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Los Angeles Theater Review

Ugly Coco!
October 10, 2007
By Wenzel Jones

"Drag queen-monologuist-world savior" Coco Peru has been around the block quite a few times and wears her experiences well, able now to embrace the transcendent and the petty, often within the same heartbeat. She still wears her classic little A-line frock and signature red wig, the latter of which is looking sleeker than ever. Actually, Kathy Griffin's current hair looks very similar, which is no doubt one of the downsides of having an unerring sense of personal style and a modicum of fame: You become a template for others.

Clinton Leupp, the man beneath the mascara, has created an enviable life through Coco, but sometimes it's not quite clear which of the two -- creator or creation -- had all these experiences. Of course it's fun to think that it was brash, slightly vulgar Coco who married Rafael "in a castle in Spain on the Mediterranean" or first tried sushi at the behest of Bea Arthur, but one tends to picture Leupp unadorned in these situations. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine anyone other than Coco accompanying Liza Minnelli to see Barbra Streisand's concert and being introduced by Liza to Barbra backstage, which seems like the sort of event that should at least qualify for a footnote in gay history.

Michael Schiralli's direction is seamless. There's nothing about the production that doesn't look as if it springs directly from Coco. The night reviewed, Derek Kojak's sound design was a bit loud, which works against the performer's vocal limitations. Coco isn't a bad singer, but she's more about styling than quality, and when it's overmiked one tends to focus on the latter. Perhaps the most successful aspect of this show is the writing. Leupp has a way of tossing out about a million ideas and stories, and at first it looks like standup in heels. As the performer continues, however, first one thread and then the other are deftly picked up and woven together, and by the time it's over, elements as disparate as the Peter Pan ride at Disney World, drag as a calling, and a favorite stained-glass window at St. John the Divine synthesize into something that hearkens to the very root of theatre: storytelling as immanence.

San Francisco Bay Area Reporter, March 17, 2005

CELEBRATED DRAG QUEEN TELLS ALL
by Richard Dodds
The first drag queen I ever saw onstage closed out her act by lip-syncing to Shirley Bassey's "This Is My Life". It was a showy close, but also a little sad, for while it might be her life, the fact had to be declared in someone else's voice.
But when Clinton Leupp, as Miss Coco Peru, finishes his show with "This Is My Life," not only is it belted out live, it puts an honest exclamation point on an evening that has revealed a life. With issues. Lots of them.
Miss Coco Peru is Undaunted marks the first San Francisco performance for the celebrated drag queen, a term she refuses to shed despite it career liabilities. For more than 90 minutes, Coco solidly holds the stage at the New Conservatory Theatre Center in a carefully wrought collection of ramblings and unexpected songs, staged by Michael Schiralli and with Eric Cole providing piano accompaniment.
Looking like the hyper-groomed Brie on Desperate Housewives and sounding like a cussing Anne Meara, the rubbery-faced Bronx entertainer is alternately bitter("I've been at this for thirteen years, and I'm still handing out flyers"), big-hearted (stories about her mother are priceless), and a realist (she sings "Beauty and the Beast" about herself).
While Coco can dangle her feet into a pool of sentimentality, she always yanks them out before going too deep. But when she imagines herself a gay Charles Bronson, taking out homophobic assholes and even obnoxious parents, she lets the vigilante fantasies stand.
It is the brutal honesty behind the comic facade that makes Miss Coco Peru a special event. When she tells us of her dream to star in the stage production of The Little Mermaid, we laugh before she convinces us that, damn it, she'd be perfect.

* * * * * * *
www.talkinbroadway.com March 23, 2005

THE UNDAUNTED MISS COCO PERU COMES TO SAN FRANCISCO
By Richard Connema
Drag queen extraordinaire Miss Coco Peru is holding court at the larger Decker Theatre at the New Conservatory Theatre Center through April 3rd. This very svelte diva, with a belting voice that is part Merman and part Tommy Tune, gives a dazzling 90-minute performance of stories and songs. Miss Peru, aka Clinton Leupp, is making her San Francisco debut after thirteen years in the business. As she says, "What the hell took you so long to ask me?" I want to know that too since she has been knocking out audiences on both coasts and recently won the 2004 GLAAD Award for Outstanding Los Angeles Theatre.
You might ask just who is this person whose looks are a cross between Marlo Thomas and Joan Collins and whose voice is a mixture of Charles Nelson Reilly, Paul Lynn and Lola Falana. Clinton Leupp is a native of the Bronx who had a rough childhood, with everyone calling him a "fag" or "girlyboy," so he decided to become a drag queen. After college he produced, directed and starred in his first show, Miss Coco Peru in My Goddamn Cabaret in 1991 which ran for two years at New York's Rose's Turn where she became a downtown cult favorite. Miss Coco became Leupp's alter ego when he received a 1992 MAC and Backstage Bistro Award for Miss Coco Peru: A Legend in Progress. Miss Coco has appeared in such movies as Girls Will Be Girls, To Wong Fo - Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar and Nick and Jane. She appeared on Bravo's reality show Boy Meets Boy and NBC's Will and Grace.
Michael Schiralli - who has directed Seth Rudetsky, Kristin Chenoweth, Varla Jean Merman and will be directing Tammy Faye Starlite - has devised a smooth 90 minutes of fun stories and songs. Leupp has written all of the material, recollections of his growing up and coming to terms with his identity. The act opens with Coco looking out of the frame of a large dressing room mirror and saying "Who is the fairest of them all?" She finds out she is not the fairest and then goes into a story of a middle-age woman in a chain drug store buying beauty creams but afraid to look into a mirror that reflects middle age.
The vivacious diva tells stories about her experiences on the reality show Boy Meets Boy with a person named Andrea, on the film Girls Will be Girls with Varla Jean Merman and Evie Harris. There is a wonderful story she tells about going to "work" in drag on a subway in New York plus some very heartfelt stories about her mother in the Bronx. Coco even makes a confession of being a "free prostitute on the streets of Manhattan" that is absolutely hilarious. She gets very serious when talking of finding who exactly she is and where she is currently in life's progress.
Throughout the story telling, Coco intersperses songs with her belting voice, including songs from The Little Mermaid and Beauty and Beast. She is great with "Sing," and, in a song from Chicago, she changes the the name from Roxie to Coco. There are two very upbeat songs at the beginning of the session, the upbeat "Beautiful" from Carol King's Tapestry and Alan Menken's exuberant feel-good song, "These are the Good Times."
Clinton Leupp has created the most engaging drag character in years. Miss Coco is elegant and glamorous, with a New York sophistication, yet she is very human and personable. Eric Cole accompanies her on the piano with great ease.

