As summer 2010 started, Golden Apple seemed it might close due to mounting debts and diminishing audiences. A combination of construction projects in the front and back of the theater building, a crucial lack of parking, the recession, increasing costs, and an investment in a second possible theater that went sour with the real-estate bust threatened to put an end to the longest continuing running dinner theater in America.
The Apple’s unlikely savior? A staff member who frequently also acted in its musicals. Berry Ayers had been doing bingo in drag for mostly gay fans on off nights and late nights. But the place where he played was fighting complaints of too much noise from the game and its audience of players, so he appealed to his Apple boss, Robert Turoff, to use that venue on off-nights. Berry, as voluptuous blonde Beneva Fruitville, along with a partner, brunette Lindsay Carleton, became an instant hit. Soon the duo boasted of taking over downtown on Friday nights with their Drag Queen Bingo that was not just a game but theater. Golden Apple offered free entry with reservations (since changed to $5 pp) but profited from sales of drinks and of food from a Light Bites menu (instead of the traditional buffet). It also built a younger than usual audience for its regular shows with more edge than the Apple’s usual fare.
Beneva Fruitville: The InterSEXtion! is Berry Ayers’ one person, all-out creation in which he puts forth his autobiography as “Drag Queen Bingo” star. From two Sarasota avenue/roads that intersect, he got his drag name like a bolt from the blue as he stood between them. As he maintains in this show, he believes he’s meant to be a queen who changes mankind (sent by God on a mission that’s spiritual). Still, it concerns “mostly me.”
Much of what I stayed for included the usual ingredients of DQ bingo: a game where everyone uses their hands, when an O number is called, to make a vagina-like circle in the air. Beneva sings, dances, works the audience by playing up to the gals (scads of beer-swilling young adults, mostly), “borrowing” drinks from onlookers’ tables, swinging a leg around a neck or two of a guy or two, exchanging quips.
While Beneva makes many a change of glittery costume, he remains front-forward as the star -- by way of videos projected above the stage. S/he thus gives a lesson on applying make-up. S/he typically climbs backstage to a costume room, supposedly where “little Asian children” sew glam and glitter on Beneva’s clothes.
Beneva takes note of the holiday season in his/her banter, with abundant references to baby Jesus. These are balanced by liberal use of the f-word. Beneva and fans seem to think these are funny. Beneva/Berry has a fine voice and seems to really enjoy being a celebrity, walking among and talking to those who’ve made that happen. Their most Fruitville applause goes to their idol’s doing “Juno splits for Jesus.”
