Marti Gould Cummings Is Doing the Most–and We're So Here for It

Marti Gould Cummings is not just another pretty face. The drag sensation is the creator and host of "Stage Fright," a wildly entertaining weekly live show featuring some of Broadway's best performers in an intimate club setting. Marti describes the show as "their version of The Rosie O'Donnell Show," but it's so much more fun.

A fixture in the New York nightlife and cabaret scenes, Marti has also appeared in ad campaigns for COACH, Steve Madden and Brooklyn Brewery, to name just a few. They've been featured in Vogue, The New York Times, Time Out NY and has appeared on Good Morning America, The View and Inside Edition. They also appeared with their drag daughter, Peaches, on "Worst Cooks in America." Peaches won! A performer and cruise director for Vacaya LGBTQ Travel, Marti has been able to travel the world.

Marti is an activist, the first openly non-binary candidate to run for office in New York City and the first drag artist to be invited to moderate a panel at The United Nations.

And despite their busy schedule, they recently found time to chat with EDGE about their career, their foray into politics and to reveal that an upcoming guest on "Stage Fright" is masked queer cowboy Orville Peck, who recently made his Broadway debut in "Cabaret" at the MC (sans mask). He appears on April 30. Additionally, the week before (April 23), songstress and Broadway star Melissa Errico, who recently released her album "Sondheim in the City," joins Marti. And this coming week (April 16), they are hosting stand-up comedian, actress and singer Cat Cohen.

In addition to their busy "Stage Fright" appearances, Marti travels to Irvine, TX this weekend for a Drag Brunch at the Modern Mexican restaurant Mesa Mescal. The brunch is on Sunday, April 13 and Marti is joined by Candi Stratton, Leche Diamante, and Zimora Evans.

Marti is back in New York the following week for their monthly Big Broadway Drag Brunch at 54 Below. On Sunday, April 20, they are joined by Lady Celestina, Darius-Anthony Robinson and Kraven Strange.

EDGE spoke to Marti about their busy career.

EDGE: How did you get into drag?

Marti Gould Cummings: I started drag probably 16 or 17 years ago. I got cast in this off-Broadway show, "Twist," and they re-adjusted the character to be a more androgynous, gender queer type who dabbled in drag. I really fell in love with it. I started to go see Sherry Vine, Peppermint and Shaquida, these legends of drag. Then I started seeing shows wearing my very busted, booger drag, and I started booking work as a drag artist. I was about 20-years old and I've been at it ever since.

EDGE: How did you take it to the next level?

Marti Gould Cummings: It's been a wild ride and I'm grateful for every opportunity. When I got my very first gig, I decided to throw a birthday party at VIG 27, a bar that's no longer around. I hosted it in whatever version of drag I was doing at the time. I had Frankie Grande, who was a good friend of mine, and Lily Cooper, who was nominated for a Tony for "Tootsie;" and Matt Doyle, who won for "Company," as guest performers. The venue said it was really fun and offered me a weekly show. I just started booking gigs from there. There were some rough patches. I was a mess. I got fired from a lot of places before I got sober 14 years ago.

EDGE: Congratulations! That's huge.

Marti Gould Cummings: You get sober and things change because you're able to show up in a different way. You show up for your audiences, your guests, the venues and yourself. Sobriety changed my life. Over the years my drag progressed. I've been doing my show "Stage Fright" for 10 years and it's been incredible. I don't really know how to explain it.

EDGE: How has your drag changed from the beginning to now?

Marti Gould Cummings: When I started drag, I didn't wear wigs. I didn't wear pads. It was more like a gender-queer, gender-fuck, kind of drag, which I really enjoyed. As I got older, I started incorporating more traditional styles of drag into it. I really liked the progression and evolution of my drag. I used to have more of a persona, an alter-ego. I dabbled in the Joan Rivers, Bianca Del Rio, Lisa Lampanelli-style of humor, but I didn't really identify with that. I didn't really enjoy that. I wanted to be more authentic to myself. And as I entered into politics and advocacy, the persona kind of shifted to more of me. There isn't a huge line between the two anymore 16-17 years in. It's more just an extension of me.

EDGE: Do you remember the moment when you were in full drag, looked in the mirror and saw someone beautiful?

