Ophelia’s Jump Productions celebrates Pride Month with a feel-good intimate stage revival of Matthew Lopez’s 2015 off-Broadway crowd-pleaser The Legend Of Georgia McBride.

The Georgia in question starts off her life in drag as a handsome young Elvis impersonator named Casey (Jacob Wilson), barely making ends meet these days at a Panama City dive run by good ol’ boy Eddie (Jeff Sable).

Unfortunately for Casey, business isn’t all that great of late despite some expert hip-swiveling, just one reason the rent check he owes landlord Jason (Gabriel Reign Raphael) is overdue.

No wonder then that when Eddie informs Casey that he’s being replaced by a drag queen, the news does not sit well with our handsome hero, particularly since he’s just been informed by wife Jo (Chelsea Caracoza) that a baby is on the way.

The drag queen in question is Eddie’s cousin “Miss Tracy Mills” (Jonathan Miller), whose arrival in town alongside fellow female impersonator Anorexia “Miss Rexy” Nervosa (Raphael) just might bring in the bucks that Elvis has not, that is if Miss Nervosa can say sober long enough to make her Panama City debut.

A passed-out Rexy soon leaves Miss Tracy and Eddie in a bit of a pickle, that is until they realize that Elvis in spangled white satin isn’t all that far removed from drag, and despite considerable protests, Casey is persuaded to impersonate Edith Piaf for a night.

 Not surprisingly, it takes the artist previously known as Elvis a while to get used to padded bra-and-girdle, panties, and heels, and truth be told, his first go at Edith suggests it may be his last, though he does learn at least one drag queen trick. (Just mouth “watermelon motherfucker” if you don’t know the words.)

Fortunately for audiences, the newly christened Miss Georgia McBride does get invited back for more, and much of the pleasure in Lopez’s comedy comes from watching Casey, whose love of performing dates back to his high school’s Sweeney Todd, discover his feminine side (and in so doing, like Dustin Hoffman’s Tootsie learn how to be a better man).

Director Caitlin Lopez elicits such stellar performances from the entire Georgia McBride cast that I defy any but the most irredeemably prejudiced not to fall under Georgia’s spell.

With his chiseled features and lean-muscled torso to match, Wilson not only looks damn good as Elvis, much of the joy in watching his revelatory star turn is in seeing how discovering the Georgia within him makes Casey a better man, and no fledgling drag queen could have a more magnifique mentoress than Miller’s fabulous and formidable Miss Tracy, who reveals unexpected depth when caught unexpectedly out of drag.

Caracoza gives Jo as much fire as warmth, and never more so than when confronted with a husband’s deception, and Sable is so convincing as Eddie, you might swear he’s been a Panama Beach denizen all his life.

 Last but not least, Raphael is so sass-sational as Miss Rexy you’d never guess this is his acting debut, and though I’d axe the woman’s platinum bob he sports as Casey and Jo’s landlord Jason, he makes a pretty darned credible straight dude too.

Though I can’t help wishing that there’d been a way for scenic designer Beatrice Casagrán to divide the stage area between nightclub and Casey and Jo’s residence and thereby eliminate all the sofa lugging that’s going on throughout the show, on the plus side, the action keeps moving along nonstop despite the somewhat intrusive presence of hard-working stage crew members Fatima Coto and Jace Taylor.

Casagrán scores top marks for her costumes as does Vickie Scott for her lighting design, Krys Fehervari for her drag wigs, and Mia Valdez for her glam makeup designs, and doubling as sound designer, Lopez’s lip-syncable song choices are all club-ready winners.

The Legend Of Georgia McBride is produced by John Neiuber. Casagrán is producing artistic director. Mireya Brocatto is stage manager. Allison McSwain is assistant lighting designer.

Though not exactly what you’d call PG entertainment, there’s probably no play that celebrates the true meaning of family quite like The Legend Of Georgia McBride, and just in time for Pride 2026, Ophelia’s Jump Productions does the reluctant drag queen the justice she deserves.

Ophelia’s Jump, 2009 Porterfield Way Suite H, Upland. Through June 28. Friday and Saturday at 8:00. Sunday at 4:00.
www.opheliasjump.org

–Steven Stanley
June 21, 2026

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Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Matthew Lopez, Ophelia's Jump Productions