With titles like Who's Afraid of the Virgin Mary?, A T Stop Named Denial and All About Christmas Eve, Ryan Landry and his Gold Dust Orphans have turned the parody into a formidable artform. Combining elements from some of the most beloved films, plays and television series of all time, filtered through a queer sensibility which always put the class before the sass, this irreverent troupe still makes the kind of theater that leaves your belly aching from laughter.
After a successful run with Mildred Fierce in 2013, they’re back in New York City with Snow White and the Seven Bottoms, in which the beautiful princess (Jessica Barstis) hides from her wicked stepmother (played by Landry) in a house populated by miniature female impersonators who send the wholesome princess out to find them men. It doesn’t help that Snow White’s Prince (Varla Jean Merman) seems to be more in love with himself than interested in rescuing her. Throwing in references to other Disney classics like Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty, the show is wickedly fun. We spoke to Landry about his inspiration to play the Queen, the importance of fairy tales, and Charo...
I’ve always thought that a parody is good only when its creators actually love the subject matter and the elements they’re spoofing. In this case, I could really tell you’re a big fan of Snow White…
Yes, it’s so funny you said that because every time people say things like “so you make fun of…” and I’m like “hold on! I’m not making fun of anything!” I love the stories that we do and I only do parodies of things I love, basically because I want to bring attention back to those things. I don’t find a lot of modern popular culture that interesting.
Can you tell me more about your relationship with Snow White when you were growing up?
Of course, I wanted to be Snow White! What queen didn’t? But as you get older and you realize you’re never gonna be Snow White, you start moving towards the Evil Queen (laughs) whether you like it or not. It’s a secondary choice, but depending on your age...when I was a kid I used to wear towels on my head and pretended I had long hair and run around in fields acting like a fool. I really believed I was on television and there were cameras rolling all the time.
In the show through screen projections and more you pretty much recreate the film and seeing it made me really want to go see the film when I was home…
I want people to think. Have you ever read this book called The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim? It’s a brilliant book and it’s not just for parents, it’s about why we need fairy tale to learn about things. In the original versions of these fairy tales, people got their feet chopped off if they misspoke to the king or something...there’s all of this violent stuff. Today you look at all the parents and they’ve got bike helmets on the kids and they’re rubbing the kids’ hands with sanitizer...and all of this stupid bullshit. Like they don’t know we’re made of germs...without going on in a tangent, yes, my connection to fairy tales is to the old ones. I hate what Disney’s doing today, with all the characters calling each other “dude” and all that. I liked it better when the Evil Queen turned into a hag and planned on stabbing Snow White’s heart out, or when Bambi’s mother died. Those are all great moments in cinema, whether they’re animated or not.
The show you did in New York City before this was Mildred Fierce, can you talk about the fact that in a way Snow White and Mildred Pierce are about two very fucked up mother-daughter relationships?
Yeah, I actually had a really fucked up relationship with my mother too (laughs). I think that’s a great observation, I really had an intense relationship with my mother and it wasn’t a good one, but it was an interesting one. I do think I have mommy issues, because Mildred Pierce really affected me...some other movies that really affected me were Bonnie and Clyde, but that was because they were getting away from their moms, but even that movie had a line about how “you always have to come back to mama” and that was what killed them in the end! They had to visit their mothers and they were going through Shreveport, Louisiana and the cops found them and they knew they were going to visit one of the moms, and that’s how they caught them. So you see, it’s very dangerous to keep your core connected to your mother.
Watching you play the Queen I could bet you went see Maleficent and went “Angelina, please, learn how it’s done”...
I am not an Angelina Jolie fan, which will probably not get me a lot of tickets sold through this interview because all the queens will go “how dare you?” I’m also not a Madonna fan, I’m not interested in any of the modern gay icons. I saw Maleficent and thought it was fun, and I gotta say, because I really can’t stand her, but I thought this was the best thing she ever did. Her makeup was incredible.
So for your Queen you went with Bette and Joan?
I like people way back, like the Gish sisters. Did you ever see the silent version of The Scarlet Letter? It’s so great! It’s genius. I liked Greer Garson and a lot of those second tier actresses, of course I like Bette and Joan, but did you ever see Lady in a Cage with Olivia de Havilland?
Where she’s trapped in the elevator?
Yes!
I was talking about that movie to a friend the other day and he couldn’t believe it existed…
It does exist! I wanna write a show for Lady Bunny called Bunny in a Cage. If you remember some of the imagery from that movie, it was very ugly 60's, ugly Americans, people dumping garbage out of their station wagons, and a dead dog on the side of the road, it’s really great, lots of symbolism.
In a show like yours where you also make jokes about current events, how many revisions does the script undergo?
I just say what I think and go from there. I change things all the time, but you know what it’s really about? About getting in there and making people forget about their troubles and to watch these clowns onstage make fun of themselves. Of course there’s a lot of social commentary but I don’t cling to that. It doesn’t steer the boat.
How did you come up with this great idea of naming the seven bottoms after famous gay icons?
I didn’t want to do dwarves, because I have friends who are little people and when I’ve seen versions of Snow White with little people, it looks kinda depressing in a way and if they use full grown adults it looks even more depressing. I couldn’t come up with animated figures to use onstage, so I thought about puppets. All the puppets we have were used to tell Christian stories, because that’s the only reason why they make puppets in that size, so I thought “all these stupid puppets with these faces”...so I started putting wigs on them and then I turned them into drag queens, then impersonators...eventually I was asking “can you make Carol Channing? Can you make a good Bette Davis”?
The Charo puppet was brilliant.
Charo is amazing, did you know she can play a million instruments? She plays guitar, she’s a percussionist...anything. She was married to Xavier Cugat, so that’s probably why.
How was it to work with Varla this time around?
We’re dear friends, but I would crack the whip on her ass, I don’t let her get away with anything. Believe me we’ve had plenty of drag fights along the years, but we’re like sisters and she keeps coming back because she likes to work and the people in the company. She likes to improv way too much and I have to reel her in...starting with the mathematics, not like I’m any genius or anything but the way I do my stuff is very mathematic, picking words with specific numbers and then Varla comes with words that don’t connect. So of course then we get in a fight, then she finally bends and does it, tells me I’m right, then she pouts. You know it’s the way with sisters….
With very little advertising, how do people find out about your shows?
The problem with this one might be the title, even though we’re living in 2014 and ten-year-olds are pregnant every day, people are bringing guns to school and yet it’s too naughty to say “bottoms”. It’s really homophobia when it comes down to that, because even with a husband and wife, one of them just has to be the bottom, I don’t know who it is, but if they’re gonna have kids, someone’s gotta be on the bottom, right? The best way to tell people about the show, is just to come see it!
Photo credits: Michael von Redlich
Snow White and the Seven Bottoms is now playing at Theatre 80. For tickets and more click here.
