The Slow Drag

Carson Kreitzer

Two-act Jazz Cabaret Play
A jazz cabaret about a woman who passed as a man to play the music she loved. Live jazz band onstage.

Cast Requirements

1 man
2 women
(one woman who can pass as a man, one woman who can bring down the house singing “Blues in the Night,” one light-skinned black man.)

Set Description

Audience at small tables and chairs, and drinks available if possible.

Press

“M. Butterfly with a cool beat.”
—Greg Evans, Variety

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Press

“Kreitzer has crafted a haunting and mesmeric epitaph for Tipton and the whole world of postwar jazz on the road.”
—Sheridan Morley, International Herald Tribune

“Theatreland is currently obsessed with necrophilia, disinterring the remains of the famous. Kreitzer, however, bucks the grave-robbing trend by eschewing the dull chronological trawl and opting for fiction. Nor is she content merely to discover how such an explosive secret could be kept. Instead, she takes the conundrum and treats it like a diamond, constantly cutting it to show different facets of this fascinating tale.”
—David Benedict, Independent

“Like the music at its heart, The Slow Drag is nimble, soulful and full of life.”
—Sara Abdulla, Time Out London

Production and Development History

Productions: New York: American Place Theatre (1996). London: Freedom Theater, Soho (1997); Whitehall Theatre, West End (1997 & 1998).