Drag shows showcase performers’ inner divas and confirm an audience's suspicion that every great female singer has a slightly taller twin sister. Believe your eyes with today’s Groupon: for $18, you get one ticket to "Illusions: Drinks & Drag" with one glass of champagne (a total $36 value) at The Mansion on O Street. Shows are on the last Monday of every month at 8 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Inside The Mansion on O Street, guests escort champagne flutes through a series of five interconnected townhouses whose Victorian and art-deco styles frame feminine impersonators who cast silhouettes of celebrities such as Diana Ross or Dolly Parton. After filling up at a cash bar, guests explore themed rooms and their performers, who mingle the historic with the eclectic, much like Dr. Seuss's rhyming version of The Bill of Rights. In one room, a hand-painted ceiling may shine down on Reba McEntire's famously red hair as she belts out signature twang-tinged, down-home lyrics. In another, Lady Gaga may espouse reasons romance has gone bad before an original Tiffany stained-glass window. With monthly shows, guests have ample opportunity to catch the rotating cast of performers who stow their acts in this curiously charming abode. Groupon customers also receive 10% off merchandise purchased during their visit.
O Street Museum
Originally the residence of U.S. Capitol architect Edward Clark, O Street Museum’s five interconnected townhouses today enfold a private club, luxury hotel, conference center, and museum. The O Street Museum explores the creative process with more than 1,500 ever-changing exhibits, including handwritten manuscripts, animation stills, and autographed items from such musicians as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. Shedding the restraints of a standard museum, O Street grants guests the freedom to leaf through collections of photographs and letters from visual artists or gently cradle sleeping sculptures in their bare hands.
Themed tours for groups or individuals unveil the subtleties of the museum’s elegant space, adorned with original, hand-painted ceilings and Tiffany stained-glass windows. Immersive special events include the Raw and Exposed program, which draws from the museum’s vast archives as it presents rare recordings from artists such as Janis Joplin and The Beatles. Amateur and seasoned musicians unite on stage during weekly jam sessions, and the SRO concert series fills the museum’s intimate space with one-of-a-kind gospel performances, drag shows, and sock-puppet reenactments of the Revolutionary War.