Marti Gould Cummings: I think that moment was pretty far into it. I was doing my show, "Stage Fright." Katie Hoffman, who won the Tony for "The Producers," was my guest. She's also a very good friend. The next day she called me said she was making her directorial debut in a show at Webster Hall starring my friend Kenyon Phillips, (who wrote it), and Daphne Rubin Vega, and wanted me to be part of it. I grew up listening to the soundtrack of "RENT." And I didn't have to audition. Of course, I did it!

Backstage at Webster Hall, I had this big purple wig on, and I had that moment where I was like, "Oh, you're doing it, you're fucking doing it." Excuse my language. It was a really pivotal moment in my drag career because somebody I looked up to for so long saw something, whatever it was, and said, "I'm gonna cast you in the show with somebody you've idolized your whole life." When I looked in the mirror, I saw what I felt was beautiful, but I also saw something in me had shifted: how I looked at myself as a performer. It was a moment when I realized I have to allow myself to just embrace whatever comes my way, not to let my insecurity and my own stage fright limit me from pursuing something or trying something new.

EDGE: Tell me about your show "Stage Fright."

Marti Gould Cummings: We started it about ten years ago at New World Stages. I had been doing a show there for a couple years and we decided to bring in a Broadway guest. I wanted to do a talk show. Originally it was called "Whistling Trixie", then something like "Curtains Up," I can't remember now. I wanted it to be a talk show because I loved "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" growing up. It was what introduced me to Broadway. I saw Heather Headley on that show; "Sideshow" with Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner; "Thoroughly Modern Millie;" all these shows really introduced me to Broadway in a new way. And I wanted to incorporate drag on Broadway, so I reached out to Cheyenne Jackson, Anthony Rapp, LaChanze, I knew them all casually. They were all happy to do it. I am really grateful to them, putting their names on it helped develop the show. We did it at Therapy for many years, until it closed. During the pandemic it was at The Spot for a while, then Don't Tell Mama on the steps outside in the cold. Now it's at Red Eye.

EDGE: Do you always have guests?

Marti Gould Cummings: The show has had over 100 Oscar, Grammy, Tony, Emmy or Golden Globe award winners and nominated stars. We've had everything from ensemble members, who I love to feature, to some of the biggest names on Broadway: Billy Porter, Jonathan Groff, the list goes on and on.

EDGE: What happens at the show?

Marti Gould Cummings: It's my own version of Rosie. I do a couple of numbers, interact with the audience, then we bring on our guests. We play a game with them, ask questions about their career. Then they do a number. It's a really great way to make Broadway accessible. We're giving people an opportunity to see their favorite performers in an intimate setting. They hear stories about the guest's career, how they got to Broadway, things like that, and then they perform. We had Joey McIntyre from New Kids on the Block recently. He was doing "Drag: The Musical." All these people drove from Buffalo, Boston and Philly to see him. They were fans who had his poster on their bedroom wall growing up, and they got an opportunity to see him up close, have their pictures taken with him after. It was great.

EDGE: Any other favorites?

Marti Gould Cummings: They're all great! But we did have the opportunity to have Ann Reinking at our show just a couple months before she passed away. She's Broadway royalty. What an incredible opportunity to be just feet away from her and she's singing Roxie from "Chicago." It was one of her last appearances.

We've got somebody signed on for April, but I haven't announced it yet. I'll give you a hint: He's the ultimate masked singer who is going to be singing some incredible Kander and Ebb on Broadway. That's all. That's the hint.

Editor's note: Since then it was announced that queer country artist Orville Peck, the current MC in "Cabaret" will be joining Marti. Whether he will be wearing a mask was not revealed.

EDGE: How do I find out who's coming to "Stage Fright?"

Marti Gould Cummings: You can go to marticummings.com or to any of my social media: Instagram: @marticummings or Facebook: Marti Gould Cummings.

EDGE: You recently got engaged?

Marti Gould Cummings: Yes! My sweet fiancé, John, is incredible. We've been together two-and-a-half years now. He's such an incredible support and I'm really grateful to have him in my life, to be able to share my life with someone who shares the same values and passions that I do. He's like a little spitfire who is ready to throw down at any moment. And I love that. I love his passion.

EDGE: Since you were a contestant on "Worst Cooks in America," I'm guessing he does the cooking.

