Preview: Out On The Edge Festival

Annual "Out On The Edge" Festival
Roberts Studio, in the Calderwood Pavilion
Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston
Through November 8, Various Times
$20 to $48
Website | Tickets

The Theater Offensive hosts their 17th annual festival of queer theater. If you asked our truck-driving Teamster uncle, he'd say all theater is "queer"; but there is a distinction. For the next few weeks, an array of LGBT performers pass through town to makes laugh, think, grin, and gasp in all sorts of ways. Abe Rybeck, Theater Offensive's artistic director told the Globe a couple years ago, "If someone gets offended by our work, I promise it will be the most fun they have getting offended."

"Nut/Cracked": October 23 to October 26

Even Tchaikovsky would have gotten a kick out of this hilarious twist on his beloved "Nutcracker". David Parker and The Bang Group irreverently refashion the classic ballet to include some fresh elements, including some tap dancing. This production was a big hit at last year's festival and the cast members return with a few new tricks up their sleeves--or down their tights.

"Varla Jean Merman Loves A Foreign Tongue": October 28 to November 1

Varla Jean Merman is an internationally loved drag queen with a beautiful singing voice and raunchy sense of humor. For fans of Project Runway, she was the pink-suited sassy redhead channeling Ann-Margret. Globetrotting Varla Jean stops by to entertain us with bawdy songs, kooky observations, and tales of "international encounters." She'll be joined by tenor Mark Cortale.

"Miss America": October 31 to November 2

Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver (of longtime force in queer theater, Split Britches Lesbian Feminist Theatre Company) deliver the New England premiere of their new show. The duo navigate through performance pieces and inhabit various personae to examine the state of the American Dream visiting topics like beauty pageants to natural disasters along the way.

"Wake The F@#k Up America": November 5 to November 8

This is our favorite title of this year's lineup. Winnie, Trixie, Rachel, and Trampolina are The Kinsey Sicks, also known as "America's Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet." Sit back and pretend to be the studio audience of their morning television program, full of hysterical parody songs and some different "views" than another quartet of TV chatters.

Photo by from The Kinsey Sicks website.