Minnie Cooper has been one of Sydney’s queer community’s biggest stars for over two decades. With a successful career as a musical comedy triple threat Minnie’s arrival on the scene created a major splash. I recall one of her very first spot numbers on the small Stonewall stage was ‘When You Got It, Flaunt It’ from the musical The Producers – and that is exactly what she’s done since.
Minnie Cooper is the most awarded performer in all of
DIVA history. She has amassed 25 DIVA Awards since 2004, 15 of these are
personal awards and 10 for shows where she has been boss queen. This incredible
record can surely never be emulated by anyone else. It’s no wonder she is
affectionately referred to as ‘Super Duper Minnie Cooper’ – it’s the most
impressive of records, and now her name is rightly added to the Hall of Fame,
the roll of Sydney’s biggest drag and showgirl stars who have made a lasting contribution
to the Sydney drag industry.
Minnie was awarded the top gong of Entertainer of the
Year for a record four times in 2005, 07, 12 and 2018. The Entertainer of the
Year is presented to the performer who is at the top of their game and the biggest
star of the day. No one else has shown such consistency at this highest level besides
Minnie.
Her sister performers and peers have voted her Miss
Congeniality an incredible six times. This is a treasured award amongst the
drag and showgirl family as it’s an award voted by performers to acknowledge one
of their own who is considered an all-round swell queen. It is something I know
Minnie treasures very much. With similar sentiment this announcement of the
2024 Hall of Fame inductee is being met with delight amongst the broader
community.
Minnie has told me on receiving this honour “I feel
very grateful about it all it is really lovely to be recognised. Over the years
collecting so many awards has been amazing, joining this list of incredible
performers who I have admired and respected actual feels like winning.”
Minnie has over the years produced many of the DIVA
award winning production shows seen on the Oxford Street scene. She was the
resident producer of Arq nightclubs popular Thursday night shows for 18 years.
Many punters will recall with joy the hits: Tworking Girls, Drag n fly and
Going Gaga – all DIVA award winning shows.
It is sometimes said we will never see a clubbing
nightlife to equal those days again and for queens to self-produce drag shows
at that level has become too expensive and out of favour for today’s clubbers
taste.
At the Stonewall Hotel, Minnie has been boss queen in residence
for 20 years and here the hits have included Hairspray, Wicked, Kiss my Brass
and Electric Heels.
Minnie created the famous ‘Drags to Riches’ which ran for five seasons at Arq nightclub and gave the talent quest formula a creative boost. Twelve emerging drag queens competed for a cash prize but, fortunate for the contestants was that Minnie mentored each baby drag. Every Monday evening, they received performance coaching for that week’s challenge. They also got classes in make-up, wigs, costume on a budget and even tucking. In 2016 ‘Drag to Riches’ won a well-deserved DIVA.
She has produced and choreographed many large-scale
spectacles at events such as Mardi Gras, Sleaze Ball and Flash Mobs. Performers
past and present remember with great affection the experience of being in a
Minnie show at Mardi Gras in 2008 for the 30th anniversary ‘I am
what I am’ celebration production.
In 2016 Minnie was a semi-finalist on ‘Australia’s Got
Talent’ combing her drag and musical theatre talents. She performed ‘Friend
Like Me’ with her Tinny Teeny Tappers to wide acclaim. For her audition she performed
‘Anything Goes’ and restaged the number complete with her tappers as a
memorable opening number at DIVA.
Minnie joined the worldwide hit RuPauls Drag Race, and
it was clear she and RuPaul had great chemistry together. Minnie says of that
time “It was great to be able to talk about our Sydney drag history and the
queens who had gone before me on such a big stage.”
In 2018 she moved into the world of Cabaret with her
one woman show ‘From Chorus Boy to Leading Lady’ which was the winner of ‘Best
In Cabaret & Musical Theatre Award’ at the Sydney Fringe Festival. Minnie
is currently working on a plan to bring her show back to the local community
later this year.
Minnie’s latest main stage triumph is that as a headline
vocalist for the successful Club Broadway events, where the crowd goes crazy
for her kind of musical theatre magic.
It's certainly been a super-duper career so far for
this great star - congratulations Minnie Copper!
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