Arts & Entertainment
Best of Gay D.C. 2017: NIGHTLIFE
Winners from the Washington Blade’s annual poll
(Photo of Dylan Knight by David Claypool; Washington Blade photo of Distrkt C by Ben Keller; Washington Blade photos of DJ Tezrah and Ophelia Heart by Tom Hausman)
Best Dance Party
Distrkt C
D.C. Eagle
Second Saturday of the month
D.C. Eagle
3701 Benning Rd., N.E.
Editor’s choice: Gay Bash, Trade
Distrkt C (Washington Blade photo by Ben Keller)
Best Bartender
Dusty Martinez, Trade
Also won in 2014; last year’s runner-up.
1410 14th St., N.W.
Runner-up: Tommy Honeycutt, Nellie’s
Dusty Martinez (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Best Burlesque Dancer
Ophelia Hart
Runner-up: GiGi Holliday
Ophelia Zayna Hartis a belly dancer and drag and burlesque performer hailing from Washington.
“I am thunder thighs, sinful curves, and fiery spirit,” she says.
She made her debut at Washington’s 2015 Burlypicks, where she won the title of Master of Lip-sync, and she has been shimmying and shaking across the East Coast since then. Always true to her Arab roots, Hart celebrates the fusion of classic and neo-burlesque and her homeland’s cultural riches.
Hart, who is known for dancing with grace, seducing with elegance and jiggling with abandon, has some advice for performers working on a new act: “When you’re crafting a number — brainstorming a concept, working on your choreography, creating a costume and rehearsing your act — ask yourself, what story am I telling, and is it mine to tell?” (BTC)
facebook.com/opheliahartburlesque
Ophelia Hart (Washington Blade photo by Tom Hausman)
Best Avion Tequila Margarita
Winner: Lauriol Plaza
1835 18th St., N.W.
Editor’s pick: Rito Loco
Avion Tequila Margarita at Lauriol Plaza (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Best DJ
DJ Tezrah
Runner-up: The Barber Streisand
Tezrah has a delightfully eclectic background and an amazing sound.
A native of Fairfax, Va., Tezrah says she “learned to play classical piano at age 5, which laid the foundation for future investigation into computer music programs.” She graduated with a pre-medical degree in Neuroscience from William & Mary, attended the Harvard School of Design Summer Program, and was accepted into the Graduate Architecture Program at Catholic University.
She also played semi-pro soccer.
Then, she says, “on a whim I tried turning my musical hobby into a profession.”
Now Tezrah reigns in her fourth year of DJing in the D.C. area, specializing in Top 40, electronic dance music, hip hop and other genres. Formerly known as DJ Deedub, she is hailed as one of D.C.’s and the LGBT community’s brightest stars. Her sound is eclectic, combining the newest music seamlessly with older classic songs. Winner of the DJ Battle for Her HRC for 2014 and 2015, headliner at the 9:30 Club, and headliner for a crowd of about 5,000 at Hampton Roads Pride 2016, she has garnered a solid local following. (BTC)
DJ Tezrah (Washington Blade photo by Tom Hausman)
Best Drag King
Roman Noodle
Runner-up: Avery Austin
Roman Noodle, real name Shay, first started doing drag in May 2016 as a way to escape being herself.
“Roman was created so I could kind of be myself without people judging me for being myself. Because they think I’m just being Roman. It turned into an avenue where in doing drag it made me completely myself,” Noodle, a dog walker by day, says.
The D.C. native kicked off her drag career as a choir boy for Pretty Boi Drag’s Sunday Service shows. At first she was unsure how to craft her drag persona and experimented with different genres and concepts. Eventually she settled on Roman, “a basic dude, no gimmicks.”
Even though Noodle has performed for other groups including D.C. Gurly Show and Girl Power in Baltimore, she still considers Pretty Boi Drag her family.
She also credits the art of drag with giving her, and countless others, a safe space to be who they are.
“I love that it gives everyone a place to be themselves, to feel safe, to express themselves creatively. Whether they are male-bodied or female-bodied, they’re able to present themselves the way they want without any issues or questions,” Noodle says. (PF)
Roman Noodle (Washington Blade photo by Chris Jennings)
Best Drag Queen
Sasha Adams
Runner-up: Tatianna
Drag performer Sasha Adams, whose real name is Richard Christmas, says “I’m the Clydesdale of D.C. drag. I’m plus sized but I dance. You’ll get the kicks, the splits, the hair flips and all that. Clydesdale are big, graceful, beautiful but most importantly, they’re work horses.”
