Wow. I went to Pattaya to see the drag shows. We went to two, "Alcazar" and "Tiffany". While they were both dazzling, Tiffany, which started in the 70's, blew Alcazar out of the water!
While the photos on their website look great, they don't begin to translate all the glitter and texture of the costumes, nor the kinetic grandeur of the sets... but go take a look around anyway:
Tiffany Website
On the "show preview" page, give it time to load and it becomes a little roll-over-the-photo slideshow.
As you can see, it's in this giant gaudy theater surrounded by fountains. Then there's a big neon sign along the road. It's like a Miami version of Vegas, only it doesn't exist in Miami.
Inside 1000 seats are filled with tourists who had arrived by the busload. I would say they were 80% Asian and 20% European/Australian. I figured out what makes these shows tick. They are the Asian equivilent to a La Cage show.
La Cage is drag for the American masses, they can relate to familiar celebrities. In the Thai show, they present glamorous renditions of traditional Asian songs. During the Korean number, a row of, I assume Korean, old ladies behind us clapped along from beginning to end.
What makes it so fabulous is that Asian imagery is so just so bright and gorgeous. And, their Vegasizations are overblown dayglo sexy extravagazas! Most of the girls have titties and there's lots of cleavage. The boy dancers also wear Asian/Vegas sequined costumes with provacative cutouts. There was this one number where the boys were dressed in "Native American" inspired looks, all shirtless with little loincloths, feather headpieces, and gorgeous mini muscled bodies!
NY girls who are all into their dancing might read for the lack of dance skills. I think that, surrounded by all that opulence, the clunkiness of the dancing makes it all that much more fabulous. If you put this show on in NY, the production costs would be so high that it would be a Broadway budget. Therefor it would not be all real trannies and it would not have this authentic Asian flavor. Globalization has not won, there are some things you can only see here.
There would be these numbers that didn't even have songs, just music and parades of costume. Just when I'd be screaming over the twelve outlandish creations before me, they'd step back and ten more would enter from stage left!
I'm not a person who's easily impressed by most things called "fashion." Labels bore me. I need stimulation, I need my buttons pressed. Well, after this show, my buttons need a week to recouperate!