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Photo Bob Gruen
Tammy Faye Starlite is a different kind of celestial singer who’s a little bit angel and a little bit devil depending on what orifice is controlling the conversation. |
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Aiming a bright Starlite at the religious right
Sue Harrison
Banner Staff
How can a show be reviewed when none of the lyrics in its songs can be printed due to their very adult and provocative content? In the case of Tammy Faye Starlite’s “Born Again Again,” there is still plenty to say about her high-octane performance, over-the-top persona and odd premise: a reformed drug addict and alcoholic, this country-and-western singer finds deliverance and establishes a most unusual relationship with Jesus.
“Born Again Again” shows at 10 p.m. Thursday through Sunday at the UU Meetinghouse, 236 Commercial St. Tickets are $20.
Pre-show Starlite hits the street dressed in white to promote her show. While a barker with a deep Southern accent calls out to passersby, she wanders waif-like and silent through the crowd, stopping to rest her head on a passing man’s chest or assuming an arms-outstretched crucifixion-like pose in the middle of Commercial Street while a Volvo station wagon approaches cautiously. Her bleached white hair billows like a halo and she smiles beatifically while her barker promises all sorts of personal redemption — even relief from mosquitoes — for everyone who attends the show. Plus, he says, “We are going to have some fun with the religious right tonight.” That may be an understatement.
Starlite is the product of actress and performance artist Tammy Lang from New York City. On stage the country diva reappears in a harlot-red chiffon dress showing cleavage all the way down to salvation. The setup is an appearance by Starlite on radio station KKOK to promote her latest CD and reveal the wondrous story of her return to the Lord after a lengthy period of sin laced liberally with alcohol and drugs.
The KKOK DJ (Jeff Ward) tries to keep Starlite on course for her live interview. She’s been released from rehab but big chunks of her mind may not have come with her.
On the other side of the stage sitting on a stool, her guitar player Jim Rob Gandy (Keith Hartel), who is also Starlite’s former husband twice removed and a reformed “ho-mo-sexual” saved (maybe) from a life of sin by her, umm, charms. He’s adorable and is the right low key foil for her as he looks earnestly in her direction and plays hokey country riffs on his guitar.
The show is a romp through intertwined messages of country music and the religious right punctuated with down and dirty songs about having sex with Jesus, incest, child abuse, and much more, delivered angelically by Starlite. Women don’t really have a choice, she intones as she launches into “a song in the key of A for abortion, ‘God Has Lodged a Tenant in My Uterus.’”
The show doesn’t let up as she continually leaps up from her interview chair to belt out another amazing song (all written by Tammy Lang with input from Michael Schiralli and Eric Drysdale) about another impossible topic.
She lambasts the sinners in the audience, which is everyone, and asks sweetly if there are any Jews in the room? “You are going straight to hell,” she says with a smile. She chastises the Catholics, Buddhists, Muslims and any faith other than fundamentalist Christian sects. Gay men get a verbal slapping for taking it doggie style and are assured that God will condemn them to eternal damnation. And let’s not forget her brand new eighth husband Elbow (please, don’t ask) and an explanation of just exactly what the rapture really is.
“Born Again Again” premiered this spring at the off-Broadway Ars Nova Theatre and moved on to Joe’s Pub at the New York Public Theater before beginning its Provincetown run. Starlite is the darling of many New York critics and it’s easy to see why.
artseditor@provincetownbanner.com
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Clinton does it all
In the Arts
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Aug 18th, 2005