Pa. gay bar under fire for blackface drag performance that was actually half-baked tribute to Tim Curry

The owners of a Pittsburgh gay bar received death threats after a drag performer went on stage in blackface in an attempt to pay tribute to the late actor Tim Curry that went horribly wrong.Blue Moon Bar, the self-described “Friendliest Gay Bar in Pittsburgh,” canceled a slew of performances after posts went viral showing a drag queen donning what looked like racist blackface during a Sept.23 stage event.The performer was reportedly trying to portray Hexxus from 1992’s animated movie “FernGully: The Last Rainforest” as a tribute to Curry, who voiced the character.But the performance caused an eruption of outrage when images of the act went viral and critics denounced the dark make up as far too similar to racist blackface that the bar should have banned.“How this person was even allowed to step on stage wearing this is beyond me,” fellow drag performer Pinapple Honeydew wrote in an Instagram post.“This is actual disgusting, racist behavior being given a stage to perform and no one thinking twice about it.”Honeydew said it was a poor way to honor Curry, an icon to the LGBTQ+ community who died in August.

“What happened to just wearing a black outfit,” the performer fumed.“Out of all of Tim Curry’s iconic characters, you HAD to do this one??“And you HAD to do blackface in order to portray a character no one was going to recognize anyway???,” the drag artist continued.

“F–king insane.”The bar issued a groveling apology on Facebook nearly a week later on Sept.29, writing, “We were just made aware yesterday that this happened last week.”Blue Room Bar management said they were not on site to witness the performance, and rather two guest hosts who don’t usually man the open stage ran the event — but insisted they were “horrified” and “blindsided” by it.The post explained the two guest hosts “somehow didn’t realize at the time what was happening” while adding they “aren’t excusing their behavior.”“Whatever...