NewYorkBlade.com
Beverly Kills? lampoons L.A., nude revues, crazed divas
Writer and director Damion Dietz?s ?Beverly Kills? is a John Waters-esque riotous romp through the demented and rancorous mind of washed-up drag actress Beverly Jackson (Gary Kelley).
In Hollywood, the town of high-flying dreams and low-rent hustlers, the Pride Playhouse is putting on a brand new musical titled ?Balls Out,? one of the endless all-nude singing reviews so popular with the undersexed set.
Beverly, in a rat?s nest of a blond wig and Baby Jane makeup, arrives for an audition with a handwritten r?sum? and begins her song. The directors understandably dismiss her, and later that night under the skilled hands of a masseur/escort (Tony Sora), she decides to start a cult and wreak havoc on the heartless entertainers of Tinseltown.
Kelley?s performance as the monomaniacal queen is liberally spiced with crazed divas of yesteryear. Faye Dunaway?s Joan Crawford, Bette Davis? suspense camp years and the drag goddess Divine seem thrown into the mix, but he also adds his own zany take on the role, crafting an overwrought, whacked-out icon worthy of adulation.
Beverly attracts followers by culling the misfits of L.A., who aren?t too hard to find. The motley crew consists of a virtually mute hottie named Strip (Craig Lucas), a young blond bombshell who hopes for stardom named Hector (the hilariously loony Jill Pappas) and a handful of other weirdoes.