David Drake channels Tawny Heatherton
For a gal who toured with Bob Hope during his final USO gig, was a Hee-Haw Honey on the show’s last season and had a minor hit record during the waning days of disco, Tawny Heatherton should be one broken and bitter mess in a dress.
But as embodied by David Drake, Tawny’s a blonde-swept, optimistic nature girl who’s got a beam of genuine sunshine jetting forth from where the hole in her dark, defeated heart should be.
"She’s a survivor," says the Obie Award-winning writer and performer of "The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me," when asked to assess the temperament of his latest creation. "Tawny’s not bitter...ever. She sees the wonder in everything. She doesn’t even cuss in the show."
A love letter
That show-"My Tawny Valentine"-comes a little late in February, and a little too early in March, to qualify as a V-Day event. Think of it, then, as a love letter to the plucky spirit of a new sensation who was crafted on a whim (and with a wig). That happy accident ended up providing Drake with his second acting gig in five years (for the better part of the past decade, the Provincetown resident has been an in-demand NYC stage director and a Ptown theater teacher).
"It wasn’t premeditated," says Drake of Tawny’s humble birth. "It came out of a sense of play, when I was in Ptown last summer. Before that, I was in New York standing in for Charles Busch, in "The Divine Sister," he notes-tracing that 2011 gig back to his first brush with Busch. "I got my Equity card," he recalls, "doing ’Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.’ "
In that show, he followed Busch in the show’s long run and played some 856 performances. For "The Divine Sister," Drake filled in only half a dozen times (rarely with more than 45 minutes notice).
Loves ’Fag Bash’
While preparing to understudy for Busch and others in "Sister," the rehearsals lit a spark-even though it had been years since Drake was a regular presence on the stage ("Larry Kramer" still ranks as one of the longest-running shows in Off-Broadway history). On the rare nights he got the call to go on for Busch, "They were laughing...and I though, oh, I forgot how much I loved this. I had just put it on a shelf."
When "The Divine Sister" closed, Drake found himself back in Ptown-and on unemployment for the first time in his life. "I was 48," he notes, "and had never done that [unemployment]. I had been working since I was 16."
Drake whittled away at the summer of 2011 by going to the beach, hanging out with friends and "kooky locals" and regularly attending "Fag Bash," a weekly party at the Governor Bradford Hotel. "It’s down in the basement, in a room that’s got pool tables and lobster netting on the walls. It feels like your grandpa’s old bar in New England-but it’s filled with all these East Village types and locals. It’s not advertised to, or geared towards, tourists. There’s a lot of gender bending; Coquettes or Radical Faeries-type stuff. I’m not, technically, a Radical Faerie, but I’m fascinated by them."
In addition to that fascination, Drake also had a blonde wig he’d used for a brief stint, a few years back, as Cindy McCain. "I put it on to go to Fag Bash," he recalls. "I put it on backwards, and though, oh my gosh, I look just like Joey Heatherton. I’m her niece...Tawny. I didn’t even know I was creating a character. People just started projecting all these stories onto me."
A girlish innocence
They also wanted to hold her, laugh with her and yes, gently paw her. But even in those formative days, there was a clean, girlish innocence to Tawny that kept lechers at bay while attracting legions of fans. Soon, Tawny had a Facebook page and a cult following (and, thanks to some of Drake’s lesbian friends, an undercurrent of bi, hippie chick/nature girl energy).
Tawny’s connection to the earth, and the positive energy that flows from it, recalled Drake’s own childhood fascination with the natural world. "I though, she’s light, she’s positive... and I needed that. I’d been standing in the shadows for Charles for so long. I was happy, but I’d never done anything like that before. It was hard work, to always be ready and not go on week after week."
Soon, Drake had crafted a Ptown show for Tawny, comprised of monologues woven loosely around the four natural elements. Later, "A Very Tawny Christmas" was a big holiday hit. Mindful of the noble circle of life known as recycling, Drake notes, "So I’ve refashioned that material and added lots of news stuff [to create "My Tawny Valentine."]. It’s monologue-driven, but there are unexpected songs."
Trevor Kuprel contributed a few originals, and longtime Joan Rivers’ pianist, Lance Cruce, is the musical director. There are also tunes from The Talking Heads, Eurythmics and The Beatles. But don’t expect Tawny to give them profane alterations, as would a performer such as Jackie Beat.
"Tawny is totally a woman," Drake says of his take on drag. "I never step out of that. I don’t use her in that way. I’m using her to talk about spiritual things and sexual freedom. In terms of her positiveness, she always has that nature spirit. She’s happy and joyous and free, despite some obstacles in her life. She gets down, at the end of the show... but then, in comes this wave of love, and it’s available to you if you stay open to it."
"My Tawny Valentine" continues its run on Thursday, February 23 and March 1; Friday, February 24 & March 2. All shows, at 7:30pm. At The Laurie Beechman Theater (located inside West Bank Cafe, at 407 West 42nd Street, at Ninth Avenue). Tickets are $20 plus a $15 food/drink minimum (full dinner menu & bar available). To purchase tickets, call 212-352-3101 or visit www.SpinCycleNYC.com.
