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Dylan Mulvaney debuts one-woman show, FAGHAG, at Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The haters can't keep her down.
Dylan Mulvaney is reclaiming her narrative and reinventing herself with the help of her one-woman show, FAGHAG.
The musical recently debuted at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to generally positive reviews. It's a humorous and heightened autobiographical look at Mulvaney's life, from growing up Catholic to identifying as a "twink," to coming out as trans and being simultaneously vilified and praised for sharing her journey publicly.
Many of the reviews that have come out following early performances take care to note that Mulvaney isn't following the oft-derided influencer-to-actor/singer pipeline. Rather, her background is actually in musical theater, and she only turned to social media as an outlet after the national tour of The Book of Mormon in which she played Elder White got sidelined thanks to the pandemic.
In addition to being a return to her roots, FAGHAG is being lauded as an opportunity for Mulvaney to reclaim her own narrative — something that many have tried to take away from her, whether purposely or incidentally, by casting her as the face of modern U.S. culture wars.
"I feel like I have complete ownership of this," she told PinkNews. "If there’s anyone in that theatre who does not support me or who I am or the trans community, they at least have to sit there for an hour and watch what I want to tell them."
Although Mulvaney plays a variety characters in the production, several well-known public figures lended their voices for pre-recorded segments of the show, including Joe Locke, Chris Colfer, and Alan Cumming.
Mulvaney also posted to TikTok about Ingrid Michaelson helping to write music for the show.
"I wanted something really vulnerable and sweet, but also honest. And we've been sending voice notes back and forth to each other," she said, prior to the two offering a preview of the song they had been working on.
@dylanmulvaney @Ingrid Michaelson wrote a song for my show F*GHAG which is running right now at the edinburgh fringe fesitval 👯♀️❤️ #theatre #notebook #edinburgh
Mulvaney has expressed an interest in bringing FAGHAG to the U.S. somewhere down the line, but for now, folks in the UK can check it out in Edinburgh through August 25.
@dylanmulvaney Can YOU say it? F*ghag is coming to Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer. Tickets in bio 👯♀️💋 #edinburgh #theatre
Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
