Varla Jean Merman

{{Short description|American drag queen}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Varla Jean Merman

| image =

| caption =

| birth_name = Jeffery Roberson

| birth_date =

| birth_place = New Orleans, Louisiana

| education =

| occupation = {{flatlist|

• Drag performer
• Actor

}}

| years_active =

| spouse =

| website = {{URL|varlajean.com/}}

}}

Varla Jean Merman is the drag persona of American drag performer, actor and singer Jeffery Roberson. Varla's fictitious pedigree boasts that Ernest Borgnine is her father and Ethel Merman is her mother.{{cite news|url=http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2008/10/31/abroad_and_not_so_innocent/|title=Abroad, and not so innocent|date=October 31, 2008|newspaper=The Boston Globe|access-date=December 7, 2009 | first=Sandy | last=MacDonald}}

Merman is perhaps best known for her role in the 2003 independent film Girls Will Be Girls.{{cite web |url=http://history.sundance.org/films/2794/girls_will_be_girls |title=Sundance Archives: 2003 Film Festival - Girls Will Be Girls|website=Sundance.org |publisher=Sundance Film Festival|access-date=December 29, 2013}} She also had a co-starring role in the 1997 film Franchesca Page. Merman was also one of the performers featured in the HBO original documentary Dragtime. She has appeared in a number of short films and live cabaret acts since she and her male alter-ego attended the School of Music at Louisiana State University.

Merman's shows are a staple of summer entertainment in Provincetown, Massachusetts.{{cite news|url=http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/reviews.nsf/stage/story/F82567934FDC971E862575B7007D5146?OpenDocument|title=Varla Jean Merman brings raunchy show to Sheldon|date=May 15, 2005|newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|access-date=December 7, 2009}} She also performs fairly often in New Orleans, New York City, San Francisco, and London and has also enjoyed billing at the Sydney Opera House in Australia and Carnegie Hall.{{cite news|url=http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080810/NEWS/808100325|title=P'town drag queen celebrates 10 years on stage|date=August 10, 2008|newspaper=Cape Cod Times|access-date=December 7, 2009}}

The gay-themed television network Logo commissioned Merman to write and star in an animated educational short film about the Stonewall riots of 1969.{{cite news|url=http://www.advocate.com/print_article_ektid20010.asp|title=Looking at Logo|date=August 29, 2005|work=The Advocate|access-date=December 7, 2009}}

Merman appeared on the August 20, 2008 Project Runway episode "Good Queen Fun". The outfit created for her was the winning design.

She also had two short runs on the soap opera All My Children as the character "Rosemary Chicken".{{cite news|url=http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_197353.html|title=Cross-dresser's cabaret show winks at the circus|date=June 6, 2004|newspaper=Pittsburgh Tribune-Review|access-date=December 7, 2009}}

Roberson has almost always been credited as either "Varla Merman" or "Varla Jean Merman" rather than his birth name, though in the role of Mary Sunshine in the Broadway revival of Chicago, he was credited as the gender-neutral "J. Roberson," in keeping with the show's tradition of concealing the performer's gender.

Merman appeared along with Leslie Jordan in the 2011 Off-Broadway musical Lucky Guy.{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=Kenneth |date=April 28, 2011 |title=Lucky Guy, Starring Kyle Dean Massey, Leslie Jordan and Varla Jean Merman, Begins Crooning in NYC |journal= Playbill|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/lucky-guy-starring-kyle-dean-massey-leslie-jordan-and-varla-jean-merman-begins-crooning-in-nyc-com-178650 |access-date=December 6, 2019}}{{cite news |title= Inside the Financial Wreckage of Lucky Guy|last= Healy |first=Patrick|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980DE7DF173CF934A35755C0A9679D8B63 |newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 6, 2011 |access-date=December 6, 2019}}

Varla Jean and the Mushroomheads, a film based on Roberson and Jacques Lamarre's fake kids' show that's been performed in New Orleans, San Francisco and Provincetown, Mass., is slated for a fall 2011 release. In it, an alcoholic Varla tricks a couple into paying for her services as a surrogate mother to raise money to produce a children's TV show.{{cite news|url=http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/of-minx-and-men/Content?oid=1508204|title=The Varla Chronicles|date=January 10, 2011|publisher=Gambit Weekly|access-date=January 10, 2011| first=Lauren | last=LaBorde}}

Merman's 2012 schedule included the role of Madam Flora in an Off-Broadway production of the Gian Carlo Menotti opera The Medium.{{cite web|last=Bacalzo|first=Dan|title=Jeffrey Roberson aka Varla Jean Merman to Star in The Medium|url=http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/08-2012/jeffrey-roberson-aka-varla-jean-merman-to-star-in-_60653.html|work=TheaterMania|access-date=29 October 2012|date=20 August 2012}}

In 2013, Merman played the title role in the Gold Dust Orphans production Mildred Fierce.{{cite web|last=Aucoin|first=Don|title=Varla Jean Merman shines in 'Mildred Fierce'|url=http://bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-art/2013/02/12/varla-jean-merman-shines-landry-mildred-fierce/T8EFRHuLa5aYKhFekurgoO/story.html|work=Boston Globe|access-date=17 February 2013|date=12 February 2013}}