Reefer Madness satirizes the 1930s war on marijuana, but the country’s coming full circle with more states legalizing cannabis. If I were to open my own shop …
I would call it the Cheetah Den. It would be a wild safari themed animal print extravaganza of a of a head shop and a place to hang out. I love a desert decor. I have a place out in Joshua Tree, so it’d be a mix of Southwest and cowboy chic meets safari. Very comfy velour, animal prints, and leather chairs. I wear animal prints almost every day — it’s very soothing and sexy. If you see Reefer Madness, I’ve hidden little animal prints throughout the whole show. It’s just something I’ve been drawn to since I was a little kid.
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@queerty The critically acclaimed #ReeferMadness ♬ original sound – Queerty*
Old habits die hard. While Reefer Madness pokes fun at the dangers of marijuana, we all have our vices. Mine is _________, and I’m not giving it up any time soon …
Vintage shopping. Every single weekend I have to go to one of the many flea markets in LA. I’m continually collecting old pieces of clothing that turn into set pieces and props. It’s definitely a bad habit that I don’t ever see myself shaking. Our thrifting culture is really incredible here. The Rose Bowl Flea Market and the Melrose Trading Post are meccas for LA street fashion.
I have a serious addiction to leather fringe jackets. I think I have about 30 of them. They’re all slightly different but maybe to someone else they look exactly the same. I just found a really cool motorcycle bomber jacket covered in fringe. I’ve turned a second bedroom into a walk-in costume closet.
Shame to anyone who thinks live theater doesn’t exist in LA! My experiences prove otherwise …
What I’m excited about Reefer Madness is that we created a theater where won’t didn’t exist before. So we’re contributing to what’s becoming a little theater district on Hollywood Boulevard. You’ve got the Pantages, which has been there forever and gets all the big touring shows. Then you’ve got the Bourbon Room two blocks down, where we did DRAG: The Musical. And now, two blocks further down is a space that has some theater history, where Rock of Ages originally started. It was empty for about a decade, this huge warehouse space.
We’d been looking for a space to retrofit and do an immersive production with stages all over the room, and connected platforms with the audience sitting in the middle of it. Now we have a create functioning theater space and have added to the theater culture.
I think young people are more likely to come out to a show like Reefer Madness when they hear it’s happening all around them, there’s a pre-show and post-show party every night. It’s fast-paced and the kind of theater I’m excited to make.
Revive ___________ so I can direct and choreograph it …
Oliver! This is my dream revival. I have a very wild retake that I want to do at a warehouse in downtown LA. You will be seeing a really cool out-of-the-box version of this show from me at some point. I’ve always loved the show, and was in the national tour when I was a kid. I’m drawn to shows that are about the underworld of things, criminals, or about people that society might look at a bad way. Oliver! does an incredible job of asking ourselves what’d we do in hard situations. Who are we judging? It’s a classic musical that offers so many artistic moments. But the shell of it has never has been set in a different time and place.
The show that changed my life the most …
I saw Cats as a four-year-old, and even at that age, I understood the creativity that was happening on that stage. I was just enamored with it. But on that same trip, I saw The Will Rogers Follies, which had kids in it. The next night I decided that I was going to be in that show. It was all a plan to one day grow up and be in Cats. My parents took me to audition for the first national tour of The Will Rogers Follies when I was six, and I got it.
From the moment I stepped inside a theater I knew I belonged there. But getting on So You Think You Can Dance? really shifted my career. I was a young, 23-year-old choreographer just starting out. I had submitted and gone through the audition process to be a choreographer and gave it everything I had. I got a call, “you’re going to be on this episode” and the next thing I knew I was on a plane from New York City choreographing on the biggest television dance show at the time before I was ready to be doing that, and I had to learn very quickly. I owe everything to that show, including how to be a director.
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Out of the junkyard and into the ballroom, “Cats: ‘The Jellicle Ball'” reimagines the Andrew Lloyd Webber hit for a new generation.
Fashion is for everyone. If I had a chance to give a celebrity makeover, it’d be __________, and this is the lewk they’d be turning …
One of my favorite starlets that I always see on the carpet and looks incredible is Elle Fanning. I’m obsessed with her and love her style. But it’d be fun to punk her out in a Burning Man look and she’d look incredible.
One of my recent gigs was directing and choreographing the Queerties-winning Drag The Musical. The one thing they don’t teach you in dance school about working with drag queens is …
Drag queen choreography is a lot of arms. They’re in very high, uncomfortable heels and heavy wigs. So there’s not a lot of turning or footwork. They have access to their arms and face. There’s probably more arm-ography in DRAG: The Musical than I’ve ever done in my life.
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