Bruz Fletcher

The Pansy Craze was a period of heightened visibility for LGBTQ+ and drag performers in major U.S. cities, spanning roughly from the late 1920s to the mid‑1930s. Musically and theatrically, it sat at the crossroads of speakeasy jazz, urban blues, vaudeville, cabaret, and show‑tune patter. Performers delivered witty double‑entendre lyrics, gender‑bending personas, and camp humor accompanied by piano, small jazz combos, and danceable foxtrots or blues. While not a single codified musical style, the Pansy Craze defined a nightlife sound and stagecraft that normalized queer performance aesthetics in popular entertainment.