Everyone has an opinion on Lady Gaga. After cancelling the remainder of her Born This Way Ball world tour due to injury (and rehab rumors), many haters rejoiced at the possibility that the pop doyenne would fade into obscurity. Not so fast.
Whatever your opinion of the veritable Lady, there are still supporters in spades. Cue Of A Monstrous Child: A Gaga Musical, a collaboration between Ecce Homo and Toronto-based Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, promising to explore the contradiction of Gaga’s habit of using queer culture for her own gain by clashing the best of New York low art against the stuffy codes of high culture. Written and directed by Alistair Newton*, the cabaret musical promises to pose questions on authenticity, appropriation and the redeeming power of the creative act.
“The club kids have as much to teach the grad students as they have to learn from them,” asserted Alistair Newton in an interview with the Globe & Mail. “After researching Gaga’s oeuvre, I realized two things: she is an appropriation artist in the tradition of Jasper Johns, firmly rooted in postmodern theorem, and she has positioned herself as a kind of Messianic liberator to her fans.”
Check out the gripping trailer below:
Of A Monstrous Child: A Musical is running from May 14-26 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander Street). Find more information here.
*CORRECTION: May 14, 2013: Michael Alig is no longer attached to the project.
____
Vidal Wu is an intern at Toronto Standard. You can follow him on Twitter at @vidalwuu.
For more, follow us on Twitter at @TorontoStandard, and subscribe to our newsletter.
