Blacklips

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The Blacklips Performance Cult was an avant-garde drag theater troupe based in New York City's Lower East Side, at the Pyramid Club. The troupe was active from summer 1992 to spring 1995.

The troupe was originally founded in the summer of 1992 with Antony Hegarty, Johanna Constantine and Psychotic Eve. In a matter of short time, the troupe had grown to consist of 15 downtown artists.

The troupe started doing shows in the Crow Bar, but soon moved to the Pyramid Club, where they would set up different plays each monday night. The first play was The Scarlet Letter by Antony, shown for the first and last time 12th of October 1992. The last play was 13 WAYS TO DIE, which was shown for the first and last time 13th of March,1995.

The troupe quickly became famous in the underground club culture of the Lower East Side - especially known for it's trademark: "Bloodbags and beauty". In one of the plays, called Starvation the dancers were dressed as maggots, while they were throwing liver around.

It was in the Blacklips Performance Cult, Antony Hegarty first gained attention with his extraordinary voice, when Antony were singing songs as Cripple and the Starfish, Blue Angel and Hitler in my heart in the performances. These songs were later published on his first full-length album. Antony has now reached fame beyond the underground culture with his band, Antony and the Johnsons.