On July 27, I caught up with one of the weekly Wednesday shows by Lavinia Draper, madcap persona of Susan Campanaro, who, assisted by DJ Steve Havoc, cuts quite a character.
Lavinia started—several times, in fact, after wrangling with the DJ—by singing “Good Morning, Heartache,” Billie Holiday’s blues song, and Barbra Streisand’s moody “Evergreen,” until the DJ decided he’d had enough of the song. She got down and dirty with Melissa Etheridge’s “I’m the Only One.”
Lavinia donned her pink feather boa for “Come to the Cabaret,” which she ended with a split, and continued her Kander and Ebb group with “Maybe This Time” and, from “Chicago,” “Nowadays.” Later, she trusted a plastic chair to support her through some athletic, acrobatic dancing in “Mein Herr” to raise money, she said, for a new pair of “hooker shoes,” having broken the ones she was wearing. Ariel Sinclair provided Lavinia with a fresh pair in time for Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance,” for which she encouraged audience sing-along.
“Fame” found Lavinia dancing on the bar and then having Kenny and Todd carry her to the stage. She looked at co-dependent relationships, embraced with “Open Arms,” commenting, “You think about killing yourself, but then you think, ‘Who will feed my cat?’” and, with the song from “Grease,” confessed, “There are worse things I could do.”
Singing, “Love him, touch him, and squeeze him,” Lavinia dragged a boy from the audience to the stage to dance with and to strip and, by the end of the song, had a different man on stage for a dance and strip. Her partner for “Bad Romance” proved not to be wearing underwear, providing an unanticipated preview of “Whip It Out Wednesday,” for which Lavinia claimed her act was the pre-show. She continued with Madonna’s “Spank me!”
Catch Lavinia Draper at the Ice Palace on Wednesdays at 9 p.m.