Three drag queens take a cross-country road trip. When their car breaks down in a small town, they befriend the local women. I disliked To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar when it premiered. I didn’t understand why the trio wore drag full time. I hated that the rapey villains faced no lasting consequences. I’d already seen 1994’s The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The Australian film had a similar plot but focused on the queer characters. To Wong Foo’s drag queens are catalysts for the straight people’s journeys. Roger Ebert described them as family counselors. The film wasn’t for me.

Thirty years later I can appreciate what To Wong Foo accomplished. A film featuring queer people of color was a commercial hit, grossing over $47.7 million. It lacked Priscilla’s misogynistic streak (justice for Cynthia!). Yes, it started straight cis men. But Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze and John Leguizamo give excellent performances. Their roles have more complexity than I initially gave them credit for.

I’ll sum it up in a spoiler filled recap. Trigger warnings for scenes of physical and sexual assault.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Scene One: NY Drag Contest
RUPAUL: The winners are Noxema and Vida! The straight men with bad wigs. You’re going to the Los Angeles finals!
VIDA (Patrick Swayze): “Little Latin Boy, why are you crying?”
CHI CHI (John Leguizamo): I lost. I always lose.
VIDA: You need a drag mother. I’ll swap my plane tickets for a car so that we can all drive to L.A. together.
NOXEMA (Wesley Snipes): This is a bad idea. Stop trying to help strangers.

Scene Two: Traffic Stop
NOXEMA: Why are we traveling in full drag? We’re not trans women.
CHI CHI: I might be a trans woman.
SHERIFF: Pull over ladies. I want to sexually assault you.
VIDA: Nope.
(Vida knocks the Sheriff unconscious. The trio drives away.)

Scene Three: Small Town
VIDA: No time to process that. Our car just broke down.
STOCKARD CHANNING: My abusive husband can repair it.
VIDA: While we’re waiting, let’s give this town a makeover!
NOXEMA: Great. Now we have to perform therapy for white women. While the local men try to molest us.

Scene Four: Hotel Room
CHI CHI: I’m no therapist. I’m gonna date a straight boy.
VIDA: You’ll be killed! And you’re perpetuating negative stereotypes!
CHI CHI: Says the white savior lecturing a woman of color.
(Chi Chi  leaves. Stockard screams.)
NOXEMA: Vida, don’t get involved.
VIDA: I’m getting involved.
(Vida rescues Stockard and throws her abusive husband out.) 

Scene Five: Strawberry Social
(The townswomen have all had makeovers.)
VIDA: Stockard, I’m a…
STOCKARD: An angel with an Adam’s Apple.
SHERIFF: I’m here to arrest a drag queen.
STOCKARD: I’m a drag queen.
TOWNSWOMEN: We’re all drag queens!
SHERIFF: Yipe! (Sheriff flees).
NOXEMA: I never thought these women would stand up for us. Vida, you were right to get involved.
CHI CHI: Great! Now let’s win that drag contest in Los Angeles!
VIDA: Win what now?

THE END

Free Yourself

My inspiration from the script came from watching the religious-right videotape The Gay Agenda. There’s a scene where they show drag queens going through a town, and the narrator is warning viewers that these people will take over your town, and I thought, Well that would be fun.
Screenwriter Douglas Carter Beane.

Chi Chi finds self-worth. Vida learns to be less bossy. Noxema learns empathy. The townsfolk gain the confidence to improve their lives. Stockard Channing, Blythe Danner, Beth Grant and Alice Drummond add layers to their stock roles. Still, I prefer the film’s first act, when the core trio is hanging out and swapping banter. The Sheriff arrives around the 28-minute mark. He, and the subsequent antagonists, try their hardest to suck the joy out of the film.

I like the tropes of found families and communities coming together. I dislike the trope of magic minorities who exist only to serve. Stockard Channing and the townswomen stand up for the trio after their outing. But they never really get to know them. I wish Chi Chi and her suitor had an honest conversation. Or that any of the townswomen traveled to L.A. to support the trio at their competition. I had similar issues with films like Kinky Boots and Pride. In each, the straight community only learns to tolerate queer people once they prove useful.

Douglas Carter Beane had drafted To Wong Foo as a stage play. When it was picked up by Hollywood it seemed he’d have a successful film career. But he soon returned to Broadway. His play, The Little Dog Laughed, recounts the way studios censored the queerness out of his screenplays. His theater works include the librettos for Xanadu and Sister Act. He’d eventually adapt To Wong Foo into a stage musical. Once again Priscilla got there first.

You can find more of my reviews on The Avocado, Letterboxd and Serializd. My podcast, Rainbow Colored Glasses, can be found here.