Drag Opera 'Queeney Todd' Brings Halloween Queerness to Judson Memorial Church

Heartbeat's Drag Opera Extravaganza returned to Judson Memorial Church this Halloween season with its 11th edition, "Queeney Todd," running through Oct. 31. The annual show has become a tradition for a devoted slice of opera-loving New York — what New York Times critic Gabrielle Ferrari calls "the girls, gays and theys" who line up in their finest outside the venue.

The format is simple and unapologetically rude. Each year Heartbeat takes a theme and riffs on it in what Ferrari describes as "an off-color pastiche of opera and pop culture." Past titles set the register: "Messy Messiah," "Slaylem" (a spoof on Arthur Miller's "The Crucible") and "Orgy and Bess."

How the show gets made

Every edition features an original script, usually written by Heartbeat's frequent librettist Peregrine Teng Heard and the company's artistic director, Jacob Ashworth. Kemar Jewel and Garrett Bell also contributed this year. Dan Schlosberg's arrangements hold the bawdy gags together, alongside the team's omnivorous repertoire choices.

Matt Dengler plays a lewdly renamed version of Mrs. Lovett, the pie-maker made famous by Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd."

Why the venue matters

Judson Memorial Church isn't a random pick. It holds an honored place in New York's L.G.B.T.Q. history and in avant-garde art — a background that speaks both to Heartbeat's audience and to the productions' themes.

What does this change for opera? It points to a growing corner of the field where queerness isn't tolerated but celebrated loudly. The staging makes that explicit. The bar sells themed cocktails with names like "Wench 75." V.I.P. tables near the stage hold drinks and folding fans — and, eventually, actors, who leap onto them to sing while audience members take pictures.

Even the orchestra participates. The four-person ensemble, which includes both Ashworth and Schlossberg performing themselves, plays in Victorian drag: smeared lipstick, corsets and sausage-curled wigs.

The 11-year run suggests the formula works. A yearly Halloween event that reliably fills a landmark L.G.B.T.Q. venue with operatic camp is now a fixture of the city's seasonal calendar — and a reminder that opera's future audiences may be built in places far from the opera house.