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It's no drag: Campy comedy heats up Ferndale

REVIEW:
'Vampire Lesbians of Sodom'
Presented Friday and Saturday nights at 7 p.m. by Who Wants Cake? at Xhedos Cafe, 240 W. Nine Mile Road, Ferndale, through Aug. 12. Tickets: $10. For information: 248-399-3946.

Lesbians are frightening enough for some people – the Righteous Right, for example – but what about vampire lesbians? From the biblical town of Sodom, yet!
Although such a concept might cause bible thumpers everywhere to run for their holy water, it hasn't stopped others from heading to Ferndale's Xhedos Cafe for "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom," a deliciously campy evening of theater that features almost as much cross dressing as a drag show at the Rainbow Room.
I attended last Saturday night's performance, and I've got to hand it to Joe Bailey, producer, director and founder of Who Wants Cake?, the recently-formed production company that's staging the Charles Busch classic. For despite the loss of air conditioning, kitchen noises that continuously wafted through the performance space, latecomers who noisily dragged their chairs across the old wooden floor and a tight stage that leaves little room to move, Bailey and his sweaty co-stars bravely managed to keep their 30+ audience members thoroughly engrossed from start to finish. And trust me, that couldn't have been easy – for them or for the audience.
Yet we stayed – and we laughed – thanks partly to Busch's over-the-top writing, but more so because of the performers, especially Bailey and Chad Hetzel. (The brief unveiling of studly Nate Cavanaugh in a leather jockstrap certainly made things hotter!)
The evening actually consists of two one-acts. "Sleeping Beauty, or Coma" is an update of the famous fairy tale set in London's fashion industry during the "mod" 1960s. "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom" follows two female vampires through time, from their initial meeting in ancient Sodom to Hollywood in the 1920s and finally to Las Vegas in 1985.
The humor in both halves comes not only from spoofing popular culture, but from turning it upside down. And Bailey's brisk, broad – but occasionally cramped – staging certainly mines the material for every laugh he can get.
But it's the performances of Bailey and Hetzel that raise the level of this entertaining comedy. Hetzel – who plays rising fashion designer Fauna Alexander and, later, The Succubus – is thoroughly convincing as a woman. Although this is "camp," it's not "drag" – and he totally understands the difference.
And Bailey? With impeccable timing and facial expressions to die for, the "inner girl" he lets loose in the second act is not only big, she's hysterical!
Entertaining performances are also provided by Audra Lord, Joe Plambeck and Melissa Beckwith.
And the costumes by Debra Hays are simply fabulous.

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