Review: DRAGON LADY Weaves Memory and Magic at Pittsburgh Public Theater

Solo shows are growing in popularity, both due to their artistic charms and their economic advantages post-COVID. Solo musicals, however, are still a rarity. What's the last one you can think of? It's probably a show that started as a solo musical in a nightclub or cabaret setting and then grew into a small-cast piece, like tick tick Boom, A Strange Loop or Passing Strange. Sara Porkalob, most famously seen in the recent revival of 1776, here crafts a show with similar roots: part solo show in the John Leguizamo tradition, and part alt-folk musical. Her musical, Dragon Lady, is first in a still-ongoing trilogy of solo shows about her Filipino-American family's colorful history.

Accompanied by a three-piece band of guitar, upright bass and trombone (the core of circus folk-punk group Hot Damn Scandal), Porkalob takes on two primary characters. In Act 1, we meet Porkalob's grandmother Maria, an immigrant from the Philippines whose story (at least allegedly) concerns organized crime, prostitution, murder and scandal. Act 2 focuses on Sara's mother, Maria junior. Grandma, the titular Dragon Lady, is a complex figure, sometimes affectionate and sometimes cold to the point of sociopathy; one of our first looks at her is a hilarious but chilling scene in which she encourages her preteen daughter to kill another girl in the neighborhood. (And no, it doesn't appear to be a joke either; Grandma goes HARD.) As Grandma bonds with her granddaughter Sara (mostly unportrayed, though obviously a stand in for our star actor herself), Maria junior starts to interject. It wasn't all cinematic sex and violence like Grandma would have you believe, Maria says. Instead, her Tarantino-esque origin story looks like a neglectful nightmare when told from anyone else's perspective.

Porkalob has structured the show brilliantly, with Act 1 feeling like a tall tale mixed with a sordid crime drama in the glamorous world of overseas nightclubs, and Act 2 feeling like a darkly humorous trailer park dramedy. The music by Pete Irving blends jazz, cabaret, folk and rock vibes with a dark, transgressive sideshow vibe. I'm a huge fan of another Seattle dark cabaret band, the late great Circus Contraption, and hearing Irving and his band (especially in a rare moment where Irving himself contributed vocals) felt both familiar and exciting at once.

By the end of the show, I was completely hooked on the Porkalob family saga. As writer-star Sara Porkalob explained during her postshow comments, her second show has recently premiered and the third is ongoing. I hope the audience response remains as positive as my experience was, so the Public has every possible excuse to bring Dragon Mama and the future Dragon Baby to our city as well.

To post a comment, you must register and login.

Test and expand your Broadway knowledge with our new game - The Broadway Match-Up! How well do you know your Broadway casting trivia?	Play the Daily Game, explore current shows, and delve into past decades like the 2000s, 80s, and the Golden Age. Challenge your friends and see where you rank!
How well do you know your Tony Awards history? Take our never-ending quiz of nominations and winner history and challenge your friends.	Can you beat your friends? Play today’s daily Broadway word game, featuring a new theatrically inspired word or phrase every day!