'Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet' hits Whitefish Friday

When the 70-year-old retired Presbyterian minister and her 84-year-old retired minister husband perused the Whitefish Theatre Co.’s proposed 2016-17 schedule, there was a single act that stuck out above the rest.

And not just because of the four men in drag.

JeanAnne Swope, co-sponsor along with her husband Jim Mechem, and the WTC are presenting the Kinsey Sicks on Friday night at the O’Shaughnessy Center at 8 p.m., for one night only. It is the first drag show in the community theater company’s 38 seasons.

“When Whitefish Theatre Co. decided they wanted to bring something that was a little bit more on the cutting edge of culture in the valley, we decided we wanted to sponsor it,” Swope said. “We think that it’s very important for there to be a variety of culture in the valley and we really celebrate that the theater is bringing entertainment that might bring younger people.”

For Swope, helping bring the Kinsey Sicks to Whitefish had a personal connection, too. Her son, Michael Adee, is a human rights and gay rights activist in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Swope said she and her husband have been supporting LGBTQ artists and performers for “probably 20 to 30 years.”

Adee, too, gave the group his own personal recommendation.

“I had not heard of (the Kinsey Sicks) but as soon as we heard about the possibility I called our son and he said ‘oh you’ve got to do it, they’re great,’” Swope said.

The Kinsey Sicks bill themselves as “America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet” and have been performing across the country for more than 20 years, including a run in Las Vegas and an off-Broadway production.

The quartet’s garish costumes, wigs and makeup make them physically hard to miss, but it was a shared love of music that first brought the group together. The live show they will be performing Friday, “Chicks with Shticks,” blends four-part harmonies with satirical riffs on popular music and includes spoofed versions of hits ranging from “A Whole New World” to “What Does the Fox Say?” to “Let it Go” from the movie “Frozen.”

Friday’s show will be the group’s first performance ever in the state of Montana.

“We’ve done almost every state in the country,” Ben Schatz, one of the show’s co-stars said. “So being able to get that notch on our belt of one more unsuspecting victim is always a pleasure.”

JEN ASEBROOK, the development director at the WTC, said the company had been talking with the Kinsey Sicks for three years before booking an appearance. Asebrook acknowledged that the show was “not the safest choice” but shared Swope’s enthusiasm for the group and the chance to bring something new to the venerable theater.

“You can show mountain paintings until you’re blue in the face,” Asebrook said, drawing a corollary between the arts. “But maybe, every once in a while, you want to try something more modern. Your patrons may not be used to it, or like it, but you have to try from time to time.

“And this is a group that’s really high quality,” she continued. “Everybody who ever sees them can find the joy in their comedy even if they might offend you. And not a lot of it is supposed to be offensive. It’s just supposed to be satire which you may not agree with.”

“We’re not just entertainers, we’re provokers,” Schatz said. “Not provocateurs but provokers. We like to make people think and make people laugh and we do. We like to push buttons and that has it’s value.”

The timing of bringing in the Kinsey Sicks — who also perform a political show called “Electile Dysfunction” — just three days after the U.S. election was not lost on the organizers either.

“They’re politically incorrect,” Swope said. “Which, this week, could be even more exciting to hear what new material they’ll be coming up with.”

“We’re not mostly a political show but we do not shy away from it,” Schatz said. “You don’t want us at a dinner party (where) you’re not supposed to talk about religion and politics. This is not a dinner party so welcome to our world and, really, dinner parties where you can’t talk about anything real are kind of boring anyway.”

Tickets were still available as of Tuesday. Asebrook explained that bringing in a national touring act like the Kinsey Sicks was more expensive than most shows at the theater, necessitating a higher-than-usual ticket price. She did add, however, that many of the tickets already sold had come from outside the group’s usual list of buyers.

“We have people coming from Missoula and other places that have said ‘I cannot believe the Kinsey Sicks are coming to Montana!’” Asebrook said. “It’s been interesting as the tickets come through; we’re like ‘huh, don’t know who that is, don’t know who that is.’”

“I’m actually bringing 15 women from across the state of Montana who are coming to my house for the weekend,” Swope said. “We billed it as a cultural weekend and they said ‘great, it would never come to my community.’”

Tickets, as available, will be sold up until show time via phone at 406-862-5371, online at www.whitefishtheatreco.org or at the O’Shaughnessy Center’s box office, which is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at 1 Central Ave. in Whitefish.

The show is for mature audiences only.

More information on the Kinsey Sicks, including audio and video clips, is available at www.kinseysicks.com.

Entertainment editor Andy Viano can be reached at 758-4439 or