Dragged into a Broadway emergency

Michael Gates, aka Maude Boat, with the emergency wig he created for Broadway and some of his other magnificent creations.

When there’s an emergency in the world of drag, it’s often Lismore’s Michael Gates who gets a frantic phone call.

Last week the expert milliner, who owns Lismore Bridal by day, received a vaguely hysterical call from Oscar-winning costume designer Tim Chapel asking if Michael could create a new wig for a Broadway show on the cusp of opening.

Michael was one of the designers of the fabulous sculpted wigs that were a feature of the Australian stage production of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, however, in the show that’s been devised for Broadway a new Material Girl number has been incorporated and the designers realised they desperately needed a Marilyn Monroe/Madonna-style wig.

“It’s a bit like The Boy from Oz – that was produced initially in Australia but when these things go to Broadway they get souped up and new bits get added to the original show,” Michael said. “When an Academy Award winner calls, you drop everything. It’s not the sort of thing you say no to!”

Michael’s sculpted wigs are infamous in the drag scene and he even has a collection of 12 of his wigs housed at the Powerhouse Museum, which he created as part of an exhibition looking at the people who had influenced Mardi Gras.

His own drag persona, Maude Boat, wears a huge sculpted wig of thunderclouds to all her gigs and Michael often makes himself wigs for different events – the last a huge top hat complete with spiky red hair for his role as a compere at the recent Fruitopia day at Lismore Showgrounds.

“I made that because I’m a milliner and I’m a mad hatter,” Michael laughed. “The wigs were my gimmick back in Sydney during the 1990s. I didn’t have much money and wigs were really expensive, and every drag queen was wearing wigs, so I decided to be a little different.”

The Marilyn wig is now winging its way to New York and Michael has returned to making wedding dresses for brides-to-be. But the real question is, how does Michael create these amazing wigs?

“Secret herbs and spices, darling,” he laughed.