Philly Drag Queen Slammed for Performing "Springtime for Hitler" Musical Number at Gay Bar

Philly Drag Queen Slammed for Performing “Springtime for Hitler” Musical Number at Gay Bar

Oh Philadelphia.  You legend in your own mind. (You know they claim that the gay rights movement started there.) and bastion of utterly PC-ness.

Philadelphia drag performer Satine Harlow is facing grief for performing the musical number “Springtime for Hitler” from the musical The Producers while dressed as a Nazi SS officer.

Harlow’s Instagram blew-up after he posted a pic from the performance in which there was a a swastika on his back with the caption “Heil Hitler”

One audience member told Philadelphia magazine, “When I saw the musical number I realized Satine was inspired by the Broadway musical The Producers. But when I checked Satine’s Instagram page, how they promoted themselves was a different story.”

The bar in which Satine performed in iCandy had problems in 2016 after a tape surfaced of the owner Darryl DePiano repeatedly using the n word to refer to people of color.

 Ann Artist, another local drag performer, commented on Ziker’s choice to perform at the bar after its past history.

“I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. Choosing to perform at ICandy is a political statement,” Artist wrote on social media, according to the magazine. “Given the fact that this is the stance these performers choose I’m never surprised when they do anything that’s tacky and in poor taste like this. This level of bad taste is reflected in the name of the establishment and mirrored through the irreverence the performers have for their fellow community members.”

But Harlow — whose real name is Eric Ziker and who identifies as Jewish defends his performance.

“Are people really freaking the fuck out about a Jewish gay man doing an iconic number from a musical? Jesus Christ. Lighten the fuck up. It’s drag,” Ziker wrote. “We’re professional, some of us, pigs in wigs. Breathe. I stand by what I did…and if you disagree, unfollow me because you have no sense of humor.”

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