Being Beautiful

That it's a history play based in documented fact would be enough to distinguish McKinley Johnson's account of female impersonators working in Chicago's Depression-era cabarets. But a serviceable roster of songs composed by Johnson and collaborator Stephanie Newsom, in addition to a variety of dances choreographed by the legendary Joel Hall, lend an air of cheerful fantasy, even as the hard decisions faced by Afton Cousins in pursuit of his destiny keep us firmly grounded in social responsibility. Still, beauty transcends the glamorous illusion by which these men support families often unaware of their income's source.  (As Miss Lonette, Afton's mentor, reminds him, "God don't make ugly, and Beauty doesn't last.")

The show currently playing at Bailiwick Rep is more of a conventional musical than the play-with-music version that premiered at the South Side's Chicago Theater Company last year; act one finishes with a  flourish, the scenes in the Club Lido are more playful ("There's one of me in  your family, too!" Miss Lonette assures a customer), the middle aged Afton retains more of his effeminate mannerisms, and Bill Morey's costumes make you want to become a drag queen just so you can wear clothes like these.

Despite these concessions to commercial entertainment values, however, Being Beautiful ultimately emerges as a docudrama of substance and wisdom whose ideas continue to beguile us long after the skin-deep attractions fade.