror movie and 100 percent camp, Vampire sagas the blood-rivalry of two seductive vampiresses who stop at nothing to top each other. Vampire Lesbians of Sodom runs Oct. 2-Nov. 2, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 10:30 p.m., Sunday at 7 p.m.; Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont, ( 773 ) 327-5252; $22.50, Students & Seniors $5 off, $5 industry nights, group rates available.
