Dot-Marie Jones, Harry Hamlin and Melanie Griffin to appear at tonight’s Best in Drag Show at Orpheum

The Best in Drag Show takes place tonight at the gorgeous Orpheum Theatre in downtown LA.

The annual show benefits Aid for AIDS, a program of Alliance for Housing and Healing.

By supporting Best in Drag, attendees are helping to house and feed people living in poverty with HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles.

I chatted with a terrific guy named Jeffrey Drew who is the show’s director.

Drew became involved as a contestant back when the event was still called Battle for the Tiara. He has been directing and doing choreography for the past three years.

He remembers when the event was held in people’s apartment before moving on to a 99-seat theater then larger venues on Wilshire Boulevard: El Rey then the Wilshire Ebell Theatre.

“I rode in on a camel singing Midnight at the Oasis in 1998 at the Ebell,” Drew recalls.

From the Ebell, the show moved to the Orpheum.

“We were selling so many tickets,” he says, “we needed to get bigger.”

So why so popular?

“People love those pageants, these are guys in dresses, not transgender. They are not even classy women. They are doing a takeoff on the Miss America pageant. People are so into pageants, they are willing to get up there if is a fun evening, be silly and have fun and be funny and very open-hearted. Everyone is in on the joke.”

The 2013 contestants include Miss California Beverly Center (aka Sash Carl), Miss Michigan Electra Caprice Riviera (aka D’Nez Westmoreland), Miss New Jersey Vava Fanculo (aka Stephen Molinaro), Miss Puerto Rico Mimi E (aka Mike Cativo), Miss D.C. Ciera Lyon (aka Dajuan Powns), and Miss Wisconsin Misty O’Portunity (aka Aron Ross).

“Our community has gotten very complacent,” he says. “We are raising money to put people into apartments so they can have stability and take their meds. Meds cost so much. That’s the money that we raise. Every other week there’s a cancer benefit.”

Drew adds: “There’s a generational gap. These kids in their 30s don’t get what we went through, losing a community. Raising money for AIDS is a struggle sometimes. We just try to keep doing our part.”

Each year, organizers have managed to get plenty of stars to take part. This year’s group includes the recently engaged Dot-Marie Jones, Melanie Griffin, Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna, among others.

“It’s just about asking friends, pulling in favors,” Drew says. “Whehter its judges or being in the show. It’s the thing of going hat in hand to all these people. Friends ask friends. I have no problem going hat in hand.”

For more information about the contestant and to order tickets, go to the Best In Drag Show website.