* * * * * * *
Los Angeles Times, October 2003

BENDING EARS, MINDS, AND GENDERS
by F. Kathleen Foley
Glitz or angst? Camp or gloom? Miss Coco Peru, now at the Gay & Lesbian Center's Renberg Theatre in her one-woman show, "Miss Coco Peru is Undaunted", is a creature of many moods and mercurial temperament. A sweet solo from Disney's "The Little Mermaid" is laced with barked expletives. An account of a sentimental journey to Ireland turns suddenly acidic. Miss Coco candidly confides, "Im sorry I write shows to work out my issues and then charge you to see it."
We're not. The fabulous Miss Coco Peru, drag queen extraordinaire, can bend our ears-and our perceptions-anytime.
Miss Coco Peru is the brainchild of Clinton Leupp, who over the last decade or so has amassed quite a cult following on both coasts, for obvious reasons. Simply put, Miss Coco is a heavenly hoot, a svelte diva with a belt voice and a Bronx accent who acts like a bizarre hybrid of Paul Lynde and Lola Falana. Recently, Miss Coco, who typically refers to herself in the third person, has been critically lauded for the independent film "Girls Will Be Girls." The film garnered Leupp both the best actress award at the HBO Comedy Arts Festival, and the best actor award at Outfest, L.A.'s premier gay and lesbian film festival.
If those gender-bending awards bespeak a certain duality in Miss Coco's temperament, so does this show, which details how often Miss Coco has straddled the divide between saint and sinner, ladylike sweetness and stevedore crassness. Under the direction of Michael Schiralli, Miss Coco sings, sasses, and tells stories, usually about her own past. Wry and uncensored, the show is a hilarious exorcism, with music, no less. Hey, that's entertainment.

* * * * * * * * *
L.A. Weekly, October 30, 2003

MISS COCO PERU IS UNDAUNTED
By Lovell Estell III
If there were an award for most girlish and glamorous, funniest, mouthiest diva/icon/trannie/comedian, the inimitable Miss Coco Peru (Clinton Leupp) would win hands down. Yes, she's back in town with another one of her delightful shows (or are they sessions?). Coco loves to spin anecdotes and stories; we hear about her trip to an exotic castle in Spain with her mother and lover Raphael; another excursion to the Emerald Isle with her firecracker of a mother; her adventures in N.Y. with entertainment folk; and her inspiring take on Disney's The Little Mermaid. What is so engaging about this show is Miss Coco's rapier sense of humor, and her polished stage demeanor, which should make anyone with any misgivings about camp comedy take a pause. And the lady sings too, quite well, accompanied by Howard Hill on piano. When I left, I had the feeling that I'd just spent an enjoyable evening with a dear friend. Michael Schiralli directs.

* * * * * * * *
L.A. Weekly, April 25, 2001

GLORIOUS WOUNDS…SHE'S DAMAGED
By Madeleine Shaner
Clinton Leupp reveals all the wounds inflicted by a life lived half in the shadows. But in a glam gown accentuating womanly curves, Leupp is now gloriously "out" as well-coifed Miss Coco Peru. Under the direction of Jim Fall, Leupp's Miss Coco is not simply a drag queen/gender illusionist but a stunningly expert entertainer, who relies not on jokes but on honest stories about real life. The tales cover school-yard taunts, a harrowing rehabilitation following a fall through a glass shower door at age 16, the loving acceptance of slightly weird parents, a six-year relationship with Raphael (". . . he's Spanish"), and even an abduction by aliens (who subsequently deposited her on the roof of the 24-hour Ralphs market at the corner of Coldwater and Ventura). The humor lies in the honest admissions of bitterness and the resulting creative — but imaginary — revenge scenarios which even the score for past rejections. The self-ribbing Leupp eschews cliché, managing to be hilarious, inebriating and elegant all at the same time. Leupp's creation is crude when she needs to be, tender when the time's right (perhaps a bit sappy in the clinches), but always delightfully smooth on the palate. Not only that, she sings too!