Jordi Gassó Photo
Barbra Streisand, Tina Turner and Judy Garland walked into a bar.
It wasn’t the premise of an old-timey joke. It was the lively conclusion to PRIDE Weekend, a four-day celebration of queer life in New Haven revived after a two-year hiatus.
Streisand, Turner, and Garland — or rather their drag doppelgängers — took the stage Sunday during a boozy brunch at the Lucky Chao restaurant on Temple Street.
For three hours, the mimosas kept flowing, the chatter escalated, the smell of bacon and deviled eggs imbued the air. The main attraction, however, went beyond the buffet or the bottomless supply of alcohol. Thanks to a glamorous bevy of drag queens, guests also got an electric dose of cabaret-style entertainment.
The brunch was the icing on the proverbial cake after a festive PRIDE Weekend of a magnitude New Haven had yet to see since its first pride event in 1998.
“This was the best party we’ve ever had,” said Robb Bartolomeo, owner of Empire Nightclub and chairman emeritus of PRIDE New Haven. “This weekend has seen a lot of firsts.”
Performer Robin Banks (at right in photo) emceed the Sunday spectacle with distinctive irreverence. She began by asking those in the audience to reveal, by a show of hands, whether they had ever before attended a drag show. A sizable majority raised their arms.
The show kicked off with a slapstick routine between Banks, as Judy Garland, and Barbra Joan Streetsand performing “Be My Guest” and “Happy Days Are Here Again” — a light, nostalgic introduction to drag, so to speak.
Ms. Streetsand (pictured) then had the spotlight all to herself, lip-syncing the Broadway standard “Don’t Rain On My Parade.”
Nancy Cooper, Streetsand’s co-worker, had come to Lucky Chao from Waterbury with family and friends. She was one of the few who didn’t raise her hand earlier. She said she was impressed by Streetsand (whose actual name is Tony) and the brio in his drag persona, despite the fact he was under the pall of laryngitis that afternoon.
“I’m getting what I expected,” Cooper said of her first drag show. “It’s great. There’s so much energy.”
Performances took a more ribald turn with the appearance of Princess Diandra (pictured at the top of the story), a New York-based artist channeling her inner Tina Turner with high-octane jocularity. She accentuated her medley of songs with gyrating hips and high-jump kicks, stepping off the stage to collect her tips and straddle the lap of some unsuspecting innocents.
Afterwards, Princess Diandra cheered on her fellow entertainers as she sipped from a champagne flute at her table. A regular at pride gatherings around the country, she deemed the New Haven iteration a singular triumph — “absolutely its own incarnation.”
She snapped her fingers while a performer onstage swayed to the tune of Stephanie Mills.
“I love it when a queen feels it, and then delivers,” she told the Independent. “You gotta bring it.”
Audience members, from college students to retirees, juggled their duties as eaters, drinkers and tippers with ease and revelry. Joseph Moscato (at left in photo with his partner) likened the merry mood of the brunch to “the feeling of being with family.” He showed pictures on his phone of him carrying his twin niece and nephew, a pair of smiling blonde toddlers, at the block party on Crown Street a day earlier.
Librarian Kevin Merriman, at the restaurant with his two pals, said he joined the trek up East Rock Park organized by the CT Pride Hikers collective on Saturday morning, where he got to know people he wouldn’t have met otherwise.
“It’s nice to do something with the gay community during the day, something that’s not in a bar,” he said.
Pride in New Haven has come a long way since its inception, evolving from one event into a multi-day celebration. During a cigarette break, Bartolomeo (pictured) reminisced about his role throughout this 16-year trajectory. The muffled yet sensual sounds of drag queens acting out “Lady Marmalade” could be heard from inside.
Bartolomeo’s vision is for pride events in the city to endure beyond his involvement. This past weekend, he said, has breathed new life into the scene and forged a strong nucleus of organizers, which gives him hope for a larger, bigger PRIDE Weekend next year.
“Pride rejuvenates the community,” he said. “It gives people a sense of can-do.”
Sunday’s brunch represented a dual culmination: a pay-off from hard work and a rousing good time. For local bartender Sheila Hassan (pictured), it was also a personal occasion. She broke into tears as her friend, Tiana Maxim, gave a passionate rendition of Beyoncé‘s “Halo.”
It wasn’t the drinks and the food that brought her out to Lucky Chao, she said, but a guiding sense of solidarity.
Then she added, after collecting herself: “And all the love, too.”
