What is it like to grow up with a drag queen for a father? For 17-year-old Davey, it is confusing, full of father-son Bette Midler marathons, a wig named “Felicia”, and lessons in acceptance.
Co-written and co-directed by producer, Zachary Lurje, and actor playing the titular character, Daniel Gough, Steve the Queen at PIP Theatre has heart, family drama, and of course only the most glamorous of drag routines.
Queensland’s answer to The Birdcage sees a flamboyant father tackling (or rather sashaying towards) what parenthood means for their identity after too many “UDLs and bad decisions” in their youth.
Gough brings the flirty, sharp-tongued Steve to life as a drag queen. As she says before breaking into routine, she is no man of the house, but Queen of the Night.
But the witty repartee is a barrier to connection, and when Steve finally brings down his walls, we see Gough’s magnetic ability to elicit empathy for an at times selfish character.
With two generations of teen pregnancies under their belt, Steve the Queen and Davey’s grandmother Judy are horrified to discover Davey in bed with his high school girlfriend Lee.
The prospect of Lee becoming pregnant brings up some ugly truths and long-buried secrets in Davey’s family – forcing a reckoning about past behaviour and how they want to show up for each other from now on.
Meanwhile, with graduation around the corner, high-achieving Lee wants to be seen as more than an object or a baby-maker, and is unafraid to tell Davey’s family exactly how she feels.
Tayla Rankine plays the sardonic but kind-hearted Lee well. The show is full of zingers, and my favourite comes from Lee, who after choking on fake eyelashes she imbibes from a dinner cooked by Steve, remarks: “I know you’re a drag queen, no need to shove it down my throat.”
Samuel French brings emotional maturity to his open-hearted portrayal of Davey, trying to navigate his adolescence with a far from regular family.
Judy, with her own troubled past, is played by Kerith Atkinson with humility and warmth, acknowledging Lee for the modern, empowered woman she was never given the chance to be in her own youth.
The small ensemble is strengthened by the work of the behind-the-scenes team – Matti Crocker as production designer, Hollie Pianta as stage manager, and lighting by Jon Whitehead.
Sound by Andrew Oxford added rhythm to the narrative and smoothened scene changes with his snappy, jazzy interludes, while costumes by Lottie Banford brought an abundance of drama with sequins, lace, and leopard print in Steve and Judy’s attire to balance the order that Davey and Lee seek in their lives, characterised in their own simple modes of dress.
Steve the Queen runs until March 14, so hitch up your sequined ballgowns, kick off your heels, hang onto your wigs and run to get your tickets at piptheatre.org/steve-the-queen.
