Everyone’s wearing the same suit, but you have that opportunity to present a little wink to those in the audience who need that particular message. Send me updates about Slate special offers. It’s really just a very basic act of me stepping into my queerness and owning it. This is not necessarily about me putting on another face. I was the kid with the purple hair in the second row.” And then I was like, Oh, OK. And he was like, “Hey, I just wanted to let you know how important it was for me to see a queer person onstage with one of my music idols. But then after a show in Brazil, a fan messaged me on Instagram. But with American Utopia, from the beginning, I was wearing makeup and I knew it wasn’t drag. No, she’s the kind of incredible trashy Jersey woman that I grew up with my whole life, that I worship. I wasn’t painting my true deep self on my face when I was doing Kimberly Clark. For Kim, the act of putting on makeup was always just a tool-just a way for me to get from Chris to Kim. What did your drag experience bring to the work you did in the show? You have a YouTube channel for Kimberly and you’ve been performing in that persona for a long time. The New Jersey–born Giarmo Zoomed with Slate from a brilliant pink room in his home in New Orleans, where he discussed drag, arch support, and bringing downtown art uptown.ĭan Kois: Whoa, what is this beautiful room you’re in? He’s a big part of making a show that’s quite serious-minded feel like a celebration as well. A downtown fixture who, like everyone in the cast, made his Broadway debut in American Utopia, Giarmo-along with his fellow dancer and vocalist Tendayi Kuumba-is onstage nearly every moment in the show, singing and performing Annie-B Parson’s unique choreography. Throughout the film, which premieres on HBO and HBO Max on Saturday, one performer really pops out: Chris Giarmo, whose sparkly eye shadow, expressive mustache, and precise dancing make him a kind of bedazzled counterpoint to his monochrome bandmates. In Spike Lee’s film of David Byrne’s American Utopia, an ensemble of 16 musicians and vocalists fill the stage of Broadway’s Hudson Theatre, moving freely around one another, all wearing identical gray suits.
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