^{Sutton Lee Seymour in Super Ma’am}

Sutton Lee Seymour and Miss Conception Take Over the Art House

by James Judd 

The Art House, Provincetown’s venerable performing arts venue, has seen its share of management turnovers over the past few years. Mark Cortale, who had run shows there since 2011, departed at the end of 2023 to concentrate on producing shows on Broadway. Producer Entertainment Group came in for 2024, followed by Rainbow Entertainment Group in 2025.

The unexpected withdrawal of Rainbow Entertainment amidst the end-of-the-year festivities last year landed like a cold lump of coal. It was certainly a shock to Kevin Levesque and Prescott Seymour, creators of drag personas Miss Conception and Sutton Lee Seymour, respectively. The duo, wintering in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where they perform their solo acts every year from September to April, faced an uncertain future. With a looming catastrophe, the duo did what heroic theater duos do—they sprang into action. Phone calls were made, Zoom meetings were held, Lash Entertainment LLC was formed, and suddenly Sutton Lee and Conception were granted the keys and control as the new producers of the current season and the foreseeable future.

“Our intentions were to save our jobs, and also honor the contracts that were promised,” says Seymour. “We didn’t want to be like, ‘sorry, we’re taking over and putting new people in.’”

Sprucing up the lobby and converting the second performing space into a new green room and offstage space for performers followed.

“The building was rusting on the side, and the lobby was all black—black roof, black walls—it wasn’t inviting,” says Seymour. Both Seymour and Levesque are quick to point out the invaluable and heartwarming support they received from the local community. The re-vibe was aided by volunteers: doors were painted red, the lobby was reinvigorated, and backstage access was improved. “Now people come in and it’s like, wow.”

The duo has found that their producing and management skills complement each other—including making sure other acts don’t feel like supporting players to their new bosses.

“We know what we want as a performer, so we want to make sure our performers have that,” says Seymour. “We’ve all been in those situations where a promoter will favor someone, and we don’t play that game.”

For years, the backstage area of the Art House had only one entrance—a stage left doorway into the alley. “I was doing my Witch Please show in my Glinda gown, running from the stage all the way behind the building to the dressing room to do a costume change—during a downpour,” recalled Seymour with a shudder. “We were just really adamant that we wanted to make that experience better for the artists going on and off stage.”

A carpenter was enlisted to cut a doorway into stage right. “Now nobody has to run in a Glinda gown in the rain again,” said Seymour.

Looking forward, both are in agreement on how summer programming at the Art House should evolve. “We don’t want all just drag here,” says Levesque. “We want to get more Broadway people in here next year.”

“We want to be involved in the community,” says Seymour, listing local fundraisers they’re supporting, as well as booking special performances by local talent, such as singers Hilary Tamar and Jizzelle “This year our focus was community—keeping the Art House filled with performers who are involved in the community, and then moving forward, getting bigger and bigger every year.”

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this producing duo is that they are able to keep the venue running while also performing their own high-caliber shows. On opening night, Miss Conception debuted Scream Kweens—a live singing and dancing, quick-costume-change extravaganza and homage to the terrifying and terrorized ladies of cinema. It’s a slick, rapid-fire experience with loads of complicated technical elements, big laughs, and a real tour-de-force for this powerhouse performer. Who else could combine Hairspray and The Exorcist into a showstopping opener?

Sutton Lee Seymour took the stage immediately after to perform Super Ma’am, an already polished production delivered with the kind of showbiz panache Provincetown’s audience expects. Her turn as arch-nemesis Lexxxy Leather is one of this summer’s must-see knockouts.

Still, the duo is well aware that audience and community expectations for the Art House are high. “This space has been very celebrated for many years, with the most iconic performers in Provincetown,” says Seymour. “Varla Jean Merman, Miss Richfield—they started here at the Art House. We have big shoes to fill—but we’re going to fill them. Just bear with us as we keep building this new chapter. You can’t climb a ladder starting at the top. You’ve got to go one step at a time.”

The Art House is located at 214 Commercial St., Provincetown. For show tickets and information, call 508.413.7798 or visit thearthouseptown.com.