**Island City Stage’s Die, Mommie, Die!, Dixie Longate, & More**

August 22 – September 22, 2024

By Denny Patterson

We all know and love Kris Andersson as drag personality Dixie Longate, our favorite fast-talking, gum chewing, red-headed Tupperware saleswoman, but audiences will have a chance to see him step into a different pair of high heels as he stars in Island City Stage’s upcoming production of Die, Mommie, Die!

From the mind of playwright Charles Busch, this comic melodrama evokes the 1960s “Grande Dame Guignol” films that featured aging Hollywood legends like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Lana Turner. Following ex-pop singer Angela Arden, she is trapped in a hateful marriage with film producer Sol Sussman and is desperate to find happiness with her younger lover, an out-of-work TV actor named Tony Parker. Therefore, she murders her husband with the aid of a poisoned suppository.

In a plot that reflects Greek tragedy as well as Hollywood kitsch, her children slip her some LSD, provoking a wild acid trip, which results in several secrets being revealed.

According to Andersson, he is excited to step away from the Dixie spotlight and take on a role he considers to be a little outside of his comfort zone.

“The script is so fun and so clever, and as I’m starting to pull it apart, I’m looking forward to throwing myself into it and getting people’s expectation of what they’re going to see kind of ripped out of their minds and replacing it with something that’s bigger, bolder, and more fun,” he exclaims. “Maybe a little more biting and stinging than they’re used to seeing me.”

Die, Mommie, Die! will play at Island City Stage August 22 – September 22, 2024, and OutClique caught up with Andersson to talk more about the show and how he was chosen to play Angela, as well as his overall passion for the arts and what’s next for his entertainment career.

Denny Patterson: Thank you for taking some time to chat with me, Kris! How excited are you to perform Die, Mommie, Die! at Island City Stage?

Kris Andersson: I am so excited! I’ve been doing a specific character, Dixie Longate, for the last 22 years, so this is the first time in a long time I’ll be given the chance to work on other people’s material with a cast. Doing things that are not just self-generated on stage, so I’m looking forward to it.

Denny Patterson: For those who are unfamiliar with this show, can you give us a hint as to what audiences can expect?

Kris Andersson: It’s sort of a 1960s throwback romp, evoking those old Joan Crawford and Anne Bancroft movies where everything has a little arch, a little eyebrow raise, and everything is campy and more cuffed up than it needs to be. That is where all the fun is! It’s about a family at odds with each other, and the family all have really wide archetypes. We have a giant, performing mother that’s a little past her prime, her producer husband that’s fallen on hard times, then they’re very unruly kids. They all sort through their day with a little bit of murder and mayhem thrown in for good measure.

Denny Patterson: Is this your first time performing at Island City Stage?

Kris Andersson: This is my first time performing under the banner of Island City. I created a show during the pandemic called Dixie’s Happy Hour, and they were kind enough to let me film the show in there and do some test audiences with it. So, this is my first time as an official part of their season.

Denny Patterson: How did you get pegged to play the starring role of Angela Arden?

Kris Andersson: Andy Rogow and I have become friends over the years, and he brought the play to my attention and said, ‘Look, this is a part I think you would do very well with. I think you would have a lot of fun with it and I think our audiences would enjoy seeing what you make of it.’ So many people know me as Dixie since I’ve been doing her for the last 22 years, and even though this is still in the drag wheelhouse, it’s a bit of a departure from Dixie. I love the challenge of this because so many people know me as a specific thing, so it will be fun to kind of reinvent myself a little bit and see what I can bring to the role.

Denny Patterson: Is there a part or moment within the show you are looking forward to the most?

Kris Andersson: The whole thing makes me laugh because I’m in almost every scene in the play, and every scene is its own challenge because of the way the story arcs. I don’t want to give anything away, but trying to deal with my husband that I’m having major issues with as I’m trying to get out of the marriage. Trying to deal with two very bizarrely spoiled children, trying to deal with a love interest on the side who’s not too on the side (laughs). Every piece of it is going to be fun, so I’m looking forward to the entirety of the challenge because it’s so out of my wheelhouse.

Denny Patterson: Is there anything you ultimately hope audiences take away from Die, Mommie, Die!?

Kris Andersson: I just hope they have a great time and have an unexpected lift. It’s a very, very funny show, but at the same time, there’s a little challenge to Angela and the story that she’s telling; being responsible for your own decisions. At the end, there’s a great moment that wraps it all up where she’s like, shoot, I did everything wrong and now I’ve got to pay the piper for it. I’m looking forward to that being a kind of bigger message than just within the show. Hopefully, people leave with that message as well.

