Outrageous (musical)
| Outrageous! | |
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Promotional poster
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| Directed by | Richard Benner |
| Produced by |
William T. Marshall Peter O'Brian Henk Van der Kolk |
| Written by |
Richard Benner (screenplay Margaret Gibson (short story) |
| Starring |
Craig Russell Hollis McLaren Richert Easley |
| Music by |
With Original Songs by Brenda Hoffert Paul Hoffert |
| Cinematography | James B. Kelly |
| Edited by | George Appleby |
| Distributed by | Cinema 5 Distributing |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $165,000 |
Outrageous! is a 1977 Canadian comedy film. Directed and written by Richard Benner, the film stars Craig Russell as Robin Turner, a female impersonator, and Hollis McLaren as Liza Conners, Turner's schizophrenic roommate. The film initially takes place in Toronto, Canada.
The film is based on "Making It", a short story by writer Margaret Gibson from her 1976 collection The Butterfly Ward; Russell and Gibson were roommates in real life.
Outrageous! was one of the first gay-themed films ever to receive widespread theatrical release in North America. The film inspired the sequel Too Outrageous! released in 1987.
A stage musical adaptation of the film was produced by Canadian Stage in 2000.
Robin Turner is an inept hairdresser. He does hair and makeup for the local drag shows but longs to get up on stage himself. His best friend, Liza, is schizophrenic. She had been institutionalized but decided to leave the facility.
Liza has a delusional episode in which she believes that "The Bonecrusher" from "The Other Place" is lying on top of her. Robin helps her push the Bonecrusher off and Liza tells him about the Other Place and her friend from there, Zara. Zara protects her from the Bonecrusher, who tells Liza that she is "the one born dead" and wants to take her to live in the Other Place forever.
A social worker visits Liza and they review Liza's lengthy list of medications. The social worker stresses that it would be very dangerous for Liza to become pregnant. When Robin comes home from work, Liza is excited that she was able to function with the social worker. Robin, however, is depressed. A client had urged him to be adventurous with her hairstyle but then reacted badly when Robin styled it like Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra.
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