Queen of the Cross back in town

Apart from appearing together on TV talk show Beauty and the Beast, magazine queen Ita Buttrose and former ‘Queen of Kings Cross’  Carlotta don’t have much in common.

But inspired by the success of Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo, the telemovie based on Ita’s life, ABC-TV is producing another film about a feisty Australian lady: in this case, Carlotta, Australia’s most famous transsexual.

The shining star of Les Girls, the former cabaret palace in Kings Cross, Carlotta has flown back to Sydney from her Gold Coast home to oversee preliminary filming of the telemovie, which boasts Packed To The Rafters star Jessica Marais playing the iconic showgirl.

But don’t expect Carlotta to visit the Cross while she’s here.

“It’s not for me anymore,” she says. “One end’s sleazy as all hell and the other’s like Double Bay. The Cross I loved is dead. When I’m back in town, I’d rather go to Oxford St or somewhere like here.”

“Here” being the Imperial Hotel in Erskineville, where Carlotta is performing two shows only of her concert/drag show/gossip-fest Carlotta: Life’s Still A Drag. The first show was held last Saturday, with the second occurring this Saturday night.

“It’s a mixture of stories about the Cross and Les Girls, some live singing and performing, footage on the big screen– the story of my life, really, with a lot of song and dance.”

Looking back on her life so far, Carlotta is hard-pressed to nominate highlights but says her “days up the Cross” and taking Les Girls on the road to outback towns are fond memories.

“Places like Broken Hill didn’t get much entertainment – they’d be lucky to get a country singer – so putting ten drag queens on stage with feathers coming out their arse was a real blast. For them and for us,” she laughs.

But today, Carlotta is focused on her two Sydney shows, which are part of wider resurgence of entertainment at the Imperial. Carlotta was lured back to the stage by another legendary showgirl, her friend Penny Clifford, who recently moved back to Sydney from Queensland to become the Imperial’s Manager of Events and Entertainment, giving the venue “a shot in the arm”.

To carry on the sharps analogy, Carlotta has this to say about the resurgence of drag and live entertainment in Gay Sydney: “I think it’s fabulous. Things were getting boring, so it’s great to see entertainment making a comeback.

“I mean, what else are you meant to do for fun – stay at home and put a needle in your arm?”