"The Legend of Georgia McBride is the play to see this Pride," writes The Stranger. "Drag can be a powerful escapist experience that allows you to reinvent yourself on stage. To put on your rhinestone armor, and become someone braver and bolder and capable of doing things you never thought you could do."
"'Drag ain’t a hobby. Drag ain’t a night job. Drag is a protest. Drag is a raised fist inside a sequined glove,' Miss Anorexia Nervosa, aka Miss Rexy, says to burgeoning drag queen Casey near the end of ACT’s production of The Legend of Georgia McBride," begins's Seattle Weekly's review. "They are standing in the dressing room of a dive bar in a small town on the Florida Panhandle. Audience members sit surrounding the action, with plastic alligators, flamingos, and a swordfish wrapped in Christmas lights hanging above them. Budweiser and Coors signs buzz with neon electricity next to a sign that reads 'Cleo’s Elvis Live 2*Nite!' Welcome to Cleo’s, the entertainment home of Casey (the dynamic Adam Stadley), an Elvis impersonator-turned-drag queen with expert guidance from the sassy and spectacular Miss Tracy Mills (a vivacious Timothy McCuen Piggee). ACT’s clever, gender-bending production of Matthew Lopez’s play respects the legacy of drag, all appropriately complemented by eccentric scenic and costume design."
The Seattle Times says of the show's creative team "Director David Bennett probably has a Miss Tracy-style, iron-fist-in-velvet-glove voice, and has coaxed funny but flinty performances from the cast. Piggee is perfectly magisterial as Miss Tracy and Standley makes an excellent bug-eyed Casey, undergoing a metamorphosis he finds baffling. Bennett has a long résumé in Seattle theater, from big-budget musicals at the 5th Avenue Theatre to experimental solo shows to tense, blood-soaked fringe shows in basement theaters. Bennett brings his whole toolbox to “McBride,” marrying the jazz-hands cheesiness of musical theater (and, sometimes, drag) with more gut-churning, contemplative moments. Set designer Matthew Smucker also does a nice job, setting the mood with detritus like female mannequins littering some corners of the seating area and neon beer signs suspended around the room. (When I showed my ticket to an usher, she nodded and said: “Your aisle is right beneath the Coors beer sign.”)"
"Director David Bennett keeps the good times rolling with the help of a cluttered, ingeniously simple set by Matthew Smucker," writes Seattle Gay News. "The clutter is easily recognizable as a backstage area, and a couch rises and falls from the middle to sketch in the rundown rental that Casey and Jo live in. And when the lights (by Robert Aguilar) dim around the middle of the stage, you're instantly watching the stage performance in the club."
Talkin' Broadway claims "The in-the-round Allen Theatre space is perfectly utilized by scenic designer Matt Smucker, who must have done his drag club bar research in person to catch the reality of such an establishment to such a degree of accuracy."
"...the show is simply a good, GOOD time! If you find you're not rocking out and hooting and hollering for the girls up there then I question the existence of your pulse. And so, with my three-letter rating system, I give ACT's "The Legend of Georgia McBride" a fabulous YAY+. Strap on your heels, get out your feather boa and do not miss this one ... unless you're adverse to fun." Says Broadway World.
Tickets available here. Show closes July 2nd.