SF Oasis brings back ‘Fresh Prince’— and yes, there’s a Carlton dance
From the moment the show starts at SF Oasis, it feels like stepping into the early ’90s — but with a sharper, campier edge.
By Vita Hewitt
When I heard that Oasis brought their production of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air back by popular demand, I had an out-of-body experience and found myself on their doorstep for opening night. It was the draw of the “Carlton Dance” — always and forever. What can I say? I am a product of my generation.
Few shows hold a place in the hearts of Gen Xers and Millennials more than The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Every week, we waited for Will, Carlton, Hilary, Uncle Phil, and Aunt Viv (the first one, anyway) to flip the script on what class and hip-hop culture could mean.
And Oasis knows exactly how to tap into that nostalgia while making it feel, well, fresh. The show bursts with energy, from Major Hammy’s charismatic Will to Mudd’s neurotic Carlton. The lip-syncs, the over-the-top physical comedy, and the perfectly timed ’90s references make it feel like stepping into a time machine — if that time machine also had a drag queen at the controls.
It’s been 35 years since the show catapulted Will Smith into stardom, not to mention ushering in a legacy of Black people in entertainment since the 90s. Television of this era was very white, and on that part, director Snaxx noted: “It was important to me to not only introduce a new show that was deeply nostalgic for me, but a show that featured Black performers.”
Conversations nowadays skew toward Smith’s now-infamous Oscar slap. And similarly, too, have we seen stains on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sex and the City — which also have been parodied in drag. For Fresh Prince, Snaxx hopes the past stands apart from later controversy.
“The thing about TV shows is they’re so ‘of a time,’ and sometimes the material (or the actors) age poorly,” Snaxx said. “But what the show means to me is bigger than all of that, and I think that’s true for most people who know and love the show.”
We return to these shows because they meant something to us at the time, and when places like Oasis bring them to life through drag, they become even better — self-aware, campy, and reimagined with the kind of inclusivity that makes them feel fresh again.
Sitting at Fresh Prince on the first of my two-drink minimum, with Salt-N-Pepa’s Shoop playing over the speakers, I felt just how much that nostalgia had its grip on me. When the familiar words — “Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped-turned upside down” — started up, the entire room burst into cheers.
Major Hammy as Will delivered the perfect amount of camp as he carried us through the show. Split into two “episodes,” we followed the characters in their early ’90s splendor through sibling rivalry, a new baby, and Will’s graduation (though he nearly got held back because — drama).
Actress Bettyie Jayne played the role of Hilary and actress Cheetah Biscotti played the role of Ashley, helping to achieve that special middle-child chaos with Will. Carlton, played by Mudd, hilariously squeaked his way through Will’s antics, and I became hopelessly obsessed with Albert Hodge as Geoffrey — the completely put-upon and completely amazing, dancing family butler.
When asked by Uncle Phil and Aunt Vivian (PerryYay SeltzHer and Miss Rahni) to give them a moment of privacy, his rendition of The Room Where It Happens was perfectly timed.
A few pointed barbs were thrown at the political shitshow we’re in. When asked what school paper Carlton was working on, he replied with a very un-Carlton-like smirk:
“You know, abortion rights, gay marriage, separation of church and state… Things we were dealing with in the ’90s that surely won’t be topics of debate 30 years from now!”
We laughed uproariously — because what else could we do?
With lip-syncs, an epically ridiculous fight scene, and frankly gorgeous dance moves, Fresh Prince at Oasis gave us some much-needed relief and a bit of escapism. And when the long-awaited Carlton Dance finally happened, it gave my inner child a sense of peace it had been desperately searching for.
// Catch Fresh Prince of Bel-Air at Oasis, 298 11th St., San Francisco Thursday-Sunday through March 15. Tickets and details
Vita Hewitt is a Bay Area-based photographer, filmmaker, journalist, and writer.
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