Frank-N-Furter

[cross-posted at Vernon Lee]

I just learned something new: Rudy had a drag stage name.

Rudia.

See this 1997 NYT Metro piece by Elizabeth Kolbert (whose skills are being put to much better use these days):

ONCE was weird enough.

But if a single transvestite appearance would have satisfied most public officials, it apparently was just the start for Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

This weekend, Mr. Giuliani took his act national, appearing as a hirsute grandmother on ''Saturday Night Live.'' In doing so he turned what had seemed last spring, when he performed in a spangled pink gown, to be an isolated, if extraordinary, act of questionable taste into what looks now like a trend.

Who dares predict where this will end? With a news conference in pumps?

"Rudia" refers to Giuliani's performance in a Victor/Victoria parody sketch with Julie Andrews:

The audience of journalists, public officials and lobbyists greeted Rudia with a huge outburst of applause and hoots of sustained laughter, but when it became clear that the Mayor was actually going to deliver a sustained performance in the outfit, members of the crowd seemed torn between being amused and being appalled.

When he pulled a huge cigar out of his sock, and later began dancing an intimate tango with the star of ''Victor/Victoria,'' Julie Andrews (dressed as a man), several well-known audience members could be seen with their foreheads in their hands, open-mouthed.

The wonder only increased when Roxane Barlow of the show's cast sang a gyrating hymn to the sexual attributes of several recent mayors while watching Mr. Giuliani disrobe behind a screen.

There was the slightest bit of a political subtext to it all. Just as Ms. Andrews portrays a woman pretending to be a man dressing as a woman, Mr. Giuliani remarked that he is ''a Republican pretending to be a Democrat pretending to be a Republican,'' a reference to his real-life preference for ideological wardrobe changes.

You can watch a rather grainy YouTube version here.

A still from the same show:


Sing it, sister. Work that cigar.

Wonder if we'll ever come to the end of fresh images of Giuliani prancing around in Carol Channing wigs and fishnets?

Which begs the question:

Is America ready for a Frank-N-Furter president?


Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter.


Nice gams.