Last night in a drag benefit at Stonewall, an impeccable Cate Blanchett-impersonating drag artist lip synched Dusty Springfield’s version of Leslie Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me.” This would sound like a pretty traditional glamorous celebrity-revering drag routine, but for the fact that said impeccable Blanchett impersonator was Cate Blanchett herself. The actress appeared alongside a group of performers (Margeaux Powell — aka celebrity hair and makeup artist/DisarmHate founder Jason Hayes — Aurora Sexton, Vanice Vega, Candice Cox, Brenda Dharling, and Zola Powell also contributed to the event) at the landmark West Village bar. She showed up onstage bedecked in rhinestones, a Fosse-esque blazer/gold-sequined bra ensemble, and glitter lipstick, and gave just as good of a performance as one might expect from someone who recently made 13 different characters reciting artists’ manifestos a deeply engaging and even funny film experience.
The benefit concert was a one-night-only event, in support of the Newtown Action Alliance, a “grassroots organization founded by Newtown residents after the tragic December 14, 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting” with the aim of ending gun violence. (You can donate here.) The evening was billed as a Broadway Review, and was actually already being promoted by the Newtown Action Alliance months ago:
Beyond her mostly-solo number, Blanchett — currently in NYC on Broadway in The Present and filming Ocean’s Eight — also donned a pussy hat and provided lip-synced backup for a performance of Adele’s “Hello.”
Watch “You Don’t Own Me”:
And here’s a bit of “Hello”:
[Via Vulture]