SCORE: A-

"Dragapella" is an off-Broadway show in a city where there's no such thing as "off-Broadway." Maybe this is not so bad.

On one hand, you figure that as the number of Las Vegas shows now teeters around 75, not all of them have to be for all people. "Dragapella," with its political bite and raunchy, sometimes sick humor, falls on a short list of titles that would appeal to what one could call, in shorthand terms, " 'The Daily Show' crowd."

The four queens who comprise the Kinsey Sicks bypass the Vegas-drag protocol of Whitney and Cher impressions to say what's on their sagging chests: "Be a tramp, be a ho!" they sing -- very well, by the way -- in a mock-gospel ditty. (Not that Cher wouldn't be down with that.)

They rephrase a show tune from "Chicago" announcing, "When you're good to Dubya, Dubya's good to you ... If you can't find Osama, find someone else to screw."

And because they're in Vegas, the city "responsible for making marriage the sacred institution it is today," they sing that they're "goin' to the chapel but we cannot get married" because they're "locked out of the chapel of love."

But "Dragapella" plays in rotation with "Menopause The Musical" in the Shimmer Cabaret at the Las Vegas Hilton, which is hardly the gentrified, cool-just-for-finding-it kind of place where you would expect to see this title on one of the coasts. And all Vegas shows get equal billing at the ticket counters and taxi tops. It's up to the consumer to figure out the difference between Danny Gans and The Amazing Johnathan, or "Forever Plaid" and "Dragapella."

This, however, just might be what could save "Dragapella" in a town where satire doesn't stay open long enough to close on Saturday night. On this particular Saturday night, the front-stage tables included a group of retirement-aged women who looked like they got lost on the way to "Menopause." Maybe they were the performers' mothers. Maybe they thought it was "Menopause." But they were laughing as hard as anyone in the room.

And really, you'd have to be Pat Robertson waiting for the bus to Bob Jones University not to.

Together, the Kinseys are credible a capella singers, but separately they are their own women. Trixie (Jeff Manabat) is the glammed-out Ginger of this desert isle. Winnie (Irwin Keller) keeps claiming to have a lesbian fiancee waiting for a legal civil union. Should we reveal that "she" may really be Wayne Newton? Probably not.

Trampolina (Chis Dilley) would like to wrap herself around everyone in the audience. And Rachel (Ben Schatz) is just plain scary. Harvey Fierstein in "Hairspray" is Miss America by comparison. Bette Davis in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" is ... well, female. But you get the idea.

The gals slurp Grey Goose and Coffee-mate and bicker about who spent all their earnings, thus stranding them in the shadow of their archenemy Celine Dion, aka She Who Shall Not Be Named.

The creators claim that straight patrons outnumber gay ones for "Dragapella," and the gay-centric humor is expanded far beyond the double entendres. Because it really is delivered in four-part harmony though, some of it flies by faster or is tougher to hear than in a nonmusical comedy show such as "The Second City."

Though all resemblance to "Forever Plaid" ends with the harmony and cabaret setting, you wish the Kinseys had that show's knack for doling out a series of surprises, rather than letting the audience see the gist of it in the first 10 minutes.

But University of Nevada, Las Vegas-based director Glenn Casale, who has independently worked with the quartet since 2001, continues to help fine-tune the show. In the early weeks, the Kinseys cut a serious number that put up too much of a speed bump for the comedy, as well as an audience bit that tested the boundaries of homophobia for even the most tolerant of ticket-buyers.

But "deep down, everybody is a drag queen," the Kinseys tell us, and by the end of it, most of the crowd was willing to join in a song about sexy underwear and to greet the new Las Vegas divas out front.

Celine shouldn't feel threatened, but Las Vegas may just be big enough for all five of them.

©2006 The Kinsey Sicks

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