That was the starting point for Billy Elliot, as it is for this faintly similar new musical, inspired by a 2011 BBC documentary, Jamie: Drag Queen at 16.
Later he decries, his voice plummy and faintly horrified: "It is a sign of our times that a man with a painted face and carefully adjusted lipstick should inspire adoration from an audience of girls aged between 14 and 20.
The rumble is faintly ridiculous, yes, but also inspired and incendiary.
Its earthy, handmade texture and faintly shamanic silhouette appeal to a culture inspired by Instagram photos of adobe interiors and alternative theories of wellness.
The director has said that this faintly twee, Paris-set romantic fantasy-comedy is inspired by the spirit of Woody Allen.
"Negotiations," set to faintly Middle Eastern-sounding music by Peter Jones, was inspired by tales of the biblical matriarchs Sarah and Hagar.
"And he taught us that a better world is possible - at times seen clearly, at others only faintly glimpsed - but in so doing he inspired others to believe that too.
By contrast, Juliet's tenderness, and the nobility of feeling that inspires her transports of lyricism, are only faintly glimpsed.
What lies in the background, glowing faintly, are the issues of medical science, the wonders it performs, the faith it inspires, and, against that, its slowly diminishing but still vast ignorance of the brain, and the mind, and the relation between the two.
More typical of the collection were the camel coats and navy tailoring, faintly military, but with none of the elaboration of Ms. Giannini's show of a year ago inspired by Russian folklore.
