ABSTRACT
Dress Suits to Hire won Holly Hughes the distinction of having authored her own genre. When the play opened in May 1987 at P.S. 122 in New York City, C. Carr of the Village Voice heralded Hughes as queen of her own “Dyke Noir Theatre” and broadcast her reputation as bad girl of the bad girls. “She’s hell on heels, a twisted sister-a character from the timeless, tasteless world of dyke noir as imagined by Holly Hughes.” Where is Hughes’ dyke noir since Dress Suits? If Carr is right, “Wherever she goes it’s the wrong side of town” (1987:32).
