Alexis del Lago, Marsha P. Johnson, Sister Tui

[Marsha P. Johnson] Hot Peaches Presents Androgyny in Ostendorf: A Free Horror Musical Show

New York: Hot Peaches, 1972. Near fine. Item #10472

The poster for the third Hot Peaches show, “Androgyny in Ostendorf,” with Marsha P. Johnson, Lance Norebo, Paul Ambrose, and others. 

A “horror musical show,” the performance was conceieved of as writer and director Jimmy Camicia was recuperating from hepatitis after a disastrous second Peaches performance; watching a series of classic horror films, Camicia realized that “these horror flicks [were] a disconcerting metaphor for the gay community” and the treatment of queer people by heterosexual society. Though Hot Peaches founder and director Jimmy Camicia apparently planned to quit the theater after this show, a favorable review by the critic Robb Baker in After Dark magazine convinced him to continue, and the Hot Peaches would perform for another several decades in theaters, gay clubs, and alternative venues around the world.

The play tells the story of a group of androgynous hippies squatting in a ruined hilltop castle, antagonized by angry townsmembers whose children had joined the fun at the squat. The cast included Jimmy Centola, Teriananda, Peter Ruffert, Paul Ambrose, Lance Norebo, Alexis del Lago, Marsha P. Johnson, James Morfogen, and was the first involvement of Sister Tui in a Hot Peaches performance, as hairdresser to one of the actors. Tui would star in Hot Peaches shows for years to come.

 The Hot Peaches formed in 1972, inspired by the visiting West Coast queer theater troupe The Angels of Light, and performing with some former Angels in the earliest shows. The Angels of Light was itself a splinter group from the celebrated hippie drag troupe, the Cockettes. The Hot Peaches, self-defined as a gay theater troupe from the start, participated in and chronicled the revolutions in queer consciousness happening around them. 

Price: $1,500.00