The divas come out tonight
If you just can’t get enough of Cher, Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight and Lucille Ball, City Hall is the place for you to be tonight.
Blowpop Productions will be featuring — for lack of a better word — all these ladies — again, for lack of a better word — tonight as they bring on what is promised to be their best Female Impersonators show yet.
Organiser Mark Anderson — better known to many as Sybil Barrington or Queen of the Gombeys — said the show will include both Two Fools and special guests. For the first time, he said, Two Fools — Nadanja Bailey and Jahrizno Simmons — will bring their own brand of comedy to one of the shows.
Mr. Anderson — who has acted in Hollywood productions with both Wesley Snipes (To Wong Foo, Love Julie Nemarr) and Parker Posey (Party Girl) — said he and Mr. Bailey had worked together this summer when they both appeared in the this season’s production of Tony and Tina’s Wedding at the Fairmont Hamilton.
He also became acquainted with one of his first cousins — Jah Simmons — through the production.
“I realised that Jah is my first cousin, our fathers were brothers,” said the actor, who lived and worked in the US for 14 years.
“I was away for a long time and coming home and getting around family members, by going to funerals and meeting aunts and uncles that I didn’t know I found out that I was related to them.
“But the interesting thing is that Jah does Patti LaBelle, so it is genetic — but he’s heterosexual and I’m gay. So I get the pleasure of performing with the Two Fools and with my first cousin.”
But it won’t be all family at tonight’s event.
“I’m bringing in a Gladys Knight impersonator, because we had her (the real thing) for the Jazz Fest (Bermuda Music Festival), and I feel that people who couldn’t afford to go to the real show or didn’t get to see it, can at least come to see the illusion of her,” said Mr. Anderson.
“I’ll also have a Lucille Ball, a Mary J. Blige, a Tina Turner and the same Cher from last year. She is going to be doing a more modern Cher and many people liked the head-ball piece that she did for another number last year, but she has a similar one and I think I want Bermudians to see that one.
“The other thing is, we’ll also have Miss Daesha Richards — she’s the one that’s going to rock the house!”
This year Miss Barrington (Mr. Anderson) will not be playing Patti LaBelle and has instead chosen to portray more modern day divas.
“I am doing a Mariah Carey and a Stephanie Mills because I had to put Patti LaBelle aside for my cousin Jah,” he said.
He also hopes to unveil two surprise guests at the show including an African American writer who crosses all boundaries.
For those that have been following the controversy of Ms Barrington’s controversial May 24th “Gombey” dress, she intends to unveil it tonight.
“I’m revealing the Gombey dress in my show this year with a Gombey troupe, so I am still going to be Queen of the Gombeys — they didn’t want me to do it at May 24 (Bermuda Day), so, I will do it at my show,” Mr. Anderson explained.
The City Hall performances put on by Blowpop Productions take place from 7 to 10 p.m.
Tickets, $45, are available from Shannon’s Boutique, Windsor Place, Queen Street, Hamilton, or $55 at the door.