The first images in “Queen For A Day” are hard to forget: a man in a stark white suit, a blood-red office and the ghost of Queen Elizabeth I. The new one-act comedy, written, directed and performed by Columbia College Chicago alumni, leans into its bold visuals as it sets up a day of surreal demands.

Set in the 1980s, the play follows famed fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick, known as Halston, who finds himself charged with an unusual commission. The long-dead queen has returned, insisting Halston, played in the show by Will Lidke, design her a dress by day’s end so she can finally ascend once and for all. 

In other words, it’s a riot. 

What follows is a story about love, hubris and friendship, the latter being hilariously and poignantly represented by a coked-out Liza Minnelli, played by Columbia alumni Dakota Hughes, who graduated from the college in 2015 with a BFA in musical theatre performance and won a Jeff Award in 2023 for their performance in “Frankenstreisand” as The Hunchback.

“It is such an honor and gift to play someone as beloved and iconic as Liza Minnelli,” they said, “so the homework was a must for me! What I gravitated most to is her voice. I watched interviews/documentaries, but I particularly love her live concerts and still listen to one every night before the show.”

The play is written by Tyler Anthony Smith, who graduated from Columbia College in 2017 with a bachelor’s in acting and won a Jeff Award for his performance as Hedwig in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” Smith was inspired to write a play about Halston after watching the 2021 Netflix adaptation of his life. 

“I remember watching the first episode and being disappointed in how clean it looked,” he said. “Maybe if I kept watching, I would have not been as let down, but I immediately was kind of like ‘I want to take a swing at this.’” 

The idea of Halston meeting Queen Elizabeth I came quite simply. Smith just wanted to play the red-headed queen. 

“I kind of look good in any wig, but I really look good in a red wig,” he said. 

While “Queen For A Day” is undeniably funny, it thrives on heartfelt and unruly performances from its cast–who take clever, fast-talking dialogue and give it life through an authentic representation of these icons. While it’s not always historically accurate, it doesn’t really care to be either. 

“I was just like, ‘let’s put the two of them together,’ because I have such a fetish with time and how time gets the best of all of us. My way of coping with that sometimes is just trying to take away the power from time,” Smith said. 

These themes are beautifully directed by Stephanie Shaw, who has been involved with Columbia for 33 years “in one way or another.” Shaw is actually a Columbia alum who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts-theatre in 1992 and a MFA in creative writing-fiction in 2009. Since then, she has been professor of instruction in theatre with the college.

Shaw has known Smith since she met him at Columbia, and they have become peers over the years. The first show they worked on together was, ironically, a production of “Mary Stuart.” 

“Queen For A Day” is a Hell in A Handbag production, and while many have described their shows as some form of “queer” or “camp” due to their inclusion of drag or parody-based humor, Smith and Shaw forgo those labels and look for the authenticity in the piece ahead of them. 

“I mean, I think it’s always going to be there. It’s just who I am. They’re both words that I acknowledge. You know, obviously I am queer. Obviously I am very skewed towards camp-centric things, but those aren’t words that I use to describe myself,” Smith said, “I write about what I love or what interests me.”

Hughes said the show addresses topics that are also part of the human experience. 

“Love, loss, grief, existentialism,” Hughes said. “I think a lot of people when they hear something is ‘campy,’ immediately write it off as silly and having lesser value than other art.”

Shaw said camp is about pushing a situation to the “utmost ridiculousness.”

“And we do that,” she said. “But really, I think both Tyler and I are more interested in pushing a situation to its utmost truthfulness, you know, to find out where the heartbeat is,” Shaw said. 

“Queen For A Day” is going to be Smith’s last production as a Hell in A Handbag regular, as he seeks to grow beyond the acclaimed production company–not dissimilar to how Halston grows in Smith’s own play. 

“It’s mostly from Halston because he’s really down on his luck at this time period in the show, in 1984, and he’s artistically and personally more lost than ever. I think artistically where I’m at right now, I don’t know, lost is such an understatement, and also at the same time I feel like I’m not lost,” he said. “I feel like I’m more becoming aware of who I am than ever artistically.” 

Smith, Shaw, and Hughes create a vivid emotional reality out of the show’s time-bending drama and gut-busting performances. The common theme, between their thoughts on the show and the show itself, being “love.” 

 “I think it’s a love story,” Shaw explained, referring to Halston and Minnelli’s friendship within the show, and real life. “They have such an aspirational friendship. It makes me cry every time I see the two of them together on stage because they love each other so much. And she’s not a very good friend, she doesn’t notice much of what’s going on with him, but she’s there.” 

Smith added, “You have to love or be connected or be fascinated or intrigued by what you’re about to do. Otherwise, you’re working for a newspaper and you’ve been handed a subject and you’re just churning it out so that you can collect your coins.” 

Love and growth is the connecting theme between the real life performers and “Queen For A Day” itself– It infects the audience, whether it be through laughter or tears, the show is a story of evolution, both for its characters and its performers. 

Shaw repeated this sentiment toward Columbia students, asking them to find love in being an artist.

“Don’t be a performer, be an artist. And there’s one thing an artist does, and that is an artist pays attention,” she said. “So if you pay attention to everything around you all the time, as much as you possibly can, those details will come out in your work.” 

“Queen For A Day” will be playing until Aug. 3 at Bramble Arts Loft in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood, and tickets are available at handbagproductions.org.

Copy edited by Emma Jolly