press and other info
promotional video with footage from the initial staged reading
Synopsis:
Cherise, the queen-bee/drag momma of a drag performance troupe has died. Mourning her death, this family of queens harness their anger and fears into a hysterical journey of pride, purpose and love.
Detailed synopsis:
A Greek chorus of drag queens take us on a year’s journey starting at the memorial service for Cherise, the lead drag queen of their company. Cherise’s death spins their world into chaos. Billy, who hasn’t donned wigs and pumps for 5 years is reluctantly pulled back into the show. Ramon, his boyfriend, is furious. Ramon’s sister Jan, falls for Philip a straight female impersonator. Happy, Cherise’s side kick, is emotionally destroyed and frantic not to lose the company. Enter Betty, Cherise’s homophobic mother who is selling the theatre. She teams up with Teresa, the mother of Jan and Ramon, to find forgiveness and face their maternal shortcomings.
Our story ends up a year later… Who stays in love and who’s strong enough to forgive? Will our Mothers learn to love their little freaks no matter what? Will our wigged heroes find love or sell out? Only our fierce chorus of drag queens can tell you that thru honesty, heart and a heck of a lot of camp.
Anecdote:
I had this idea of a love story between a tomboy girl and a drag queen boy. I mulled it over a few months. I knew to pull it off we’d have to “see” the drag queen at work. I have been a fan of musician Abby Travis’ for years. I’ve met the edgy-diva on various occasions and figured “what the hell.” I asked if I could use a song or 2. She said “sure go ahead.”
6 months later, I called her and said “well… ummm can I use 14 songs?” She allowed me to do whatever I needed to do for a small staged reading at the Lillian Theatre in Hollywood April 08. When she saw it she cried. And thus I wrote my first musical.
Press photos coming soon!
Little Black Veil is about waving your freak flag. Being proud of who you are.
It’s gay, it’s straight, it’s hip and it’s legend:
Everyone of us deserves to be loved for
exactly what we are.
The Tragedy of The Comedy
Most people think of emptiness as a lack of something, or a nothingness, or a state of containing nothing. They are wrong. Emptiness is tangible, a thing that burrows and wounds. Like swallowing a stone, its weight can be so great you think you won’t carry on.
It was 2004. An emptiness came to Silver Lake. Sabrah Summers and Misty Cologne were dead. Two drag-diva-artist-comedian-extraordinaires were gone. Fans, friends and foes looked at each other, hopeless and destroyed. I counseled and cried and watched. I knew we’d get through the devastation. I knew Mr. Dan would crack jokes again. I knew RW would someday smile his sass again. I knew Lolly would laugh again. I knew Jeffrey would stop crying…well, ok, he still hasn’t stopped… And I knew Dragstrip, the Cavern Club and all the kids in mourning would be ok. My mind knew this, but my heart, never prophetic, just beat there, shrouded in this emptiness.
Little Black Veil is not based in facts or any representation of Sabrah and Misty (Bob and Tim) or the actual events of the saddest summer Silver Lake ever saw. But it was shaped from that pain. From the idea that our community, so like a patchwork, is held together in so many ways by our little wigged heroes, many of whom are never given credit or scoffed at by the p.c.-ers. So in the flux of so much loss there was no frame of reference. This script came from a necessity to give context to the emptiness that settled in Silver Lake over the passing years.
And of course like all stories, it took a shape all its own. A script about living for today. About embracing your fabulousness. About our hearts when no one is looking. And it had to be full of jokes! Full of wigs! Full of winks and nods! Full of zippy one-liners. And full of….ah, well I guess that’s it. It had to be full, so the emptiness would go away.
David LeBarron
Writer/Director