Though he maintains a day job as a contractor with the federal government, Christmas performs as Sasha four or five times a week. His drag career is two-pronged: performing at clubs and brunches and competing in national drag pageants. “Sasha isn’t modeled after anyone in particular,” Christmas says. “I lip sync R&B and hip-hop. I like old school Janet, Missy and Mariah. And Donna Summer if the venue calls for it. I do contemporary top 20 artists too.”
Christmas grew up in a small-town outside of Charlottesville, Va. He did choir in high school but not a lot of acting. He graduated from James Madison University where he majored in finance and minored in dance and music. The Eagle Scout’s foray into drag began when he won amateur drag night at Freddie’s Beach Bar in 2010. Gigs and bookings followed.
When the wig is off and he’s untucked, Christmas can be found at home in Columbia Heights lying on the couch watching “Law & Order.” As a performer, he finds relationships difficult. He’s single but likes a guy who has his shit together.
Town Danceboutique
2009 8th St., N.W.
Sasha Adams (Photo by Bobby DeCanio)
Best Drag Show
Ladies of Town
Fridays and Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. Sixth win in this category!
Town Danceboutique
2009 8th St., N.W.
A perennial favorite in this category!
Editor’s choice: Pretty Boi Drag
Ba’Naka and Tatianna perform at Town. (Washington Blade photo by Hugh Clarke)
Best Singer or Band
Wicked Jezabel
Also won this award in 2013!
Runner-up: Homo Superior
Wicked Jezebel at NOVA Pride (Photo by Bobbie English)
Best Transgender Performer
Phoenix King
Runner-up: Salvadora Dali
Performer Phoenix King, real name Benny Rodriguez, identifies as trans.
“I’ve been a drag king in Washington for about four years,” he says. “Entertaining has translated into different kinds of performance art including burlesque. Being trans is a big part of my life but it’s not my entire performance persona.”
Rodriquez got into drag performance in 2013 while working at the now-defunct lesbian hot spot Phase 1 in Dupont Circle. “They had a drag show with drag kings and queens and I asked if I could perform,” he says. “The experience was totally exhilarating and ties into my trans identity. To see myself as a masculine-presenting person for the first time was shocking and exciting to me.”
By all accounts, Rodriguez’s drag debut was a resounding success. Over the last two years, he’s attracted an enthusiastic following and for the last two year he has been performing mostly at Bier Baron Tavern in D.C. He’s also performed in clubs and burlesque.
“Initially I perceived drag as a hobby but increasingly I’ve come to see it as a money-making venture,” says Rodriguez, 26. “Over this year, I’ve become increasingly focused on where I perform and for whom I perform. This experience has opened doors all over town. There’s no telling where it might lead.” (PF)
Phoenix King (Photo courtesy of Benicio Rodriguez)
Best Gay-Friendly Straight Bar
Dacha Beer Garden
Third consecutive win in this category!
1600 7th St., N.W.
202-524-8790
Editor’s choice: DC9
Dacha Beer Garden (Photo by Ted Eytan; courtesy Flickr)
Best Go-Go Dancer/Stripper
Dylan Knight
Runner-up: Eddie Danger
Dylan Knight started gyrating lasciviously at Town about 2010 after seeing other go-go dancers there. This is his second consecutive win in this category.
He’s a regular at Town and performs there and elsewhere, never taking himself too seriously.
“I just try to be entertaining and cute,” the 26-year-old D.C. resident, who also does gay porn, says. (JD)
Dylan Knight (Photo by David Claypool; courtesy Knight)
Best Absolut Happy Hour
Number Nine
Two-for-one happy hour is 5-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 2-9 p.m. on weekends. This is Nine’s fifth Best Of award.
1435 P St., N.W.
Editor’s choice: Trade
Number 9 happy hour (Washington Blade photo by Daniel Truitt)
Hottest Bar Staff
The Dirty Goose
913 U St., N.W.
Editor’s choice: Trade
The Dirty Goose bar staff (Washington Blade photo by Tom Hausman)
Best Live Music
9:30 Club
A perennial favorite in this category!
815 V St., N.W.
Editor’s Choice: Wolf Trap
Troye Sivan performs at the 9:30 Club (Photo by Katherine Gaines)
Best Neighborhood Bar
Trade
1410 14th St., N.W.
Editor’s choice: JR.’s
Trade (Washington Blade photo by Daniel Truitt)
Best Outside-the-District Bar
Freddie’s Beach Bar
This is Freddie’s 20th Best Of win, a Washington Blade record. Freddie’s has won this award every year since 2002 in addition to several others.
555 S. 23rd St.
Arlington, Va.
Editor’s choice: Baltimore Eagle
Freddie’s Beach Bar (Washington Blade photo by Hugh Clarke)
Best Outdoor Drinking
Town Patio
Third consecutive win in this category!
Town Danceboutique
2009 8th St., N.W.
