Photos courtesy of Maple Veneer and Karen Valentine
Maple Veneer and Karen Valentine
Maple Veneer and Karen Valentine
The seventh anniversary performance of Karen Valentine and Maple Veneer’s “Bosom Buddies—The Original Cocktail Hour Drag Show” takes place September 13 at Milwaukee’s La Cage NiteClub. It is not an ordinary drag show by any means. The cocktail hour production has a bit of history and a back story.
The hook devised back when the show was launched in 2018 was its unusual 5 p.m. curtain time. According to Maple Veneer (James Strange), the duo approached LaCage owners George and Cory to pitch the show and suggested the time slot. “George and Cory were all for it and it stuck,” Veneer said, adding, “A lot of us don’t like to go out late.” For LaCage, it is an opportunity to welcome a broader audience at an otherwise quiet hour.
Smashing the old myth of drag queens not appearing before 10 p.m. (and always late, at that), this pioneering early bird special was an instant success. Its advantages did not go unnoticed. Audiences (skewing older, Veneer notes) embraced the cocktail hour niche as the perfect time for grabbing a drink and enjoying a light-hearted divertissement before heading out for dinner, a grand night out on the town, or a relaxing night back at home on the couch. Of course, imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Soon other drag shows got in on the action, starting a trend that has now established itself as an integral part of the entertainment circuit.
Karen Valentine (Michael Johnston) explained the premise. “It’s civilized. We wanted a casual Saturday atmosphere like the days of having events at people’s homes. Our banter is unscripted. Karen is a trying to be sophisticated, Maple is not. We do Broadway and stage numbers, sometimes with guest performers from local theater groups like the Rep and the Skylight who promote their shows—especially the LGBTQ themed ones.” That cross pollination is another unique feature of the “Bosom Buddies’ brand. The mid-month performance dates are also strategic. “Shows have been traditionally held in the middle of the month so people have money—they’re broke at the beginning and end of the month,” Valentine quips. “It’s an honor to host the show and the guest performers. If you can make an audience laugh or cry, it’s like an orgasm.”
The Backstory
It should not be a surprise that “Bosom Buddies” has become such staple of Cream City’s drag must-sees. Both Karen Valentine and Maple Veneer are long-term veterans of their craft as well as high profile activists of their community. Meeting in 2004 the pair discovered their mutual affinity and compatibility as performers. “We found we work well together,” Veneer said, “We share the same sense of humor but Karen’s has less swearing.”
As a member of Dale Gutzman’s troupe of itinerant actors, James Strange performed in Kviv and Odessa, Ukraine, in 1993 and 1997. On the second tour he played the lead role in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. His later Off the Wall Theatre appearances include a broad and varied range of roles in such works as Tennessee Williams’ Camino Real (2015), Jean Paul Sartre’s No Exit (2016), and Gutzman’s adaptations of Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus (2018) as Mephistopheles himself no less, and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (2019).
He also did numerous fundraising gigs for a range of charities that includes the Metropolitan Community Church; MKE Drag Queen Story Time for Courage MKE; One Heartland, a local organization dedicated to serving youth health and social needs; Progressive Moms of Milwaukee; and Thrive Learning MKE
As a player for the Saturday Softball Beer League’s (SSBL) Kruz Bar, the lofty 6’6” outfielder thwarted many batters, snatching fly balls with ease by merely stretching his gloved hand over his head. For those unfamiliar with his alter ego, it took a triple take and some convincing that the lanky drag queen Maple Veneer glamorously towering in stiletto heels (channeling 1930’s Berlin aesthetic, “I feel like Marlene Dietrich It’s all coming back,” she says), was indeed the same person.
Michael Johnston, too, has a long history of activism. “I found my community on the stage. I was never an athlete, so I performed,” Johnston said. As a founding member of Milwaukee’s first gay chorus, Fest City Singers in 1985, he helped the community weather the AIDS crisis both emotionally through music and through funding raising in support of the Milwaukee AIDS Project. Over the years, his roles have included bartender, bingo caller, cabaret performer and, since the pandemic, as hostess for Sunday Funday Showtunes.
Johnston was recognized in 2017 with the Shepherd Express LGBTQ Progress in Art and Culture Award for her lifetime of service as performer and as administrator of the Cream City Foundation’s arts dedicated Valentine Fund. In that role, he has distributed thousands of dollars in support of the community’s and the city’s cultural landscape.
Boom Buddies upcoming show dates are September 13 and October 18 at LaCage Niteclub at 5 p.m. Admission is absolutely free.
