Drag icon, DJ, comedian, and self-described “big ham” Lady Bunny is back on tour, and this time she’s kicking open the stage door of the Great White Way. With her new musical parody extravaganza, Bunny Butchers Broadway!, she fearlessly fuses classic showtunes with her own irreverent spin. But don’t mistake the bawdiness for pure camp, Bunny’s biting cultural commentary and political humor slice just as deep as her parodies. Between skewering billionaires, saluting drag legends and joking about her “jealousy” over Jinkx Monsoon’s Broadway wins, Lady Bunny proves once again that no stage or diva is safe.
From childhood roles in Shakespeare to DJing dance floors around the world, Bunny has never been shy about doing things her own way. Now, she sits down with us to dish on why she loves making audiences clutch their pearls, how she cooks up a good parody, and why she’s still jealous of Patti LuPone.
So let me talk to you about the new show. I’m a theater girl, so it made me very excited to hear that you’re taking on Broadway. What inspired you to take on the Great White Way this time around?
Well, you know, I sing “Rose’s Turn” from Gypsy in quite a few of my shows – it is a parody of “Rose’s Turn”, but I think one thing that carries a song is that people like the way I sing it. I’ve had show tune queens who are fans come to my shows and be like, “Oh, when I heard the opening strains of ‘Rose’s Turn’, I was like, Bunny, don’t.” But then, you know, it actually worked.
And actually, long before Lady Bunny was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I was a child actor in local theater performances. My dad taught at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, so when they needed a brat to come and play someone in Oliver or Shakespeare or whatever, they would call me and so I always assumed that I would be an actor. Then when I grew up, I realized I wanted to be an actress!
I did so many plays for years when I was a kid, and of course, I’m a great big ham, one that you can’t get off the stage and that you literally need a hook for. But, they cast me as a straight baseball player in Our Town when I was in my first year of college. And I said, girl, you couldn’t convince anybody that you were straight in school. If you could, you wouldn’t have been beaten up. No, I didn’t get beat up. I mean, why are you going to start trying to play straight now? You’re an 18-year-old queen. Why is that challenging to you in any way that you can butch it up? I said I’d rather get into drag and create my own character, create my own script, usually direct it myself and choose my own songs, you know?
Speaking of your songs, what is your process for turning Broadway classics into your own parodies?
Well, I have really stuck with the classics, both new and more recent classics, so there’s everything from Gypsy to West Side Story to Cabaret on the classics front and then there’s newer stuff like The Greatest Showman, Wicked and Dreamgirls.
I’ve always had a love affair with Broadway. I just don’t have the discipline for it. It’s eight shows a week. And unless your name is above the title like Audra McDonald or Patti LuPone it may not pay that well. What I’m admitting is that I’m lazy, but you’ve already seen my shows!
Do you have a favorite out of the songs that you’ve put together for this show?
Well, yes, and it is “Beauty and the Beast” turned into “Pussy and the Yeast”, which is absolutely disgusting, but I’m sure it’s hilarious though. Well, you know what, I have been known to crack up during that number but there are songs from about 25 different musicals, some in the medley format. And then I do a couple of my own songs. I have one song I wrote about Elon Musk, which can be called controversial or far left or whatever you want to say, but. I think I could agree with a lot of people, both Democrat and Republican, that say let’s not have somebody working with the White House giving Nazi salutes at public events.
Regardless of how you feel about billionaires or cutting stuff from the government, like Doge, you know, was wanting to do. I’m a big government leftie, so I want higher taxes on the rich so that we can afford Medicare for all and that social security won’t go broke. I don’t want the actual richest people in the world running – and I think a lot of Democrats have hit upon that. Now that they will fault Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and even Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook and Instagram, Meta’s owner. I agree with all that but I think billionaires will influence both Republicans and Democrats until we get money out of our elections. Let’s have grassroots candidates funded by the people for the people, and that’s as revolutionary as I’m going to get.
Well, you poke fun at pop culture and you have taken a couple jabs politically but is there a line that you wouldn’t cross or is that part of the fun of it?
There’s a lot of comedy clubs on this tour, and they’re there for the sick stuff. I mean, you know, this, it’s true. It’s not a drag queen story hour. This is where alcohol is served. It’s adults and, you know, comedy can be quite rough and I think that’s what they’re there for. I mean, I never try to pass myself off as PG or PC, you know? I think after all this time, people know that I’m going to step over a few lines.
You’ve joked about some of the queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race in the past. What is your favorite part about playfully skewering your fellow queens?
Well, sometimes you just have to say what everyone’s thinking and that will give you all a giggle. That said, the best jokes are rooted in truth because there’s an element of truth to them. Not rooted in truth, but an element of truth in in them. But you know, I’m just not as prissy as some people; and if I’m on stage with Bianca Del Rio and seven other queens and she wants to single me out. She’s going to call me the old fat one. I mean, I think we could relax when it comes to humor a lot more.