Editor’s choice: Dascha Beer Garden
Town Patio (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Best Place for Guys Night Out
Crew Club
1321 14th St., N.W.
Editor’s choice: DC Bear Crue: Bear Happy Hour
Crew Club (Washington Blade photo by Pete Exis)
Best Place for Girls Night Out
Pretty Boi Drag
Editor’s choice: BARE by LURe
Take a break from the numerous drag queen brunches and parties to have fun with the boys.
Pretty Boi Drag is D.C.’s newest drag king troupe that features daytime and nighttime parties and events throughout the city. The troupe started in 2016 and since then has expanded into a staple in the D.C. drag community.
Perhaps their best known event is Pretty Boi Sunday Service at the Bier Baron Tavern (1523 22nd St., N.W.). Described as “a parody drag church for the non-religious,” the kings entertain with heavy influences of hip-hop and R&B. The event is hosted by the troupe’s co-producer, Pretty Rik E.
Other events include happy hours, brunches and variety shows at different locales around town. Their performers are a diverse mix of characters and acts including Best Drag King winner, Roman Noodle.
“Pretty Boi Drag creates a fun, safe and unique atmosphere for queer women to see drag kings like they’ve never seen them before,” their website states. “Our events are drag show meets dance party meets a queer woman’s version of ‘Magic Mike.’ Our audience isn’t there to just watch what happens on stage, they also get to be a part of the show.” (MC)
(Washington Blade photo by Chris Jennings)
Best Rehoboth Bar
Purple Parrot
134 Rehoboth Ave.
Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Editor’s choice: Blue Moon
Purple Parrot (Washington Blade photo by Daniel Truitt)
Best Rehoboth Bartender
Holly Lane, Cafe Azafran
18 Baltimore Ave.
Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Runner-up: Jamie Romano, Purple Parrot
Holly Lane (Washington Blade photo by Daniel Truitt)
Best Rooftop
Uproar Lounge & Restaurant
Second consecutive win in this category!
639 Florida Ave., N.W.
Editor’s choice: Nellie’s
UpRoar Lounge (Washington Blade photo by Hugh Clarke)
To see winners in other categories in the Washington Blade’s Best of Gay D.C. 2017 Awards, click here.
Photos
PHOTOS: Black Pride Pageant and Unity Ball
Back-to-back events held on first night of D.C. Black Pride
The Mr. and Miss DC Black Pride Pageant was held at the Westin DC Downtown on Thursday, May 21. Following the pageant, Black Pride events continued with the 10th annual DC Black Pride Unity Ball.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
Photos
PHOTOS: Helen Hayes Awards
D.C.-area productions honored at Theatre Washington’s annual ceremony
Theatre Washington’s 42nd Helen Hayes Awards were held at The Anthem on Monday, May 18.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Movies
Quest for fame becomes an obsession in entertaining ‘Lurker’
Psychological thriller explores the dynamics of power and control
It was nearly 60 years ago when über-queer icon Andy Warhol pronounced to the world his prediction that “in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.” While it may have been an overstatement, we’re now experiencing the future he was talking about; and though it remains statistically impossible for “everybody” to achieve fame, that doesn’t mean that we can’t all “feel” like we’re famous. If social media has delivered any gift to the human race, that might just be it.
In the real-life dystopia that is 2026, Warhol’s 1967 quip has become a kind of cultural mantra: influencers are more famous than movie stars, podcasters can shape political policy, and anybody with a “hot take” can change the way we perceive even the most fundamentally held opinions. Whether or not this is progress is probably a moot point; it’s the reality we live in, and we have a government full of “cosplaying” charlatans to prove it.
That’s why Alex Russell’s “Lurker” – a 2025 Sundance favorite that’s now streaming on HBO Max after a limited theatrical run last summer – cuts so close to the quick. A psychological thriller exploring the dynamics of power and control within the entourage of a rock star, it strikes some uncomfortably familiar chords for an era when “bootlicking” seems to have become a national pastime.
It centers on Matthew (Théodore Pellerin), a young Angeleno who lives in his grandmother’s apartment and works in a trendy designer boutique on Melrose Avenue. When rising pop musician Oliver (Archie Madekwe) brings his entourage to the store one afternoon, Matthew sees a chance to make an impression; plugging his phone into the shop’s sound system, he plays a song that he knows the pop star admires – and minutes later, he’s been given a backstage pass to Oliver’s next concert and invited to hang out with the star himself.
Their relationship continues to develop quickly at the show. Though he’s met at first with some discomfortable hazing from members of the entourage, by the end of the evening he’s on his way to becoming part of the inner circle. Chosen by Oliver to become his “official documentarian,” he’s soon a fixture in the entourage himself, sparking jealousy from members higher in the “pecking order” than he is; but Matthew is better at the game than they suspect, and despite their attempts to keep him in his place, he uses his proximity to Oliver – and a few surgically precise acts of sabotage – to rise quickly to the top.
