There is a moment toward the end of the second episode of HBO’s “We’re Here” when Eureka O’Hara, a glorious mountain of a drag queen, is standing with a Twins Falls, Idaho resident in an alley just smoking a cigarette. The resident in question, known only as Clifton, identifies as a straight, works in an utterly masculine profession and has a “no holds barred” attitude toward life. Under the guidance of Eureka, he has just strutted his stuff in full-on drag as Cleo Patyourass in a pop-up drag show in front of his girlfriend, family, and friends. Afterward, the pair are just shooting the shit while smoking cigs. It’s not staged for the cameras. There’s no forced drama or plot point. It’s organic, a chill-out moment between two people proving that we often have more in common than not.
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Steve Warren, the co-creator and an executive producer of “We’re Here” notes, “Every single time that scene comes up, Johnnie and I look at each other and we go, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe we got that shot.’
Warren’s husband, Johnnie Ingram, the other co-creator and also an exec producer adds, “I used to work at a drag bar and I feel like I’ve had that moment, but not as good. That’s such a beautiful moment.”
“We’re Here” is a rare dive into the world of reality documentary series for HBO, but it also happens to be a stellar one. Over six episodes, popular queens Shangela (DJ Shangela, “A Star is Born”), Bob the Drag Queen (Christopher Caldwell, “Tales of the City”) and Eureka (“AJ and the Queen”), travel to different small towns across the United States to put on a one-night-only drag show. Sometimes they mentor local drag queens. Other times they work with gay or queer people who might need to express themselves. And, obviously, they often put some straight identifying participants into drag for the first time.
Warren, an entertainment lawyer for 34 years, and Ingram, a longtime creative director in the advertising world, are not your typical television producers. In fact, these are their first credits on IMDB, but sometimes life throws you a surprise. Warren was conveniently having lunch with the head of HBO after he and Ingram had conceived of the concept just a week earlier.
He recalls, “I thought, HBO doesn’t even do this stuff, but I’m going to tell him, I’ll just tell him about it just to see what his reaction is. He immediately said, ‘I want it. We’ve been looking for something like this for a long time. The woman who works with me who is the head of unscripted in New York has wanted something like this. Can I tell her about it?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ And it was done, that was it.”
The industry veteran knows, of course, that these sorts of stories of programs getting greenlit with a snap of the fingers are exceedingly rare.
“We both shake our heads all the time,” Warren says, “There are times when you just are inspired in a way that you know you need to do something. The way we came up with the title, it was the same thing. I grew up in the ’80s during the AIDS crisis. I’m significantly older than Johnnie and that the title ‘We’re Here’ came to me because it’s something that it speaks universally to anyone that doesn’t feel heard or isn’t seen, but it [also] comes from the AIDS crisis and ACT UP in the ’80s that was so personal to me. To be able to say, ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.’ To bring it to 2020, it’s just the perfect combination.”
Bob the Drag Queen is best known as the winner of season eight of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” And, as you might expect, both Shangela and Eureka also earned their first shots of fame on the Emmy-winning competition show. But in the years since, Caldwell has found himself touring the continent with a one-person comedy show, hosting MTV’s web series “Drag My Dad” and appearing in television projects such as the “Tales of the City” sequel, Netflix’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show” and another HBO staple, “High Maintenance.” But the Georgia native says it’s his own experience of growing up in a small town himself that been the biggest benefit in tackling “We’re Here.”
In the third episode of the season, Caldwell is asked to mentor Tanner, a twentysomething Branson, Missouri actor who no longer identifies as gay. The twist is that Tanner’s mother supported his initial coming out at a young age. He’s come to this decision after deciding Christianity was helping him cope with an alcohol problem. But at this point in his life, Tanner is unable to rectify his Christian faith with his sexuality. As Tanner explains his story, Caldwell takes it all in almost a matter of factly. Where other gay or LGBTQ people might find themselves frustrated with Tanner’s decision, Caldwell understands Tanner’s thought process because he was also seriously religious for a portion of his life.
“I reveal later in the episode, [it was] similar to me and a lot of people in my family,” Caldwell says. “So, it wasn’t kind of like, ‘Oh, my goodness, this is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.’ Most of our people either know someone or have had this issue themselves. I was like, ‘Yeah, this sounds about right.'”
Despite traveling to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the aforementioned Idaho in the first two episodes without any incidents, the trio’s arrival did not go over well in the wholesome and Christian “Las Vegas” of the midwest.
“In Branson, we got the cops called on us three times. It was kind of remarkable actually,” Caldwell says. “And they were calling the cops on us just for being around. We weren’t doing anything. At one point, we were just getting in front of the store in drag, getting ready for our next shot, and the guy was like, ‘You need to vacate the premises. I’ve called the authorities.’ We were like, ‘We’re just standing here. We’re not even doing anything.’ So it doesn’t happen a whole lot. But, in Branson, it was not uncommon.”
