2024 Fringe Festival Review: Fabulous Elagabalus

Fabulous Elagabalus, written and performed by Antonio Bavaro, is a musical about a Queer and transgender Roman empress. The one-person play was perfectly over-the-top and raunchy. While its production was a little rough around the edges, it only added to the ridiculousness of the play.

While it wasn’t the most educational history lesson, it was the most enjoyable I’ve had. The plot was thin, but it didn’t need any more than it had. Elagabalus spent most of the play basking in their power and pleasure without much skill in actually ruling. The charm of the play was in the shamelessly flamboyant and Queer character Bavaro brought to life.

The tech crew deserves some credit for their part in the play. With only one person on-stage, the lighting and sound plays the support role. And it was played well. Pre-recorded tracks of music, other characters’ voices, and senate chambers gave layers to the performance. Even with a couple sound delays, the performance didn’t suffer — largely thanks to Bavaro’s ability to play it off or make it into a joke.

The only other person that somewhat joined Bavaro onstage was the narrator. She was projected onto a small screen above the stage throughout parts of the play to add some history and context. Her own charms and dramatics complimented Elagabalus, and this addition helped move the story forward. When she wasn’t occupying the screen, images on it helped move the audience to different settings in a simple way.

Other than the crew and narrator, Bavaro’s performance was assisted by some props — a trunk of them in fact. Each prop Bavaro pulled from the trunk seemed to only get more ridiculous, whether it was horny Ken dolls or messy foam-heads.

Although Bavaro’s dancing was more silly than technically good, it added even more charm to the play. They opened the play with a strip-tease that got some friendly cat-calls from the audience. Between the twerking, voguing, and shimmying, there was plenty to go around. Bavaro had no issue embracing the flamboyance and silliness of the character.

While most of the play was simply a good time, there were undertones to it. It seemed to mock the Roman Empire and its frivolousness at the expense of others. Elagabalus’ grandmother, also played by Bavaro, was a ruthless character, willing to have her own grandchild killed to hold on to her power. But Bavaro didn’t shy away from showing that Elagabalus was part of that empire as much as their grandmother was.

More explicitly at the end of the play, Bavaro delivered a final message to the audience. As Elagabalus shows — even through a fictionalized version of them — Queer and trans people have always been here. And they always will be.

Fabulous Elagabalus is playing at the Fringe Festival until August 23.