We’ve seen a lot more drag performers in Broadway roles. How do you feel about Jinkx and Marcia taking parts on Broadway now?
Well, that’s why I’m doing this show. I’m extremely jealous of Jinkx Monsoon, Alex Newell Cole Escola, and everyone else who’s been on Broadway. Willam was on Off Broadway. Bianca had a West End walk-on in Everyone’s Talking About Jamie. It wasn’t a walk-on…I’m kidding…in Everyone’s Talking About Jamie – and after they saw it, everyone was talking about how Bianca can’t act or sing!
Listen, I saw Jinkx and was rooting for her in Chicago. Apparently, out of all the guests that they’ve had in – including Pamela Anderson – I think Jinkx brought in the most people. And she was so good in it, and it was really typecasting because Jinkx has always had trouble with Roxxxy…Andrews! That was just a Chicago joke, just warming up…and the other thing is I have a lot in common with Patti LuPone.
How so?
Neither one of us look good dressed as a woman!
So anyway, this is why I’m doing this show. I want to do it in New York. But first, like a real Broadway show, I’m going to try it out all over the country and do an out-of-town tryout and nail it before I get in front of those vicious queens because, you know, Broadway and show tunes and the Tonys is a lifestyle for some people. But because a lot of this show is parodies, you have to know a song that someone’s parodying so I didn’t go really, really out there and do obscure stuff. This is Wicked, Dreamgirls, The Greatest Showman, Gypsy and West Side Story – stuff that’s very well known.
If you had the opportunity to actually be in a Broadway show, would you, and what role would you want to play?
Well, the difficult thing for me is that I have to play against type, because at 63 I am still so damn sexy. They just don’t write roles for mature cougars. I’m kidding. Well, I mean, some people might look at me and say, well, the Divine role, the Harvey Fierstein role in Hairspray. But I don’t know if I could do that role justice. Also, I think Harvey had the perfect voice for it. He really did. It was just so grating and insane and the look was fantastic. I wish I had that on, on the tip of my tongue…the starring vehicle for me. What would I like to sing? I don’t know if it would be a traditional Broadway role because they ain’t trying to cast me in one anyway!
Now are you still doing your DJ sets?
Oh, yes.
Are there any artists now that are worthy of being part of one of your sets?
Sure. Alex Newell has a brilliant song that a drag queen in Boston named Misery turned me onto. If everyone doesn’t know Alex Newell, he sings just like a girl. He was on Glee as the trans character, a plus-sized diva with a huge, huge voice. Alex has a song called “Kill the Lights”, which is actually produced by Chic’s Nile Rodgers, who also produced Madonna, David Bowie and Sister Sledge. I play that every chance I get. It was from the soundtrack of Vinyl.
I also like Jennifer Hudson a lot, she has done some dance stuff that is overlooked in my opinion like “Go All Night”. It was a hit about five years ago. But you know, everything she does is fantastic. It’s thrilling to me. I don’t like to see her on a talk show. I’m sure she’ll make more, make more money than gigging out of town. But girl, you’re supposed to be singing. She’s electrifying live too. It’s not just one of those that has the voice and stands there. She’s giving it to you with backup dancers. She’s got the razzmatazz of a drag queen and the voice of a of an angel.
Between the music, the comedy, and your activism, you’ve worn a lot of wigs and hats over the years. What is next for you after this tour?
Who knows? Everything seems a little tentative and up in the air because the economy’s been bad for a while. People are a little scared, just it’s depressed spending because people don’t know what’s exactly what’s around the corner.
We’ve been having inflation for quite a while. I mean, it’s been going on all over the world for quite a while. I don’t know that I would blame any particular president – Biden or Trump – but it certainly hasn’t gotten better under Trump. And Trump campaigned on a better economy, I think, got into office and said, well, tackling the inflation’s going to be hard and it’s going to take a while. I mean, I had my first $17 sandwich in New York City the other night and it was good, but it’s basically something in between two pieces of bread – and so I’m going on this tour to sing for my supper. And guess what? Sometimes I eat two suppers, so I’m going to be doing a lot of singing. But, first, I’ve got to make it all work.
I never knew this world of comedy clubs existed…and the truth is that a lot of people talk about preserving the queer safe spaces, like the nightclubs and all this stuff, but they’re on Grindr. They’re not going out anymore and sometimes it’s women who come out and see our shows, so it’s like, you can’t say don’t abandon the queer spaces as you’re abandoning them.
But comedy clubs are places where Bob the Drag Queen, Monét X Change and a bunch of other people have been playing. And Latrice has a one woman show that’s going to South Africa. It’s just kind of another venue for drag to flourish that I never knew existed. My act has always been more musical comedy than standup. If you want to see great standup, go to see Bianca. I’m a sit-down comedian!
Tickets for Bunny Butchers Broadway are available now through Voss Events. Keep up with Lady Bunny on Instagram, Facebook and her website.
