The reviews are in for Ms. Blakk for President, which opened at the Vineyard Theatre on Sunday, November 8. Written by Tarell Alvin McCraney and Tina Landau, who also directs, the play with music premiered at Steppenwolf in Chicago in 2019 and tells the mostly true story of Terence Alan Smith, the Chicago drag performer who ran for president as Joan Jett Blakk in 1992 and talked her way onto the floor of the Democratic National Convention. Ato Blankson-Wood, who took over the title role when Wayne Brady withdrew, is the one thing every critic agrees on. The play itself divides them: some find a joyous piece of queer protest theater, others a party that keeps losing its argument.
The verdict: seven reviews in, and three of them carry a score: The Recs gives it 5 out of 5, The Front Row Center 4 out of 5 and Culture Sauce 3 out of 5. The warmest notices treat it as a tribute to a forgotten activist and a resurrection of street-protest theater, and on those terms TheaterMania calls it a marvel. New York Theatre Guide, Times Square Chronicles and New York Theater want more from the script than a lively history lesson, and even The Front Row Center, which enjoyed it, says it only skims the questions it raises. Nobody is in two minds about Ato Blankson-Wood, and nearly everyone admires David Zinn’s runway set and the wall of 1990s televisions.
What are critics saying about Ms. Blakk for President?
TheaterMania
"Ms. Blakk for President, a Drag Queen’s Long Shot Campaign in ’92"
Reviewer: Zachary Stewart
Zachary Stewart’s review is two verdicts in one. He has no patience for the play as drama, but calls it a marvel as a tribute to an underappreciated American icon, and he credits Landau with beautifully re-creating the gleeful resistance of the queer protest.
"As a serious work of drama, it’s what the girls on Untucked might call a “hot mess.”"
He finds Blankson-Wood more than charming in Ari Fulton’s pink Chanel suit, and calls the script messy and unpolished, with plot threads left loose, but fascinating.
The Recs
"Inspired by a true story, inspiring to watch"
Reviewer: Arlene Getz · 5 out of 5
Arlene Getz is the production’s biggest champion. She calls the whole cast excellent, singles out Gideon Glick as Smith’s friend and manager Mark, and credits the writers with a script that celebrates drag activism without ever turning maudlin about AIDS.
"Tony winner Ato Blankson-Wood (Slave Play) turns in a virtuoso performance as Smith/Blakk."
She also praises Zinn’s nightclub runway and the lobby exhibit about the real Smith.
The Front Row Center
"Part drag show, part protest, ALL party"
Reviewer: Brittany Crowell · 4 out of 5
Brittany Crowell has a very good time. She finds Blankson-Wood endlessly charming, sets Glick’s intensity against him to good effect, and praises an ensemble that includes Nic Ashe, Sawyer Smith, Kelvin Moon Loh and Adina Verson.
"Is it fun? Yes. Is it entertaining? Of course!"
Her reservation is that the show only skims the questions it raises about protest and change, and does not deliver the message it could have.
Culture Sauce
"‘Ms. Blakk for President’ sashays through an historic footnote"
Reviewer: Thom Geier · 3 out of 5
Thom Geier thinks Blankson-Wood captures Smith’s bubbly, cheeky personality perfectly, with plenty of strut. He finds the writers more interested in building an immersive period drag experience, from the catwalk to the hanging TVs, than in exploring the issues.
"whenever it strives to make a bigger statement, it feels wobbly on its platforms."
As a time-warp drag show, he says, it can be a lot of fun.
New York Theatre Guide
"Where politics, theatre, and drag collide"
Reviewer: Kyle Turner
Kyle Turner calls the play strangely disappointing, closer to a dutiful bio-play than either a sharp character study or a riotous fantasia. It comes alive, he says, when Blankson-Wood is in full Blakk regalia, and the production design is the real reason to go.
"Ms. Blakk still needs to work on its lip sync of history."
New York Theater
Reviewer: Jonathan Mandell
Jonathan Mandell notes that the authors admit to shifting facts and names, and reads the result as an entertainment first and a history second.
"…a lively entertainment, albeit one punctuated with a polemic."
He is unsure what Blakk’s candidacy amounted to, but finds the climactic speech uncomfortably close to the present, in a week when four states passed anti-trans laws.
Times Square Chronicles
"All That Glitter Is Not Political Gold"
Reviewer: Suzanna Bowling
Suzanna Bowling calls Blankson-Wood fabulous and enjoys Fulton’s costumes, Glick’s urgency and a versatile ensemble. Her objection is to a script that prefers having a good time to examining what the campaign meant.
"…settles for camp, spectacle, and the assumption that being outrageous is the same thing as being meaningful."
She also finds Bradley King’s lighting aggressive enough to make the show hard to watch, and the jukebox songs more interruption than argument.
Read Suzanna Bowling’s full review at Times Square Chronicles
Production photographs by Carol Rosegg.
For a first look at the production, see our first look at Ato Blankson-Wood as Joan Jett Blakk, and for what the critics made of another opening the same night, see our roundup for Wanted at the James Earl Jones Theatre.
Ms. Blakk for President runs at the Vineyard Theatre, 108 East 15th Street, through Sunday, November 29, 2026.
