Starr in the spotlight
It’s been five years since American-born Tassie-based drag diva Miz Ima Starr last brought her irrepressible energy to a Melbourne stage.
She makes her long-awaited return this month with Hello Miz American Pie, a cabaret-cum-onstage memoir about her fabulous life to date.
“I live in a state of perpetual excitement — some might say hysteria — which has intensified a thousandfold at the prospect of singing my amply endowed lungs out while staggering back into the Melbourne spotlight,” Starr told the Star Observer.
“As readers of the Star Observer are no doubt aware, I’ve spent the last couple of years being totally televisual on C31 and Aurora presenting Beauty & The Bear with that hunk of hairy love,
Nathan Little. You can catch us in repeats every Sunday night at 8.30pm if you like your arts chat more bent than a pretzel and twice as salty.”
Brazen plug out of the way, Starr promised that her stage show would take audiences on a journey through the glamorous highs — and less-than-glamorous lows — of her incredible 21 years in show business.
“Truth be told, it’s been a long road from dancing for tips at the Cheesecake Factory in Smackahoochie to the glittering heights of pop stardom in… New Zealand. But Hello Miz American Pie packs all of this and more into a bedazzled 70 minutes of song and streaming mascara,” she enthused.
Aside from her show, Starr is also hard at work on her debut album with New Zealand producer Marshall Smith, who she’s been working with for some 18 years. The tracklist is still being finalised, but in the meantime audiences at Hares and Hyenas will be treated to highlights from her two EPs to date, Pop Object and American Pie.
“[The album] will be a classic dance-pop album, which, like a corny MOR radio station, will combine the best of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.
“It’s one of the advantages of being a proper grown-up — I’ve heard a hell of a lot of music, both good and bad, and I know what kind I want to be singing.”
Most of all, the diva said she was excited to be performing in the intimate confines of Melbourne’s iconic queer bookshop, a space steeped in LGBTI history, and where she’ll be able to get up close and personal with the punters who’ve come to see her.
“I like to be able to reach out and touch an audience… and then add in a free lap dance and happy ending if we’re all in the mood.”
Head to the giveaways section of the Star Observer website for your chance to win a ‘Starr Pack’, containing a double pass to Hello Miz American Pie, posters, collectable post cards, and Miz Ima Starr’s two EPs.
INFO: Miz Ima Starr, Hares and Hyenas, April 12 – 21. www.trybooking.com
