DelmarVANow.com – Staff Writer
Television viewers may enjoy watching ABC’s new celebrity impersonators show, “The Next Big Thing,” but Rehoboth Beach has hosted a master of the craft for close to a decade now.
Christopher Peterson takes the stage of the ballroom at the Atlantic Sands Hotel & Conference Center on the boardwalk every Friday though Sunday. For approximately 70 minutes per evening, he portrays the likes of Liza Minelli, Bette Davis and Cher. Instead of taking breaks or intermissions, he changes wigs between songs right in front of the audience.
This is his third, and possibly final, season at the hotel. It booked him in 2005 after his former venue, the gay nightclub the Renegade, was torn down by developers. That club’s owners had discovered him in Key West, Fla., where he still performs each winter with the help of his stage manager (and partner of 23 years), James Mill. Peterson’s career got a national boost in 2001 when he landed a scene-stealing cameo opposite Cuba Gooding Jr. in the comedy movie “Rat Race.”