Erika Moul started performing as Lady Gaga in college at Michigan State University and now does it on a large scale with the Lady Gaga Tribute. She tries to honor the “Mother Monster” while bringing a little of herself to her performances.
She will perform Saturday, Sept. 28, during the Tucson Pride Festival.
Born in Michigan but now living in Tampa, Moul has a background in theater. Along with Lady Gaga, she also impersonates Carrie Underwood.
She previously performed as Lady Gaga in Las Vegas for Legends in Concert, which features celebrity impersonators.
Although she performs as Lady Gaga, Moul has always loved rock artists and groups such as Joan Jett, AC/DC and The Rolling Stones. She has found an avid fanbase among Pride festivals around the United States.
“Pride is my playground. They’re the most supportive and beautifully open and accepting audiences I could ever ask for,” Moul said.
She draws from all of Lady Gaga’s moments and songs, including “Born This Way,” to tailor her show for Pride audiences.
“I tend to be not too political. I used to be very political when I was younger. Where now, I would say it’s the subtext. You know what I’m saying, but I don’t need to say it because you can feel it. Gaga’s words are very powerful, and sometimes the music itself is enough,” Moul said.
The tribute show also features five to six dancers and four musicians. Moul said the band members bring their own distinctive personas to the show.
“When they’re onstage playing, say, keyboard, they’re not playing keyboard as themselves. They also have their own characters… I wanted to give them something where they could also take their own work and channel it through something else. Most people see a band as the backup. They are 100% a full aspect of the show and their own little monster,” Moul said.
Moul said the show changes each night, although they do certain Lady Gaga hits with almost every performance.
“Each show honestly is very individual. I’ve never done the same show twice, which is really exciting and terrifying, but I think it has more energy to it. It feels special,” Moul said.
She tries to personalize shows to the specific places she is performing, if she can. For example, Lady Gaga mentions Arizona in the song “Always Remember Us This Way.”
Along with well-known Lady Gaga songs, she tries to dig deep into the catalog.
She also finds moments where she can incorporate the singer’s acting roles, such as “A Star is Born” and “American Horror Story: Hotel.”
During Lady Gaga’s duets, such as “Shallow” or “Telephone,” the audience often acts as the other singer.
“I will just hold my microphone, and they sing along and hit every note. Having the audience become part of the show is just so beautiful… It gives them a chance to be the star, and it’s super memorable and something Gaga would do,” Moul said.
Moul said that she has consistently studied Lady Gaga’s performances, videos and other content for years.
“It’s a little bit embarrassing, but I don’t think I go more than three days without research,” Moul said.
“I spend at least an hour a day trying to find something new. Every concert, live interviews, live one-off performances. She really is a character, and I think being able to study her is knowing the backstage Gaga, knowing the when-things-aren’t-going-as-planned Gaga. Those are all very real developments that I take into consideration because I want to respect her and the persona she also created for herself.”
In her daily life, Moul tends not to wear a lot of makeup. She has studied a lot and gotten advice from drag queens over the years to elevate her makeup.
She said that putting on her makeup helps her to start getting into her character.
She has had friends help her with costumes. She said one of these friends now works for Lady Gaga.
With her costumes, Moul tries to honor Lady Gaga but not completely recreate her looks.
“I made a choice to take elements from her costumes and implement them with other costumes that she’s done, so that I’m making a collage. That’s Erika’s little piece. I can have a little something to myself. I want to still individually have my own version of Lady Gaga. I will take something from one music video and something from a live performance and add my own little twist to it,” Moul said.
Recycling and upcycling are important to Moul, and she will often reuse items in her costumes.
“We take things that people wouldn’t normally see as useable, and I say, ‘How can we use this? I want to bring it back to life…’ I’ve used zip ties and old fishnets to make fringe, things that most people would say they are done with this and throw it away. I’m like, ‘No, give me those old jeans. I’ll make something.’ I’m very thrifty,” Moul said.
She has been performing as Lady Gaga for more than a decade.
Moul started doing Lady Gaga as a character study in college.
“I wanted to be an actress. I also loved singing, but I was absolutely terrified to sing in front of people, which is funny. But I loved her character. I just said if I’m going to play any character, she is one that is ever-evolving and such an enigma, where you never know what she’s going to do next. Even studying her for 13-plus years, I’m still surprised. It’s the role of a lifetime,” Moul said.
In college, she did charity shows as Lady Gaga to raise money for performing arts majors at her school. This earned her the nickname “Baby Gaga.”
“Our entire theater department, we wanted to raise awareness of the arts. We started a program where we would put on shows at local bars. We would put on nonprofit shows, burlesque performances, haunted houses,” Moul said.
Although she was initially frightened of singing in front of people, she worked at it, and now she sings live as part of the tribute show.
She said that she really has worked hard to sound similar to Lady Gaga.
“I’ve had so many people say that I’m lip-syncing because they can’t believe it’s my voice. I’ve taken the phonetic alphabetic, and I listened to her. I know how to pronounce and have every inflection from her live performances. There’s a lot of work that goes into sounding like her,” Moul said. “I approached it from an actor’s perspective. My professors in college were very helpful. They guided me. We took it song by song. Gaga’s colors in her voice are very different, depending on the sound and color of the song. I had to learn it as Erika first and then say, ‘Oh, that Michigan accent is coming out. Let’s switch that phonetic sound to this sound because it has a little New York in it or something that’s very specific to her voice.’”
Tucson Pride Festival
WHEN: Noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28
WHERE: Georges DeMeester Performance Center, 900 S. Randolph Way, Tucson
COST: $20 general admission, $100 VIP ticket, kids 12 and younger free
INFO: tucsonpride.org