He continues, “I was a little shocked by that point, because it was our third episode and, also, it’s a show town. It’s a town where people go and do shows. I was like, ‘They’re going to be open-minded.’ And I’m not saying they weren’t open-minded, but I’m just saying they definitely overreacted.”
Fans of “Drag Race” might be a little surprised that Bob, Shangela and Eureka were thrown together as the hosts of “We’re Here.” They have no real shared history publicly and, arguably, are pretty strong personalities even for drag queens. Warren insists, however, they were the only queens they talked to about starring in the series.
“We had very at-length discussions on the right recipe for who we wanted to approach,” Warren says. “Based on not only their history and their careers, [but] but they’re also from small towns and they’re incredibly empathetic.”
Ingram is also proud of the camaraderie not only the cast brought but of a crew that represents all aspects of the LGBTQ+ spectrum.
“We are a family, all of us, and it’s very much a passion and labor of love,” Ingram says. “You’re seeing a different side of them. I think when you’re juxtaposed in a competition show [such as ‘Drag Race’], it’s a competition. Through this show, you’re seeing a different side and we wanted to share not only their personalities but that they’re human beings and they’ve been through a lot.”
“If you watch a show like ‘Queer Eye,’ it’s like five people are working on one person. We, actually, are doing our own things,” Caldwell says. “Honestly, we’re not spending that much time together. We spend a few days together and then, for the rest of the week, we’re busy trying to get our own things in order.”
That’s one of the twists that differentiate “We’re Here” from its obvious reality makeover cousins. There are distinct storylines that only come together at the end of each episode. It’s not necessarily a traditional “team” effort, but as the show goes on the queens’ camaraderie grows.
“I had to work with Shangela and Eureka before,” Caldwell reveals. “I had written music with both of them and we worked together for those. We weren’t strangers or anything. We certainly bonded and got to know each other a lot better. And it’s interesting to get to know someone on a human level, versus a colleague and work level. I mean, we’ve been making the show for nine months now. So, when you work with someone for so long, you get to see the nuances that make them, them.”
Despite somehow going under the radar of the hardcore “Drag Race” fan base, “We’re Here” has been shooting on and off since July 2019. Each episode took about nine days to film and Caldwell notes, “That doesn’t include prepping. That doesn’t include casting. That doesn’t include design meetings and all that stuff. It’s just the filming part.”
One other aspect of “We’re Here” that will differentiate it from its peers is the high-end production value that oozes from each episode. It’s not just that the team makes sure the performances at the end of each episode are as visually entertaining as possible or that expert makeup and costumers help transform the participants. It’s that the cinematography, production design and editing are much more cinematic than you’d expect for this sort of program. And, yes, that’s intentional.
“Ours has a bit more of a documentary approach to things,” Ingram says. “We are looking for real people, almost ideally going through something, pivoting on a pivotal moment in their lives.”
Despite the unfortunate reception in Branson, Warren felt that in each town the entire crew’s impact was felt during their stay. Especially as they ate at restaurants, visited the local barber and stopped by all sorts of other places over the course of a week.
“The crew and cast are very diverse, there’s a big chunk that is queer, there’s a big chunk that are of people of color, trans, it’s like a big wide variety,” Warren says. “Johnnie and I will go to dinner, and that they’ll ask, ‘What are you doing in town?’ We’ll say, ‘It’s a drag show.” Half the time the waiter or the waitress is so excited or they could be like, ‘Oh, really?’ Then we invite them. You get a wide variety of reactions, but the surprising thing is at the end, at the shows, it’s so heartwarming.”
He continues, “Each of the shows, we didn’t know how many people, if anyone, would come. Each time we’ve had more people than we could possibly fit. What’s beautiful about it is you see people that we’ve met over the course of the week that come in, that feel connected to what we’ve been doing.”
Ingram adds, “They equate it to a Cher or a Dolly Parton concert. Everybody’s there. Your grandma’s there, the bikers are there, the counterculture, everyone shows up to these events because they’re just a spectacle and such an entertaining art form. It’s really special and drag is somewhat of an olive branch to a lot of different types of people. We are surprisingly seeing people come out in droves to see these performances.”
“For me, it’s the shows,” Caldwell says of his favorite part of the process. “I love performing. I’m a performer. I love getting on stage. I love doing my thing. I love making people laugh. That’s probably the best part. Not probably, it is the best part for me.”
Caldwell wasn’t initially sure how the show would turn out. You never know how the end product will appear on television. Having seen the final episodes though he realizes the series may become a welcome anecdote for these trying times.
“I hope that it helps people during their quarantine,” Caldwell says. “And if we have to be stuck in our living room, we might as well have something touching to watch on TV.”
As for a second season, well, Caldwell has a request for anyone with an HBO connection.
“If you know someone, put in a good word for us, O.K.?”
“We’re Here” debuts on Thursday, April 20 at 9 PM on HBO. The premiere will also be available on YouTube and will be preceded a 30 pre-show featuring celebrity guests Drew Barrymore, Naomi Watts, Ellen Pompeo, Andrew Rannells and more.