Review: "BenDeLaCreme: Ready to be Committed'
Edward Medina, Contributing Critic - New York City
All throughout history there have been celebrity weddings for both the famous and the infamous. The wedding of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra nearly tore two empires asunder. Elizabeth Taylor, the modern-day Cleopatra, married eight times. Twice to Richard Burton. Almost eight hundred million people witnessed the wedding of Princess Diana to Prince Charles. That wedding cost one hundred and ten million dollars and included an eighteen-carat oval sapphire ring that would ultimately be worn again by Kate Middleton in her royal wedding to Prince William. Now the time has come for one more queen to join the ranks of the betrothed in wedded bliss.
BenDeLaCreme has returned to the New York City club and cabaret scene with her latest show and like all her others it’s a doozie. Ready to be Committed is the wacky chronicle of her journey to finally tie the knot like all the greats before her. DeLa, as she is best known to her devoted fans, is a RuPaul’s Drag Race favorite and recent MAC Award winning drag queen extraordinaire. She’s once again mixing her talents as a performer and visual artist and taking us on the hunt for her groom to be, the ring, the dress, the cake, the whole kit and caboodle.
This bride comes with quite the dowry. DeLa is an international star with over a decade of performance excellence under her veil. Among her many accomplishments she has written three critically acclaimed solo shows, Terminally Delightful, Cosmos, and Inferno A-Go-Go, all of which premiered in New York City, and all of which have toured around the world. DeLa has appeared on two seasons of the Emmy award winning RuPaul’s Drag Race. In her first season she earned a spot among the show’s Fifteen Fan Favorite Queens of All Time. After being crowned Miss Congeniality in Season Six, she returned to compete in the third season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars where she garnered more challenge wins than any other competitor in the show’s history.
DeLa’s latest show to premiere at the Laurie Beechman Theatre is a ninety-minute mix of live on stage performance and on video cameos. Whether live or on screen it’s all DeLa all the time and it all works in a perfectly timed balance of fabulous art and technical magic. Cupid makes an appearance, there’s a cake topper bride and bridegroom that have plenty to say, along with a cake topper bridezilla bachelorette party that crash the happenings later in the evening. As DeLa worries about being found dead in her apartment surrounded by cats she munches endlessly on talking Doritos, her cell continues to chime with messages from her unsuspecting grinder groom, and she sings the original tunes that provide the soundtrack to her quest. This is an all-encompassing wild ride where you come for the puppet cats and stay for the talking penis water bottle.
Benjamin Putman, who portrays DeLa, is a smart and versatile performer. All of DeLa’s shows are comic to the extreme. There’s the irreverent puns, the naughty asides to the audience, and the endless double entendres. When she’s shopping for a wedding ring, it’s a Beyonce inspired Single Medieval Ladies number about the history of marriage. When she’s searching for a wedding dress it becomes a Yeth to the Dreth parody slash glamorous runway show. BenDeLaCreme’s Ready to be Committed is another spectacular creation all wrapped in one beautifully fashion clad mistress of mirth that any audience would be lucky to be marry.
For additional information on BenDeLaCreme’s touring schedule please visit her website.