Staying there, however, is not so easy. Within the volatile social politics of the entourage, he must always be on guard, and his efforts to thwart others from displacing him become increasingly ruthless. Eventually, he crosses a line, resulting in a fall from Oliver’s grace and his ejection from the group; but being close to fame leads to its own kind of fame, and Matthew has worked too hard to give it up so easily – even if it means using his Machiavellian powers to go after Oliver himself.
Slick, stylish, and as hypervisual as any viral pop music video you can imagine, Russell’s sardonically amoral exploration of fame – or rather, the desire for it – is as much a satire as it is a psychological drama, but it plays like a horror movie. Matthew is a protagonist cut from the same cloth as the title character of “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” a schemer whose endearingly awkward appearance masks a devious purpose and a diabolical mind. Oliver, whose creativity seems more about his “vibe” than his actual music, is charismatic but aloof, beneficent but mercurial, and seemingly blind to the massive ego that hides beneath his “chill” persona. There’s a kind of tension between these two characters that feels distinctly romantic, even homoerotic, and though it’s expressed only through subtext, it provides a palpable edge that makes their relationship feel dangerous – as if this were a love story in which anyone who tries to come between them is likely to get hurt.
As to what they actually feel about each other, “Lurker” keeps quiet about it. Matthew “reads” like a queer character, but his inner life is never revealed to us save through the conclusions we can draw from his behavior, and Oliver seems so much in love with himself that nobody else can compare; even so, there’s something between them that plays as much more intimate than the enthusiastic “bro”-ish affection that they exhibit together.
In the end, however, the “love story” here is not about romance, nor even sex; it’s about fame. Matthew, even if his own creative talents may be more solid than Oliver’s, is enamored primarily with fame; perhaps he longs for importance, for a life of more excitement and opportunity than his thankless existence as a low-level retail employee, and as the movie proceeds it becomes clear that he is willing to go as far as he has to go in order to achieve it. For Oliver, maybe it’s about the longing of the famous for something more than sycophantic lip-service, for finding the adulation of his fans personified in an authentic, tangible, and individual form. Whatever it is, there’s very little love involved.
Of course, there’s an unavoidable comparison to be made between the mentality on display in “Lurker” with the prevailing trend in our American consciousness, in which performative loyalty and opportunistic friendship feel like the order of the day; from the fickleness of “fan culture” to the escalation of outrage-baiting on social media to the barely-concealed cutthroat narcissism on daily display in our very government, the message that comes through loud and clear is a chilling throwback to the Reagan-era “greed is good” philosophy: loyalty, feelings, and friendship are for suckers, and the most vicious player is the winner who takes it all.
As usual in a character-driven piece like this one, it’s ultimately the actors who make it work; Pellerin (a Canadian actor who won his country’s equivalent of an Oscar for “Family First” in 2018) is the lynch pin, and he delivers such an endlessly fascinating portrait of obsessively determined duplicity that we find ourselves rooting for him even as we recoil from the coldness of his tactics; Madekwe (“Saltburn”) captures the vapid pretension of a pop artist who has faked his way to success, but infuses Oliver with enough well-meaning sincerity that we can still feel a little bit sorry for him. In a smaller role, Hannah Rose Liu (“Bottoms”) makes an impression as the manager who keeps Oliver’s life running, offering an anchor of relative sanity in a sea of madness.
Russell’s taut and tantalizingly opaque screenplay manages to capture all these things and more into a compact narrative that keeps us engaged while weaving its observations seamlessly into the plot, and his direction – which somehow yields an expansive scope through an intimate and sometimes frenetic focus – reinforces the unpredictable instability of fame, status, power, and the social hierarchy that governs them all. There are occasionally twists that feel a bit too convenient to be believable, but all in all, it’s a solid piece of cinematic workmanship.
PHOTOS: Black Pride Pageant and Unity Ball
PHOTOS: Helen Hayes Awards
A magical Mercedes
When impunity meets history
Comings & Goings
Texas Children’s Hospital reaches $10 million settlement with DOJ over gender-affirming care
Anti-LGBTQ commentator Tyler O’Neil to testify in Southern Poverty Law Center probe
Vt. lawmaker equates transgender identity with bestiality
PHOTOS: Equality Prince William Pride
A case of retaliation, not stalking
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Federal Government5 days agoTexas Children’s Hospital reaches $10 million settlement with DOJ over gender-affirming care
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LGBTQ Non-Profit Organizations5 days ago
Anti-LGBTQ commentator Tyler O’Neil to testify in Southern Poverty Law Center probe
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Vermont4 days ago
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Photos5 days ago
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