Review by Steve Desroches
Janet Leigh. Fay Wray. Jamie Lee Curtis. Neve Campbell. Linda Blair. Miss Conception. Whether it’s being brought to the top of the Empire State Building by a giant gorilla, surviving a Halloween night massacre, escaping being hacked to bits by a chainsaw in Texas, or performing a killer show at the Art House, all these names have one thing in common: they’re scream queens. And Miss Conception’s summer offering Scream Kweeen at the Art House is indeed a scream and a half in a show so campy that it makes Camp Crystal Lake fun and fabulous.
A staple of the drag scene in Provincetown and Puerto Vallarta, Miss Conception is beloved for her drag show as a party with rapid-fire delivery, quick wit, a charm that is enchanting, and perhaps her signature schtick, her impressive and beloved costume changes as a comedic element as well as device of awe. In Scream Kweeen, Miss Conception outdoes herself with a record number of costume swaps. In outfits designed and constructed by designer Jose Luis Casillas and Provincetown’s own Jonathan Joseph Peters, Miss Conception serves everyone from Wednesday Addams to Aunt Gladys to Freddy Krueger to poor little Drew Barrymore in Scream. And the rapidity in which she changes costumes, themes, and energy creates a rollicking evening with not one iota of downtime. And never once does she deliver anything but a performance full of the spirits, and a few demons, to raise the dead. Indeed, in this PG-13 show there are a few well-placed scares, but not to worry, as the takeaway is the feeling of being a kid at a slumber party squealing with delight as a brave friend says “Bloody Mary” in the bathroom mirror for the third time.
Written by Miss Conception and Jacques Lamarre with lyrical assistance from drag legend Sherry Vine, Scream Kweeen is both classic Miss Conception and her most demanding and delightful performance in recent years. She really pulled out the Ouija board to conjure up a perfect drag show, equal parts super entertaining takes on pop-culture and horror films put through the phantasmic prism of glitter and glamour. With all-live vocals, Miss Conception commands the room presenting clever, but never cliché takes on The Exorcist, Jaws, Hocus Pocus, Psycho, Beetlejuice, and more. Scream Kweeen, as its spelling would indicate, is also wonderfully gay as hell, taking a genre already teeming with gay subtext to another level on the Kinsey Scale. If you always wanted to see a queerer version of A Nightmare on Elm Street or Silence of the Lambs, make a queen beeline to the Art House.
Scream Kweeen is at the Art House, 214 Commercial St., Friday at 5:30 p.m., Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday at 9 p.m. and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. now through September 12. Tickets ($35/$45) are available at the box office and online at thearthouseptown.com. For more information call 442.274.4565.
