STORMÉ is a dramatic play with music based on a true story and real life events about the legendary Stormé DeLarverie, a big band singer under the name Stormy Dale, a male impersonator of the Jewel Box Revue—America’s first racially integrated and gay owned drag show, and an icon of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion. Stormé’s journey begins in New Orleans as a child of mixed race, learning to fight for herself and for her identity. While performing in Chicago with big bands as a singer under the stage name Stormy Dale, she befriends Billy Strayhorn, a gay pianist/composer for Duke Ellington’s Orchestra. Soon after, she falls in love with a chorus line dancer, Diana, slowly shedding her girly persona in defiance of local crossdressing laws and forming ties with mobsters. She teams up with Danny Brown, owner of the Jewel Box Revue drag show, performing as emcee and male impersonator Stormé DeLarverie—one girl & 25 men. She is protective papa to femme illusionists like Billy Daye—the male Billie Holiday. Stormé’ and her fiends live under constant threat from the NYPD, who harass and arrest cross-dressers under the guise of masquerade laws and gays gathering in bars under ban by the NY State Liquor Authority,. Can Stormé survive as a staunch defender of those living on the margins of society?

True Colors

true colors project/my true colors festival