Jack & The Drag Show

Jack & The Drag Show was an artist's talk at the Newport Art Museum on June 24, 2021.

While the undercover operation marched on, the Navy was simultaneously producing a lavish production of Jack and the Beanstalk, touring the show around New England to drum up support and entice young men to enlist. The show featured a 25-piece orchestra and a cast of over 100, with quite a few Navy men performing in drag.

The talk focused on the US Navy’s use of musical theater as a marketing tool, while also touching on music of the era, the history of Jack and the Beanstalk, a brief history of Vaudeville and several of its more interesting characters of the time, and how all this material relates to our larger, multi-year project Scandalous Conduct / Newport 1919.