Legend has it that hidden in the land of Brooklyn exists a place called Fagtasia. Its creator is trans drag royalty... But you may call her Baby Love. She wields a sharp wit (not to mention a lethal face card) and a relentless drive to bring all her wildest visions to life. Her superpower is an infectious concoction of, “[being] fat, beautiful, cunty, funny, and fierce.� Through her journey of unsheathing her most authentic self and her quest to find belonging, she’s lived by one simple phrase: “Don’t dream it, be it.�
Fagtasia is a drag parody show that reimagines Broadway classics and cult favorites with a queer twist. The show played at 3 Dollar Bill and is looking at new, intimate venues in the future. The formula to the fantasy lies in its ability to take nostalgic material, reveal its inherent campiness, and give it a new life, through pop culture references and drag humor. Flipping the script is an intentional effort, Love explains, “the point of me rewriting them is to queer the canon; inject this level of queer storytelling into characters that we love and making them something totally different and new that have some newer lessons to teach to people.�
Love writes, directs, produces, and stars in each production alongside an entirely queer cast. Previous parodies include Hairspray (Hairslay), Phantom of the Opera (Tran-tom of the Opera), Wicked (Wickedt), and Chicago (She-cago) just to name a few. You might even spot some starry guests in the crowd. During Fagtasia’s sold-out Wickedt, Bowen Yang FaceTimed Love’s rendition of “Popular� to fellow Glinda, Ariana Grande. However, Love is just as much a certified nerd as she is a theatre geek. Just last year, she was commissioned by HBO to create a Fagtasia production recapping the first season of House of the Dragon.
To understand the success of her queendom, we must look underneath the rhinestoned armor at the genius herself.
Love exudes an untouchable confidence, but she admits that she’s always felt like an outcast. Her lore starts in Holmdel, New Jersey. Growing up, she was the oddball of the family: a queer child with artistic talents amongst two generations of accountants. So, pursuing the arts was out of the equation. Instead, she went to business school and even served on the board of her university’s business fraternity (these days, she’s serving in a different way). Little did she know, it was there she would have a drag awakening after being cast as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the annual Rocky Horror Picture Show on campus.
“I was terrified,� remembers Love. “But doing that role really broke through a lot of things for me, because I sort of realized the facade of the world, [how] all these people seem to care about all these things, but at the end of the day, none of them really matter." And thus, Baby Love was born.
After, Love moved to New York City with high hopes of finding her people, only to be side-eyed by her peers, “I was always the girl who's doing too much. I'm showing up to the gig with costume changes and a prop, and people are like, ‘I have a body suit and thigh highs. Like, why are you doing this?’�
Love’s early drag signature was rocking a babydoll face and a hairy body—the perfect
dichotomy of Manhattan and Brooklyn drag esthetics. Still, she was heartbroken by the lack
of inclusivity in New York’s night-life scene. “Gay clubs can be generally intimidating,
especially in New York. It's not the most welcoming space for people. For gay guys? Sure.
Even then, they still feel intimidated. But for queer people? Femmes? Girl, it's tough to feel
included and embraced.� There she was, an outcast again. She took matters into her own
hands.
For ¹ó²¹²µ³Ù²¹²õ¾±²¹â€�s debut production at gay bar C’mon Everybody, Love decided to pen a parody inspired by a trilogy that was formative to her as a child: The Lord of the Rings. Despite other queens in the scene saying the show would never sell and advising her to pivot, she stuck to her guns and performed to a roaring crowd of queers, nerds, and femmes—exceeding the venue’s capacity, even spilling onto the street. Surprised by the overwhelming reception, Love realized, “Oh, it seems like my people do exist. They're just waiting for the call: ‘This space is for us, come on out.’â€�
Since its official launch in 2022, Fagtasia has become a creative hub for queer artists, designers, performers, and technicians. The crowning glory of this theatre company is that every single person residing in this queen’s court is queer. As the mother of the House of Fagtasia, Love is fiercely protective of the community she’s built, emphasizing: “[This] really doesn't exist in the world. Even in traditional Broadway, Off-Broadway, it's [not usually] the case that everyone in the room, all of the decision makers, are all queer people.�
With this team, not even limited resources and tight budgets intimidate Love’s imagination. Set pieces are made from cardboard and paint, and yards of sequin drape dress the stage to completely transform a nightclub into a proscenium theatre. Love lights up and boasts through a chuckle, “It’s about taking the cheapest things that people throw away and putting them together to make something magnificent.�
Love takes that same innovative approach with her casting, placing herself and other trans artists in roles that they wouldn’t otherwise be offered in traditional theatre spaces. “I very much view myself as the Miss Piggy of the drag theatre sphere, because she was a pig playing these iconic roles, right? That's how I feel.� In Fagtasia, beloved characters are given trans or non-binary arcs and relationships, shedding light on underrepresented aspects of the trans experience. These fresh portrayals challenge norms and expand the possibilities of who can occupy these roles.
In an industry often dominated by cis men, Fagtasia is the exception, as a uniquely femme-forward troupe committed to uplifting trans women and providing them with mentorship and a community (a personal mission that Love is passionate about). “I definitely have an affinity for trans women,� says Love, “and putting them in front of these productions and spaces and trying to instill confidence, as well as [sharing] life lessons or just support in various ways.� Many audience members have also reached out to Love, saying how affirmed and validated they felt from attending a Fagtasia show. Some even have revelations about their own identity after being immersed in an unapologetically trans space.
But the biggest supporters of Fagtasia are Love’s family. Show day becomes a family affair, with all hands on deck. Her dad and brother-in-law sell merch in the lobby, while her mom feeds the cast and crew, and her sister is in the trenches helping with quick changes. Both the Speranza family and her chosen family come together to make each show possible.
With trans rights currently under fire, Fagtasia takes a defiant stand and does so loudly and clearly. During ¹ó²¹²µ³Ù²¹²õ¾±²¹â€™s most recent production, Hairslay, that kicked off Pride month, Baby Love (as Tracy Turn(t)blad) calls out the current administration, answering Corny Collin’s question of what her first official act would be as the first female president: “Well, first, I’d eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts! Then, I’d scrub anything gay or trans from every public record in the government! Oh! And then, I’d start deporting people left and right, regardless of citizenship! Oh and of course, I’d abolish DEI day!â€�
To which Corny responds with, “I read you like tomorrow’s headlines, Tracy.�
Interjects Love, “Or today’s.�
When asked what advice she has for those embarking the journey of self-acceptance, Love focuses on safety saying, “It’s one thing to know yourself and to celebrate and embrace yourself, but safety is a real concern for our community at large at the moment. I would encourage, first and foremost, people to be safe. Don't feel pressured to present or go out in a certain way, just because somebody on the internet is telling you something, prioritize your safety.�
The road to Fagtasia was not without bumps and hurdles, but Love continues to defy each challenge knowing the resulting impact and joy far outweighs any hardship: “If you're really passionate about something, you need to work really hard at it, because at a certain point the love will fade away, because it's going to be so hard. And you need to be willing to see the forest through the trees, and push through and keep working hard. You have to have faith that you’re gonna create something wonderful at the end.�
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