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What an unfathomable loss this Pride season.
Drag performer Dito van Reigersberg, better known as Martha Graham Cracker, has passed away at the age of 53. The actor suffered complications from a 2023 bone marrow transplant, which was part of his ongoing fight against cancer.
“I am absolutely devastated to tell you that my sweetest and most generous and most talented friend Dito van Reigersberg aka Martha Graham Cracker has given her last bow (or is it curtsey?),” Victor Fiorillo, senior reporter for Philly Mag, wrote last night on Facebook. “Dito just died, surrounded by family and friends and music and an amazing medical team at Penn.”
Van Reigersberg leaves an undeniable mark on the Philadelphia performing arts community. Born in the Washington D.C. area, he moved to the city after attending Swarthmore college. Van Reigersberg was a co-founder of Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theatre Company in 1995 and starred in multiple productions throughout the years, earning various accolades and awards.
In a review of Martha Graham Cracker’s 8th anniversary show in 2013, WHYY News’ Howard Shapiro called van Reigersberg a “Philadelphia institution” and “the drag diva who croons and swoons, toys gleefully with an audience and is glorious in all her imperfection.”
The actor had a knack for “balancing two distinct but related professional lives,” Shapiro said, “one in platform high heels, purposely ill-fitting vinyl and an assortment of wigs, and another as a busy actor and teacher.”
“Martha was all rock and roll, all joy, all comedy, very much David Bowie, very much a clown, very much an explosive personality,” said Dustin Kidd, a friend and professor of sociology at Temple. “Offstage, Dito was a tender-hearted friend, but also deeply passionate about fighting for the arts and fighting for the rights of artistic communities, queer communities, marginalized communities everywhere.”
Fiorillo wrote a piece for Billy Penn announcing van Reigersberg’s leukemia diagnosis in 2022. While that illness forced the actor to take a hiatus, Martha Graham Cracker returned to the stage in spring 2024.
Van Reigensberg reflected on his cancer journey with Philly Mag last year.
“It’s pretty scary to go from being a performer, having a great time and feeling good, and then suddenly my only job is working on getting rid of this leukemia,” he said. “I don’t even know how to talk about that, exactly. It puts a lot of things in perspective. Like, ‘okay, those are just shows. When I recover, I can do more shows.’”
Van Reigersberg was a strong advocate in Philadelphia’s LGBTQ+ community, hosting drag performances and Pride concerts — adding his signature mix of sincerity and sass. He billed Martha Graham Cracker as “the world’s tallest and hairiest drag queen,” often with her shaggy legs and arms on full display.
“The path of progress is never straight,” van Reigersberg told an audience while hosting Philadelphia Orchestra’s Pride Concert last year. “It’s gay. It’s lesbian. It’s bisexual … It’s trans.”
“Please give his family and friends the space and privacy that they/we need,” Fiorillo said in the Facebook post. “Will be in touch later with information about how we can celebrate this amazing human being. I have never felt loss like this before.”
