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Photos Ann Wood
Dorina, the star of Boosical in one of her many personae with Chonga her chorus boy (top). Dorina turns up the volume with her fruit-festooned Lucy (bottom). |
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Stranger than friction
'Boozical the Musical' won't rub you the wrong way
Ann Wood
BANNER STAFF
A woman in a straightjacket and face gear a la Hannibal Lector, high heels and sexy stockings beneath, is carried on stage and dropped in front of a microphone by a large man dressed in hospital garb.
Suddenly, this big voice behind the mask begins belting out a Madonna tune which quickly becomes Ozzy Osborne's 'Crazy Train' - albeit with lyrics reminiscent of Weird Al Yankovic.
It's Dorina, and she's the star of the show 'Boozical the Musical,' which plays at 9:07 p.m. 'sharp' on Friday at Esther's, 186 Commercial St., Provincetown. Tickets are $5 and are available at the door.
Dorina promises an evening of 'insanity and bitchy viciousness' and mentions her 'hospitalizations,' 'interventions' and 'involuntary commitment.' But the show is not really what she, or the title 'Boozical' promises. Rather, it's spoof on songs from Cher to Liza to Elton - and their personae - with many costume changes to boot (the Lucille Ball, replete with a huge fruit hat, is among our favorites).
Dorina pulls it off well. She's pretty and funny and has an amazing vocal range. Her Madonna-like body doesn't hurt, either.
But it is her brother, Billy Collins, a stand-up comic, who wrote 99 percent of the show, which Dorina improvises somewhat.
Collins takes tickets at the door and says that he was doing much of the material himself, but realized it would go over better with a 'cute little girl doing this stuff than my doing it.' Collins loves that his sister performs the show, loves watching her on stage, and glows that she's 'fearless.'
'It's almost better when things go wrong,' he says, admitting that most of the material is song spoofs. 'Once I started writing those, the act just came together.'
Although it's her show, Dorina's not really alone on stage. She's got a chorus boy.
'I could only afford one, so I brought a big one,' Dorina muses. 'I'm hip. I opened the show with an Ozzy Osbourne song. You can't get any hipper than that.'
She swigs vodka martinis, constantly refilled from a Smirnoff bottle, between songs. 'Just a little bit of lubrication,' she says with all sincerity, starting in on 'All That Jazz.'
Chunga the chorus boy, tuxedoed, takes over the show singing, 'Dorina is a girl's best friend ... Guys that can't blow her/still want to know her... She wears a zero/ She is my hero.' A funny song and good number, it makes 'Boozical' a little confusing and stops the flow because later Dorina talks about her husband and kids.
But the number does allow her time to make a significant costume change. Dorina returns as Madonna's Material Girl.
Then comes Cher. When some gay patrons leave for their dinner table, Dorina says, 'I gave you Cher [and] you can't stay?'
Dorina's a high-energy ham. She talks on staying up late and watching 'Dick at Nite,' and its sitcoms 'Father Knows Breasts' and 'Pork and Mindy.'
'Those are the ones the kids come up with,' she grins.
When the show ends, Dorina will allow you a memory of it. If you want to have your picture taken with her, she's game. Well, at least her cardboard cut-out is. A free Polaroid can be yours.
'So that you can bring me home with you and you don't have to put me in a cab the next morning,' she says.
That may be cheaper, but we doubt it would be as much fun.
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Provincetown Banner News
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Feb 4th, 2010