Review: “Oh, QUEENEY!” It’s Bottoms Up for Heartbeat Opera’s Drag Extravaganza

When Stephen Sondheim was asked whether SWEENEY TODD was a musical or an opera, he answered that it depended where it was being done—a theatre or an opera house. Well, what does that make Heartbeat Opera’s QUEENEY TODD—THE DEMON BOTTOM OF FLEET STREET?

Heartbeat Opera—under Artistic Director Jacob Ashworth, Music Director Dan Schlossberg (co-music directors of the piece) and Executive Director Christian de Gre Cardenas—calls it, “A genre-bending drag opera revenge fantasy.” I call it a boisterous evening of great drag/opera/dance/parody hilarity, under director/choreographer/”ballroom legend” Kemar Jewel. The show was written by Jewel, Ashworth, Peregrine Teng Heard and Garrett Bell, filled with “dangerous desires and horrible coping mechanisms.”

Heartbeat is one of the leading indie opera companies—which has given us new ways of looking at such staples of the standard repertoire as FIDELIO, EUGENE ONEGIN, MANON and SALOME, among many other works. It’s back with its 11th annual taste of the wild-and-crazy collision of camp and carnage.

Combining voices that would be comfortable on an opera stage in Handel or Richard Strauss, with Broadway professionals, and outrageous choreography, the result is a dizzying fusion of musical styles and just plain fun.

Following last year’s ORGY & BESS, QUEENEY starts off looking like a Fleet Street inhabited by drag performers, then adds Handel, Verdi, Bizet and Rossini for operaphiles plus Sondheim and Jerry Herman along with others in the mix. The mind begins to boggle of the talent—and entertainment—on display.

The five main characters in the piece are smashing one and all.

Queeney Todd (who doesn’t slit throats but removes genitals from unwary bottoms who've done him wrong) is in the more-than-capable hands of baritone Nathanial Sullivan, last heard in these parts as a potent Jokanaan in Heartbeat’s SALOME. There was dazzling coloratura (and comedy) from Eliza Bonet as Rosina (the company’s Marthe in FAUST) and the capably lush mezzo Imara Miles as a number of Queeney's tops. Then there was Jonathan Burke (late of “Cats: Jellicle Ball”) as the lip-syncing Barber, who danced up a storm from the moment of his show-stopping entrance.

But then there’s Matt Dengler, late of Heartbeart’s Broadway-style MANON! Any resemblance to Broadway’s “Oh, Mary!” is sheer coincidence (well, maybe not exactly so coincidental), as QUEENEY finally turns into a cabaret-act tribute to Angela Lansbury. Dengler starts out as Mrs. Lovedick, Queeney’s confidante and co-conspirator, then moves along to the evening’s star spot.

With snippets of Lansbury’s Broadway musical hits from ANYONE CAN WHISTLE to MAME to SWEENEY, and incursions into her TV years on “Murder She Wrote,” Dengler astonishes at every turn, after he lets us in on the reason for his quest for vengence. He was a joyful riot.

Last but certainly not least, there was the Stonewall Chorale, without whom any iteration of SWEENEY/QUEENEY couldn’t manage.

Projections are by Doaa Ouf, lighting by Yung-Hung Sung and props by Corinne Gologursky. This being drag-inspired (down to the orchestra), one can’t forget to mention the costumes of David Quinn and make-up by Maiko Ando.

The Heartbeat season continues with new versions of Dvorak’s RUSALKA and Verdi’s FALSTAFF. See the company’s website for more information.

Caption: (from left) Matt Dengler, Nathanial Sullivan, Eliza Bonet

Credit: Richard Sasanow