Community Is Queen in LGBTQ Dramedy ‘Stage Mother’

Sandra Miska

Out of the ashes of tragedy comes a fabulous second act for Maybelline (Jacki Weaver), a Baptist choir director who receives the devastating news of the death of her son, Rickey (Eldon Thiele), in the dramedy “Stage Mother.” Rickey, a drag performer in San Francisco, collapses on stage, having abused drugs moments earlier. Despite not having seen her son in ten years, as his being gay not alliging with the ultra-conservative beliefs of his parents, particularly his hardened and domineering father, Jeb (Hugh Thompson), a mournful Maybelline travels from Texas to San Fran to see him buried. She only intends to stay for a few days, but she extends her trip after learning from Nathan (“Entourage” star Adrian Grenier), Rickey’s longtime boyfriend, that Rickey owned the drag club, which means she now owns the drag club. She ends up crashing on the couch of Rickey’s best friend, single mom Sienna (Lucy Liu). Helping Sienna out with her baby boy, Little Rickey, gives her even more of a purpose.

What transpires from there is a transformative journey for Maybelline, who decides to temporarily run the club in honor of her son. Inherently a good and decent person, her prejudices quickly disappear as she comes to know those who work at the club, including Joan (Allister MacDonald), Cherry (Mya Taylor) and Tequila (Oscar Moreno). Like most drag performers, the drag queens at Pandora’s Box lip sync their musical numbers, but Maybelline comes to learn they can actually sing, which leads her to utilize her choir director skills to turn them into top-notch performers.

“Stage Mother” director Thom Fitzgerald and writer Brad Henning spoke with Entertainment Voice via Zoom, as did co-star Jackie Beat. 

“The inspiration came, actually, from Facebook, of all places,” revealed Hening. “I came from a small rural Texas town like the one depicted in the movie, and now I live in San Francisco. My Facebook feed is a cross-section of America. I would see people I grew up with at church suppers, women who I had grown up with who had gotten older, back-to-back with drag queen friends of mine in San Francisco. I noticed how the posts were kind of similar, in terms of the big hair with the larger-than-life southern women, but also in that the posts were familial in nature. They talked about their family in the drag club or the church. I thought, ‘Oh, I would like to marry those two worlds in a movie,’ and ‘Stage Mother’ was born.”

The story was also personal to Fitzgerald, but in a different way. “I lost my brother to a similar circumstance as Rickey, an overdose,” he revealed. “I got to see my mom going through the grief process of having to go through my brother’s life after he was gone, seeing his home, meeting his friends, his chosen family, and developing a deeper understanding of who he was. I had that tragedy that could actually draw upon as an artist, a way into the story that’s so unusual.”

While both men have an appreciation for drag, neither have performed like that before, so they interviewed experienced drag queens, including one who was in the cast. “We were lucky enough to get Jackie Beat, who’s kind of an institution drag queen, to play Dusty Muffin, who lent such authenticity and fun to the movie, and we learned a lot from her on set,” recalled Hening.

Dusty Muffin, a.k.a. Roger, along with Nathan, initially resents Maybelline. While Nathan, the club’s manager, is rightfully upset about his partner’s estranged mother coming in and taking the business he put so much heart and energy into, Dusty, the oldest of the performers, is annoyed by any change, especially coming from an outsider who is there to usurp his role as den mother.

In the film, Dusty pushes back against Maybelline’s plan for the performers to sing live, but in real life, Beat has been utilizing her own voice in her drag performances for 30 years. But she did relate to what it is like to see changes as a mature drag queen, especially as social media and shows like “RuPaul’s Drag Race” have changed the game, although she doesn’t like to dwell on it too much, because, as she hilariously puts it, she doesn’t want to sound like Norma Desmond from “Sunset Boulevard” “bitching about the talkies.”

Like Maybelline, Beat has a choir background, having sung in school. At the time, she felt self-conscious about her higher voice. “The irony. Now I want to sound as much like a girl as possible when I’m singing and talking. I have to pitch songs down because, obviously, I can’t sing like Celine Dion or Mariah Carey. I knew I could sing as a kid, but I kind of was embarrassed, because everytime I answered the phone, they were like, ‘Hello, ma’am!’ I was like, ‘I’m a boy!’ And then there was just a point where I was like, ‘Oh, god, who cares?’ You gotta just embrace who you are and make the most of it.”

The more Maybelline gets to know the guys, she sees not only her son in them, but also pieces of herself. It should come as no surprise that she is the one who ends up transforming the most, but her journey involves more than just directing a cabaret show and trying on new fashions. She is forced to make some difficult decisions, and Weaver, always the versatile actor, balances Maybelline’s soft, nurturing side with her more steely, determined side.

“I really think of this story as a classic 1950s women’s picture, really,” said Fitzgerald. “It’s about a mom. Joan Crawford might have played her 70 years ago. It’s an epic journey for this woman. It’s really about her learning to extend her heart in a way that was previously too uncomfortable for her, and when she opens up to this new kind of love, she is able to open up her own world and becomes more herself, and the person she always wanted to be.”

Fitzgerald went on to recount his first meeting with Weaver in New York. “We were supposed to have brunch, but she got me really drunk, and she kept me drunk for about three days. She charmed my socks off and made me fall deeply, madly in love with her, and also gave me a copy of her autobiography, in which there’s a chapter called ‘The Smallest Fag Hag in Australia,’ which pretty much cemented her street cred in terms of doing this movie.”

“She’s amazing,” said Beat with a sigh when asked about Weaver. “You walk into the room, and you think, this is a two-time Academy Award Nominee legend who has been in classic movies like ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock,’ and you get sort of nervous, but the moment she smiles at you, it just melts away, because she is the warmest and friendliest person, and I just felt an instant connection to her. I’m pretty sure I knew her in a past life.”

As anyone who has ever seen even one drag show would know, the visual is extremely important, and Fitzgerald gives much credit to his wardrobe and make-up departments for creating the stunning looks. The production design team also deserves its due, as the film was shot in Canada in Fitzgerald’s home province of Nova Scotia with Halifax standing in for San Francisco. 

“They are such sister cities,” explained the director. “They are both Victorian-era cities with these beautiful little brightly painted houses full of chachkes and trim, overlooking a harbor.” Fortunately, Hening was there to make sure the look was authentic, and he admitted that he was impressed by what the production design team was able to do.

For the viewer watching a film like “Stage Mother” in quarantine, they cannot help but feel longing for the not-so-distant past, a time when one could dress up and enjoy something like a live drag show, or just go somewhere and enjoy a sense of community. The film ends on such a hopeful note, and Beat, like many others, is optimistic about the future of clubs post-pandemic.

“I have to be confident that the clubs will reopen,” she said. “I can’t say ‘soon,’ but they will open. Think of the movie ‘Cabaret.’ That’s where people go. That’s their safe place. That’s where you really blow off steam and cut loose, so you need that. Everybody needs that, no matter what community you’re part of, whether you’re going to a sports bar to eat chicken wings, or a gay bar to watch a drag show, people will always needs that.”

“Stage Mother” releases Aug. 21 on VOD.