Gettin’ girlie at the Boom

Suzie Harrison

They were gorgeous with perfect, tall, lean bodies, beautiful hair

and makeup, wearing the most glamorous couture -- they were dream

girls. One had to wonder if these women were too good to be true.

Waiting for the three beauties to make their entrance on stage,

the crowd was filled with anticipation. It was time, the house lights

dimmed and before a single sequin could be seen, the announcer

encapsulated the magic of the show in one sentence.

“Open your eyes, you’ve come to a place where the most beautiful

girls ... are men, welcome to the ‘Dream Girls Revue.’”

From the moment the show started, it was clear it was all about

fun at the weekly Wednesday night drag show at Laguna’s Boom Boom

Room.

From backstage to onstage, Hunter, the emcee, transformed from a

good-looking blond-haired man to a gorgeous blond model-type.

“We are here to have fun tonight,” Hunter said.

Adding that the main rule of the evening is that everyone has to

put out a lot of energy and participate.

The female impersonators performed everything from Cher to Marilyn

Manson, even Madonna and Barbie.

Chad Michaels is one of the talented performers who has years of

experience as an actor and has performed in many prestigious shows in

places such as Las Vegas. But the “Dream Girls Revue” is now his home

base.

Some of his highlights, he said, was touring in England and South

America, giving a private performance for Elton John, meeting and

performing with Cher and performing on stage with Cyndi Lauper.

“I appear in the ‘Cher E True Hollywood Story’ and will be in an

upcoming VH1 special, which will come out in a couple of months,”

Michaels said.

He also is a part of a biography special on Cher, which plays on A

& E.

He said that the first time he saw himself in drag he looked

forward to the kind of career he could make of it.

“It’s not a kink or a fetish,” Michaels said. “It takes me to

places I never would have gone, and I’ve met people all because what

I do for a living.”

Michaels said female impersonation is a character study.

“You’re an actor and you study your role, your character,”

Michaels said. “You get to know their movements, their gestures, how

they hold their mouth, how they look and the way they walk.”

They watch videos, listen to their music, collect pictures and

study their character in any way they can. He even has a scrapbook so

he can study the makeup. He said each time the character performs,

their makeup, hair and wardrobe is different.

His best audience response is when he is Celine Dion, Manson and

Cher.

“I look the most like them and it really makes the audience go,

‘ohhhhhhh,’” Michaels said. “It takes an hour to an hour and a half

of doing makeup before the show, with changes in-between the numbers

to look more like the character.”

Hunter is what the industry calls Michaels’ “drag mom” and he acts

as his mentor.

“I am Chad’s ‘drag mother,’ it’s when you take someone else under

your wing,” Hunter said. “There aren’t any books and not a lot of

examples to learn how. My pat line is ‘pretty boys make pretty girls

and the rest of us have to wear more makeup.’”

Another thing he likes to say is that “Cover Girl does not cover

boy.”

“I have been acting for 23 years and doing drag for 15 years,

which is kind of rough when I claim to be 21,” Hunter said.

He explained that his name is legally just Hunter.

Hunter got interested in female impersonation after eight years of

singing and acting.

“I was at the wrong show and I told a friend that I could do

better at a drag show,” Hunter said. “It became a dare thing. I had

to put my pumps where my mouth was.”

Two weeks later, he was in his first show and he became hooked.

“It started paying the bills and I got to choose this over other

careers,” Hunter said. “I realized I didn’t want to stand behind a

salon chair.”

He knew he couldn’t be both a stylist and do drag.

Some of the characters Hunter does are Annie Lennox, Judy Garland,

Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, Prince, Liza Minnelli, Madonna,

Paula Abdul, Cher, Sinade O’Connor and Barbie.

“Chad was the first Celine Dion and I was the first Britney Spears

and Christina Aguilera on a professional level,” Hunter said. “I was

the first to do Barbie, she is an icon but no one tends to think of

her in that sense.”

Hunter explained that every female impersonator needs to learn to

do their own hair, makeup and costuming and even music editing.

The cost can be as outrageous as the stars themselves.

“For drag, it’s pretty much a different cost for every single

number,” Hunter said. “Chad probably has different Cher costumes.”

He said that drag can tend to become a culmination of their own

life experiences.

Neither Michaels nor Hunter have drag names as some female

impersonators do.

“I didn’t want to have to answer to a girls name,” Hunter said. “I

am a man in a dress, not a girl.”

Hunter has an impressive resume in drag. He has won many

prestigious awards and has plenty of favorite moments.

“I was on the MTV Video Music Awards in ’99 and appeared with

Madonna,” Hunter said. “I earned my Screen Actors Guild card in a

movie with Jean Smart and Robert Wagner called ‘Forever Fabulous.’”