Case Closed: The Dorian Corey Story is at the Gene Frankel Theatre in NYC.
Lady Bunny just saw the production and gives WOW Report readers her review below…
“I caught Case Closed: The Dorian Corey Story last night and thoroughly enjoyed it! This isn’t Paris Is Burning-era Dorian…
Most of the action takes place in pre-Stonewall 1967. As many know, Miss Corey passed away from AIDS at age 56 in the 1993, and afterwards a mummified body was found in her apartment, wrapped in vinyl and doused with baking soda.
The diva had already made a name for herself in Jenny Livingston‘s documentary by spouting sage advice from her boudoir, but exhuming this body landed her on the cover of New York magazine and had people buzzing all over again.
Werk, mummy! Then the questions arose: Who was this corpse? Dorian’s lover? Had she done it? Did no one notice the smell?
Case Closed answers all of these questions. And claims that Dorian, born in 1937, was the first trans woman to ever get breast implants! The actor (Scott Weston) portraying Miss Corey looks a lot like her–has her face, body, gestures. He’s also mastered her grand, if world-weary, voice.
Dorian’s roommate Velma (Isaac Dean) is a real scene-stealer, an energetic performer full of all the reads and sass you’d expect in a Harlem drag queen’s home.
The whole cast is great, and includes the horse-hung junkie who is Dorian’s love interest who gets killed off, along with a sexy Latino hustler wearing a jockstrap while entertaining johns.
Of course, I had to avert my eyes away from such wanton filth...
And no, that wasn’t drool coming from my mouth–this Lady had literally burst into tears at the sight of this depravity! The first act effectively conjures up a rarified world with quirky characters in it, and definitely leaves you wanting more.
Velma is delightfully incorrigible as she flirts with the hunky policeman who’s trying to interrogate her. When he roughs her up? The kinky bitch loves it!
The second act is too long–the show’s total running time is 2 and 1/2 hours–and it gets bogged down with an odd, lengthy scene which finds the cast observing a traditional seder, since one of Dorian’s misfit charges is Jewish. One is a young white twink from Georgia by way of Port Authority who’s soon dressing in drag. Another is an older gay male who got picked up by police at a raid and is now sobering up with DTs.
This play is a based on an episode in Dorian’s life, but how loosely?
We know that Dorian was the mother of the ballroom scene’s House of Corey, but was she really running a halfway house with six inmates?
Could be! The playwright (Jeffrey S. Jones) interviewed the real-life queen upon which the roommate character “Velma” is based, after John LaFleur introduced him to her as someone who’d known Dorian from way back. And if you even know who 1980s drag promoter/Liz Taylor look-a-like John La Fleur is, I suspect you’ll gag over this show as much as I did.
One nice surprise is that so much of the comedy works well, and had the fairly full Wednesday night audience giggling throughout.
So while I was impressed by the snappy writing and performances, the story sometimes veers into an R-rated Three’s Company-like territory. I love Three’s Company! But since serious moments were downplayed in favor of laughs, the audience is not as engaged in the plot as much as we could’ve been. Let’s just say it’s more comedy than thriller.
And it was so long that we were about to storm the stage and knock Robert Worley off ourselves…so the night could–forgive me–‘wrap up.’ I would’ve been thrilled to see a scene of the bizarre mummification process, since that chapter has “preserved” interest in Dorian from beyond her grave.
This mysterious body also inspired a storyline in the 2019 Butterfly/Cocoon episode of Pose.
I don’t want my mild critiques scare anyone away from seeing it–I totally recommend this show.
I’m a big fan of Dorian’s, and Weston’s uncanny likeness, speech and mannerisms do make this beloved, off-beat diva spring back to life for a few hours. And as with Paul Alexander‘s delightful musical Trinkets, about voguing on the piers in the 1990s, it’s nice to see NYC underground culture springing back to life once again at this cute, East Village venue.
See it!”
Case Closed: The Dorian Corey Story at The Gene Frankel Theatre through Oct 10th at 8PM. Get your tickets here.
(Photos, Nick Starichenko)