Denny Patterson: Have you been in touch or worked with the production’s playwright, Charles Busch, before?

Kris Andersson: We are like one degree of separation through a lot of people, but I have never personally met or worked with him before. I know his work, so I’m very excited to hopefully pay homage to not only the great work that he does, but also him as a creator.

Denny Patterson: Have you always had a passion for the performing arts?

Kris Andersson: Ever since I was a kid. I’ve always wanted to be in theater and I’ve always wanted to be on the stage. I love storytelling, I love playing pretend, and I’m one of those people who’s been lucky enough to do it as a full-time career. I have wonderful parents that have always supported me and allowed me to find my own voice.

Denny Patterson: And how did your journey with drag begin?

Kris Andersson: My journey with drag began when I did a fundraiser. I was living in LA for quite a while, and a friend asked me if I would be involved in this AIDS fundraiser, and the whole thing was a mock drag beauty pageant. Like a mock Miss USA pageant. So, the first time I ever did drag was to raise money. Then a friend of mine dared me to sell Tupperware in drag, as a character, and I took the dare. It was the weirdest dare I’ve ever taken, but I developed that into a career becoming the top selling Tupperware rep in the U.S. That then turned into a show that ran off-Broadway, and we just finished our 16th year of touring. It’s been a wild journey and not something I ever planned on doing. It’s something that just took off, and I found myself having just as many pairs of women’s high heels as I do men’s sneakers!

Denny Patterson: Wow, it’s hard to believe you just wrapped up your 16th season of Dixie’s Tupperware Party!

Kris Andersson: I know! We did a four-week run at the Kennedy Center in D.C., which was an amazing honor to be invited to play there. I’ve got a little downtime to do Die, Mommie, Die!, but then I’m back on the road for Season 17, which is going to be the final season of the tour. I have other things now that I’m starting to dig my hands into, so I want to keep growing and building. Dixie has been a great ride for me, but there’s more stuff that I want to do. I think this is the perfect time to sort of put the bow on that package and hand off the torch to other people.

Denny Patterson: Are you allowed to share any details about some of these upcoming projects that you’re involved with?

Kris Andersson: I’m currently working with a couple of collaborators out of New York on two ideas for shows. We’re sort of in the developmental stages and getting resources together, and they’re pretty big projects, so I’m not at complete liberty to talk about it right now because of where they are, but they’re still in the theater space. They’re going to grow past some of the stuff I’ve done, and they are challenging me a lot. I’m getting more and more outside of my comfort zone.

Denny Patterson: Do you have any desire to do any TV or film?

Kris Andersson: I dove into TV and film back in my LA days, and I would love to go back into that. However, I know it’s a challenging time right now post-writer’s strike, post-actor’s strike, and post-COVID. TV and film production has definitely taken a hit, as has theater, and I know I will be back in film and TV eventually, but right now, what’s really standing out to me is creating in the live theater space and doing things that are a bit more challenging and a bit more unique than other things I’ve done in the past. That’s where my focus will be over the next couple years.

Denny Patterson: When you say you’re wrapping up Dixie’s Tupperware Party, are you also putting Dixie Longate away as well, or will she be involved with some of these new ventures?

Kris Andersson: I think Dixie is going to go quiet for a little bit while I work on this other stuff. We have an eight-week run of shows in Denver in the summer of 2025, and Denver is a very friendly market. They’ve been wonderful to me and this will be our ninth time in the market doing Dixie shows. They actually co-produced my second show, which is called Never Wear a Tube Top While Riding A Mechanical Bull (and 16 other things I learned while I was drinking last Thursday), so we’re going to do four weeks of Dixie’s Tupperware Party and then four weeks of Never Wear a Tube Top. That show got its start in Denver, and it will kind of be poetic to wrap it up there, and I think that will be the perfect time to say, okay, Dixie gets to have a break. I don’t know if she will come back, but you never know. Life is always an adventure and you never know what can happen. I’ve been able to have an incredible life and career with Dixie, and I’m very grateful for that, but I also know I don’t want that to be the only thing that I get to dig my hands into.

Connect with Andersson by following him on Instagram @KrisAndersson_Official, and stay up-to-date with Dixie by visiting DixieLongate.com For more information and to purchase tickets for Die, Mommie, Die!, visit IslandCityStage.org.