Kingdom of Heaven: The Church of Latter-day … Drag?

During my conversation with Nii and Rapier, I was able to see some of the remarkable costumes for Mary Jane, which made me even more excited to see a musical about a drag king. However, the drag performances are probably not what you’d expect. “The play builds to her performing in drag for the first time,” says Rapier. “It’s the beginning. The whole play is about her journey to taking a first step towards understanding who she is, her voice, what she has to say—her authentic self.” Nii specifically wanted her lead character to be a drag king, as opposed to a drag queen. “The notion of drag is enough on that level [of social commentary] to explode some minds,” she says. “I felt that by having the main character be female, having her explore her masculinity, was—I’d hoped—an accessible gateway to people who may not even know there are drag kings. I wanted to highlight another facet of this very diverse community.” Drag kings, though growing in the community, are far less known and fewer in number. “It’s not commonly known and experienced—that’s exciting to share with people!” Rapier says. Kingdom of Heaven will take place mostly in the living room—a place for family, suddenly turned into a place for self-experimentation. We, as the audience, will be allowed into the “backstage” life of MJ and share her excitement and pleasure with every piece of masculine clothing she tries on.

Kingdom of Heaven isn’t your typical musical, by the way. David Evanoff, a master jingle-writer with 30 years of musical experience, combined his talents with his background in musical theatre and produced one-of-a-kind, catchy lyrics that will stay with you after you see the show. Nii says, “It may be the first musical ever to be generated solely from an iPad!” Rapier claims that this musical “may have the first lyrics written almost completely by text message.” Nii and Evanoff would text their ideas back and forth until something beautiful and unique was created to fit the style of the song. Rapier elucidates the advantage to having the composer in the room during rehearsal: “We can play around with phrasing and with the key much more freely,” he says.

If Evanoff’s genius weren’t enough to create a killer musical, Rapier hired five-star actors who have either worked with Plan-B in the past or at many other local theatres. Even with a cast change at the last minute, Rapier and his crew manage the production like champs. “You step in with adrenaline and it just happens,” Rapier says. “You roll with it. It’s just the way theatre family works.” Jeanette Puhich (MJ), Susanna Florence (Brenda) and David Hanson (Joe) are all prepared to give SLC audiences a moving and fun performance!

The topic of gender roles, gender expression and religion are so vastly important that I can see this play expanding outside of SLC after its premiere. “I’ve been pitching it to Theatre Out in California—hopefully, they’ll seriously consider it for next season!” Rapier says. But Nii has another goal for this play. “I think it would be really cool if it could sneak into a small town in central Utah,” she says. “At some point, each of us will either experience or love someone who is experiencing some kind of journey [like MJ’s]. I hope this play will lead people to respond compassionately and with acceptance. So that kid in Lehi [or wherever] can say, ‘This is what I’m feeling,’ and maybe get a hug.”

This play is not one SLC audiences will want to miss. Get your tickets, head to the theatre and check out the production these individuals have been working incredibly hard on for the past few weeks. Kingdom of Heaven premieres March 31 and ends April 10. Explore MJ and her family’s journey of her self-discovery. And trust me—afterwards, you’ll want to visit a coffee shop to discuss your experience.