Marti Gould Cummings: (Laughs) He does. You know, it's so funny, our season aired in 2021 or 2022 and I just got an amazing DM yesterday from a mom who said, "I'm rewatching Worst Cooks with my young son, I bought him a bunch of wigs and dresses because he loves to play dress, and I remembered your season. I wanted to show him you and Peaches, to let him know that what he's doing isn't bad or wrong." It may seem a like such a small thing, but it's not. That kid was seeing himself and we were just being silly, burning down the house. He, and hopefully other kids, were seeing that it's okay to be themselves. What a blessing that 20-year-old me discovered drag and all these years later was able to do that. And it was a really fun show to be on.

EDGE: Did you do the whole thing in drag?

Marti Gould Cummings: The funny thing is we were only going to do the first episode in drag, but the producers asked us to do the whole thing in drag. We had people deliver drag to the studio for us. The show was really hard. It was hot. There're nine cameras on you, studio lights, and it's a real kitchen with multiple ovens and burners on all the time. You're over the top of all this stuff cooking with makeup and wigs and pads. It's really uncomfortable, but worth it.

EDGE: Did you have extra help with makeup between takes?

Marti Gould Cummings: It was just Peaches and me. We had our little powders and stuff to freshen up between takes, but it was just us.

EDGE: When you were young, did you ever envision a full-time career in drag?

Marti Gould Cummings: It certainly wasn't on my vision board. I moved to New York when I was 17 to be on Broadway and because of a theatrical experience, drag was introduced to me and it changed my life. I don't know if theater would have given me what it's given me. I still audition for shows and would love to do Broadway at some point; but drag has really opened doors. Come May I'll be the first drag artist to have performed on every single continent. I don't know if I would've been able to do that if I had a traditional theater career.

It's so cool, with drag and trans people under attack, to have these alternative performers out there to show people there is nothing wrong with being unapologetically, openly queer, standing up for our trans, non-binary, intersex communities. I'm proud to be a small part using drag to fight back.

EDGE: You've been active in local politics as well.

Marti Gould Cummings: I was the first non-binary candidate for city office, the first drag artist to run for office in New York. I also had the great honor of being the first drag artist to moderate a panel at the United Nations several years ago. It was about queer electability around the globe. The panel included the late, great trans icon Cecilia Gentili and Brian Sims, the first openly gay elected state legislator in Pennsylvania.

I got into politics much like I got into drag, very accidentally. For years I had worked at the Ali Forney Center for homeless LGBTQ youth and now I'm on the board. As a gig worker, I tell this story because it's important to know that sometimes you have to put other things ahead of work. I was at this gig when Trump first announced his run for office and I was talking about how we have to laugh through the chaos. I was making jokes about him. Afterwards the owner of the venue pulled me aside and told me he didn't want me to alienate straight clientele and that he, as a voter, was offended by what I was saying. I told him that all people are welcome at my show and if they're offended, straight people can go elsewhere. He was profiting off queer people and voting against our interests and our needs. I handed him the mic, grabbed my purse and left. I had this lightbulb moment and decided to learn all about politics and how it actually works.

I started a political organization as the ones in the area weren't very productive. Every elector said it can't be done. Well, don't tell the drag queen they can't do it, because they will go and do it. The organization is called HK Dems. I got really plugged into politics, ran for city council, didn't win, but that's okay. There were a lot of wins within the campaign. I'm still plugged in, but I don't know if I will ever run for office again. But with everything that's happening now, I'm happy to be a small part of the collaborative effort to help people.

EDGE: What would you tell your younger self at this point in your life?

Marti Gould Cummings: I would tell that little kid who felt so ostracized that everything I was made fun of for is what makes me who I am and what's given me all of these opportunities now. Bullying hurts in the moment, of course. And it's really severe for kids and leaves a lasting impact. But it's now my power. All those things I was picked on for are now my power.

EDGE: Are your parents supportive?

Marti Gould Cummings: I'm really fortunate. They are really supportive. They sit in the front row of every show when they come.

EDGE: Where are they from?

Marti Gould Cummings: I grew up in Maryland and remember back in 2009 when we were marching on the Capitol for marriage equality, my parents were right there with me. They've gone to rallies for trans kids with me. They live in a really conservative area and, it may seem like a small thing, but my dad has his rainbow bumper stickers on his car. That's a big statement, a strong sign of solidarity that I'm really grateful for.

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