by Robert Nesti
Boston Herald
3 August 2001

The Kinsey Sicks at the Jungle Cabaret at Tropical Joe's through Sept. 10.

Is America ready for The Kinsey Sicks?

Provincetown certainly has been. The quartet has become the breakout act of the summer. Catch it there in the next few weeks before it opens in a new off-Broadway revue this fall.

Calling itself America's Favorite ``Dragapella'' (a term it has trademarked) Beautyshop Quartet, The Kinsey Sicks is the latest in the line of drag acts that actually sing, not lip-sync. And it does so with tight harmonies the Andrews Sisters would have envied.

It's also very funny in a hip, urban and very gay manner, offering send-ups of popular songs and original material that skewer contemporary culture with intelligent humor.

A takeoff on "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" encapsulates the yuppie takeover of New York's East Village, complete with a Starbucks on every corner, in less than three minutes. Another parodies the lack of legal standing of gay marriages in a deft take on "Chapel of Love." ("Locked out of the chapel of love," members sing.)

The group can be controversial, joking about the alphabet soup of AIDS medications to the tune of the Jackson's "ABC," here retitled "AZT."

It can be rudely funny in the style of Joan Rivers, especially to patrons who sit in the first few rows.

And it can be touching - remembering a former member of the group who died with a beautifully expressed tribute called "Begona's Song."

Part of the fun comes from the quartet's nicely delineated characterizations. Some have compared it to the quartet of women on ``Sex and the City,'' and that's not far from the truth.

The hourlong show, which continues through Sept. 10 at the Jungle Cabaret at Tropical Joe's in P-town, changes weekly with material taken from the more than 80 songs this San Francisco-based group has written since its inception in 1993. That occurred purely by accident when the original members of the group went dressed as the Andrew Sisters to a Bette Midler concert, only to discover that they could sing as well as cross-dress.

Now the four - Ben Schatz (a Harvard educated ex-lawyer who writes most of the material), Maurice Kelly (also a Harvard graduate), Chris Dilley and Irwin Keller - have been able to quit their day jobs and make a living touring. They will open the new cabaret space above Studio 54 in New York in October.

The appealing and talented group soon will be getting mainstream attention: A profile is scheduled to run in The New York Times any day now. Move over "Will and Grace."