A GORGEOUS SHOW!
Make Me Gorgeous! is the reworking of Mr. Madam by Donald Horn (aka Donnie) that premiered in Portand, Oregon, at triangle — one the oldest queer-identified theaters in the US — starring triple-threat Wade McCollum as Kenneth/Kate Marlowe. It now has a new name, but the same playwright and actor have brought the fascinating story to NYC. With the encouragement of the Tony Award-winning playwright of Memphis Joe DiPietro and many others, the show opened last week and it’s one of the best off-Broadway shows happening right now. The limited run is thru December 31, 2023 (watch for extensions). Playhouse 46 at St. Luke‘s is a great venue with bar — the stadium seating plus tables create a cabaret-esque scene.
This one-person show, based upon a true story, is taken from several books by Kenneth aka Kate Marlowe, who has been described as one of the gayest and most openly homosexual personalities of the late 50s and early 60s. Make Me Gorgeous! is the fabulous and incredible story of Marlowe, an oft-overlooked trailblazer in LGBTQ history.
Marlowe took on many roles in life. Kenneth was private hairdresser to the stars; the madam of a notorious gay prostitution ring in Hollywood; an author; a hustler; a female impersonator; a private in the U.S. Army, a call boy; a Christian missionary, a mortuary cosmetologist; a newspaper columnist … and for the final decade of an incredibly lived life, Marlowe was a woman, having transitioned to become Kate Marlow.
In July 2010 a thread on Facebook touching on Kenneth Marlowe, writer Armistead Maupin added this comment: “I met Kenneth Marlow in 1972 when he was in the process of becoming Kate Marlowe. He threw a fundraising Big Band dance at which Sally Rand (then 70) performed her famous Fan Dance under a VERY DIM blue bulb. He called the evening ‘The Ball to End All Balls.’ When I interviewed her later (Kate) she told me she’d grown up in a whorehouse in Winnemucca, Nevada. I’m not at all sure if that was true but it was a fascinating detail, so I appropriated it for Anna Madrigal in Tales of the City.”
photos of Wade McCollum in Make Me Gorgeous! by Maria Baranova
Make Me Gorgeous!
Playhouse 46 at St. Luke’s, 308 W 46th Street
ends on December 31, 2023
for tickets ($39; $89 table seating; $129 VIP), visit Gorgeous Play
VIP package includes premium table, 2 free drinks, and an exclusive merchandise item
The real Kenneth Marlowe
Two panels from The Delicate World of Kenneth Marlowe, one of two cartoon books self-published in 1966
In 1964 he published his famous autobiography Mr. Madam: Confessions of a Male Madam.
The original book cover, and a later edition.
