About Diva Therapy

Diva Therapy is not really about being a Las Vegas drag queen. Not really.

It’s really about trying to find your place in the world after the world says “thanks for playing, but you’re no longer needed.” As Barbra says in the play, “People look at us like being old is something that’s not supposed to happen.”

But rest assured, Diva Therapy is not a lecture on ageism and never wags a finger. It’s a fun, silly, yet touching comedy about being true to yourself, the importance of community, and listening to that still, small voice.

And hey, if Judy Garland says you can do it, you can do it!

How Diva Therapy was born

Diva Therapy had its conception during the 2013 Gay Pride March. Edie Windsor’s case had just been won in the U.S. Supreme Court and she was the grand marshall that year. As she drove by in a red convertible, waving her hands and laughing with the crowd, I was overwhelmed with emotion and the enormity and importance of the moment. But I was also aware of a thought I was having which was, “I wish Cher, Barbra Streisand,Diana Ross, Liza Minnelli, and Bette Midler would show up in a car together waving and laughing with the crowd.”

The next thing I knew, I started imagining all the other things that that group of women could do together, and it just tumbled into seeing them all in group therapy together. Immediately I thought, wouldn’t that be a funny idea for a play, Cher, Barbara, Diana, Liza, and Bette in group therapy. And that was the birth of Diva Therapy.

I love and adore those women, and the idea of writing a play that includes each of them was a delicious idea. After many, many, many rewrites, the story evolved into five senior citizen Las Vegas female impersonators in group therapy. And of course, the females they are impersonating are Cher, Barbara, Diana Liza, and Bette. Bingo!

The play has changed significantly since the first reading we did in New York City at TornPage Performance Space in February 2020, just weeks before everything shut down during Covid. In 2022, I was approached to do a Zoom presentation of the play for Theater for the New City. I had to significantly rewrite the play so that it could be presented in a Zoom format. It was a great learning experience, a great writing experience, but to be honest, in my opinion, Zoom is not the best format for a play. 

Since then, I’ve reworked the play, taking everything I learned from the staged reading and the Zoom presentation to bring it to where it is today. I’m excited to see it fully produced on stage at Theater for the New City. It’s been a long road for Diva Therapy, but I feel like we’re in a really good place. 

John Mark Lucas

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.