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The evening was hosted by Miami resident Sharon Gless, former star of the 1980's TV series Cagney & Lacey, and current star of Showtime's Queer as Folk. Billed as "America's Favorite Dragapella BeautyShop Quartet," the group performed a two hour show of a cappella songs, political satire and way over-the-top drag—after all, it takes a lot to impress the South Beach crowd. The group performed selections from their "Greatest Tits" album, including: "Locked out of the Chapel of Love" a parody of the 1964 Dixie Cups hit, and numbers from their three other albums titled Dragapella, Boyz 2 Girlz, and the latest, Sicks in the City.
The four musician, actor, writer, composers who make up The Kinsey Sicks prepared for their careers in drag queening in some very surprising ways. Ben Schatz ("Rachel") is a Harvard-trained civil rights lawyer and former director of the National Gay & Lesbian Medical Association. Schatz created the first national AIDS legal project and authored Bill Clinton's HIV policy during the 1992 presidential campaign.
Maurice Kelly, ("Trixie") another Harvard graduate, was a marketing executive with Levi Strauss & Company, and Chris Dilley, ("Trampolina") was a theatre educator and an executive assistant in the field of venture capital investment. The Kinsey Sicks began in 1993 simply as a group of friends who went to a Bette Midler concert in San Francisco dressed as the Andrews Sisters. Assuming they'd be among many drag queens, they soon realized they were the only ones there—other than Bette, of course. But, they were approached that night to perform at an upcoming event.
The Kinseys Sicks have been profiled on national television, including on "20/20" and "CBS Early Show with Bryant Gumbel," and were the subjects of a lengthy cover feature in the arts section of the New York Times. Many thanks to Sharon Kersten of Kersten Communications for a memorable evening. |
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Fund Raisers are a large part of the social scene here in South
Beach, and although it's quite uncommon for an event to reach standing-room only status, that's exactly what happened
recently at the Colony Theater on Lincoln Road with a fund raiser for the LGBF (Let the Games Begin
Foundation). The standing-room only crowd came to see San
Francisco's one and only a cappella drag queen quartet, The Kinsey Sicks.
In 2001, the group produced and starred in
their critically acclaimed Off-Broadway hit, "DRAGAPELLA! Starring the Kinsey
Sicks" at New York's legendary Studio
54, a production that was nominated for the Lucille Lortel award (the Off-Broadway Tony) as Best Musical of 2001. 
Irwin Keller
("Winnie") is a University of Chicago-trained lawyer
Later the group began to draw large and enthusiastic crowds at their street corner performances in San Francisco's Castro District, and went on to performed full-length theatrical productions around the country at venues such as the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, the Nordstrom Recital Hall in Seattle, the Ogden Theatre in Denver, the Wheeler Opera Hall in Aspen, and at the Colony Theatre
here in South Beach.
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