Play

Love, love, love going to play on Sunday’s. The front bar plays musicals and the bartender is the friendliest and most personable in town.
One Sunday the month The Derby City Sisters host drag bingo for a $ 5 buy-​in and extra cards for a can good donation. It’s a really fun way to spend an evening and you can win small prizes.
There is also an up and comers drag show that follows at 10:00. It’s entertaining and sometimes you can pick out some real rising talent.

Only a certain amount of fun can be had on a random evening out with friends, right? Nope. Not if you end up at Play… then the quantity and quality of your fun will rise much higher than you ever expected. This club/​venue is very well kept and has always put on fun drag shows. They also have reasonable prices on their drinks and a lively dance floor (on certain nights).
The atmosphere here is almost better than all the other parts put together. So many nice people. I have never heard of anyone having a bad time here.
Get out and try something different, if you’ve never been.
There are some other cool spots right on the same block that you could check out before and after too. :)

I love Play Louisille! It’s such a fun bar and it’s beautifully decorated. It’s a large space, which makes for lots of interesting things to see and do, and helps with that overwhelming crowded bar feeling you sometimes run into on Saturday nights. Not to say it doesn’t become crowded, but more space means more room to have fun!
One of the awesome things about Play is that they have multiple sections of the bar to chose from. There’s a stage, dance floor, and another bar area that leads out to the patio. While you’re there make sure you check out everything! Also, and I see that a few others have mentioned this in their reviews, the bathroom is super cool! I know, that seems weird, but you’ll see when you visit.
My favorite thing about Play is Buti yoga on Monday nights. (Classes are also offered on Thursdays and sometimes they have special events.) Dana is an awesome instructor and the class is so fun! It’s a $ 10 drop-​in fee, and if you forget your mat you can rent one for $ 2. They play really awesome music and turn on the lights in the dance floor room. I highly recommend everyone check it out!

Play is such a beautiful and clean establishment!
My first visit was for a hair show I participated in while attending Paul Mitchell the Hair School (don’t go there! Lol). They allowed us to have our charity event for free.
My next couple visits were for special events and beautiful queens that came from afar to perform and dazzle! We even pushed gals from our party onstage… Which was hilarious! The costumes and voices will take you to another multiverse and leave you wanting more more and more!!!
The owners are also badass and have done so much for the LGBT community. And opening their wonderful establishment in the growing and badass neighborhood, Butchertown. The wifey, Dana, is a buti instructor every Week for glow buti yoga! And is a huge inspiration in the yoga community!
I am very thankful to have Play in my city

This review is a long time coming! I absolutely love Play Louisville!
Lets just start with the interior of the club, which is gorgeous by the way. So you walk in and have your ID checked and pay your cover. Then, you are greeted by this great lounging area with this 20 foot (at least) cushioned bench. Then you’re faced with three choices (rut roh, where do I go now? Don’t fear, I gotchu!) To the left is the drag stage, and honey let me tell you the stage is … GORG! There is a bar so you can get a drink while waiting (or during the show) where they will also give you change, so you can tip the brave kings and queens who get up on that stage and perform their asses off! If you keep you walking forward you will find the restrooms which are beautiful as well! You can find yourself a table or sit a the benches on the side and watch the show (when seating is available, of course). They usually have waiters and waitresses to take your drink orders as well, which is a HUGE positive, because who wants to take their eyes off of those magnificent entertainers?!?
So let’s go back to the entrance. (I know, why leave those queens and kings alone? but there’s a whole other club to visit!)
Looking right you have two options, immediate right and kind of behind you right. Behind is what I like to call the TV bar because they have televisions that play music videos (on Sundays it’s showtunes and who doesn’t love some Cellblock Tango (Chicago) or Defying Gravity (Wicked)?!? There’s a full bar so you can grab a drink while you jam to the song playing. For my fellow smokers, the smoker’s lounge is right out to the right of the bar. When it’s cold the smoker’s section is heated and it makes a big difference, while in the summer and the cooler (but not too cool) months they keep the bays open so it’s easier to access and sometimes have fans so your foundation doesn’t come off (ya know what I’m sayin?) I know smoking is bad but it doesn’t mean we need to be uncomfortable. Plus just standing out there you get to people watch and sometimes see the drag celebrities that are visiting before they hit the stage!
For the dancers out there, on the immediate right you have your dance floor which has an upper and lower bar to get your drinks served to you as well. They always play a great mix of genres and the DJ’s don’t over mix it. On top of that they do a little laser show. It’s a spectacular to beheld.
One absolutely amazing thing about Play is that they independently bring in drag queens from Rupaul’s Drag Race and other drag royalty all throughout the year (Sharon Needles, Adore Delano, Bianca Del Rio, Courtney Act, Violet Chachki, Trixie Mattel, Amanda Lepore, Jujubee, Raven and Latrice Royale, just to name a few!). Hard Candy also brings in many queens (most from RPDR) for performances, usually once or more a month. Generally Hard Candy is the week days and when Play independently brings in entertainers it’s on the weekends. So you can get a taste during what works best for you.
While celebrities are here quite often, let’s not forget about the local playmates! The shows they put on every night are so good. Jade Jolie (S5 of RPDR), Leah Halston (She performed at Unilocal’s Art In Action and she always tears the house down with her lip syncs), Bianco Nicole (the goddess of seduction), Karmen DeLaRouge (the femme fatale), Akasha O’Hara Lords (reigning Ms. Ohio Gay Pride 2015) and Audrey Jolie (one fierce entertainer that I’m sure we’ll see more of!).
Play also has many special events throughout the year such as foam parties, paint parties and other various events depending on the time of the year.
Overall Play is keeping up with the times and they are bringing it every. Single. Night. That they are open!

Every time you call there you get a recording. I just want to know what the hours are. One site says 4am on Wednesdays another says 2am. When you call showtime a are at 10 and 12 if that’s the case then why would they be open till 4 but on the other hand not a bad thing if they were. Would just want a straight answer with the correct hours and show times for Wednesday nights. OMG. Other than that. The club is fantastic and the play mates are amazing.

My boyfriend and I love going out to Play. We have been to several special events and have a great time! The in house talent is amazing and are all great people. I love tipping the ladies! The atmosphere is much more upscale than your typical bar.
Negatives are few, but seating in the theater area can be cumbersome. Also, drinks are a little pricey, but the bartenders I’ve gotten to know make the drinks very well.
Overall, I’d definitely recommend spending a Friday or Saturday night at Play!

Omg this place is such a fun bar, dance club with a great drag show! The atmosphere is friendly to all– gays, straights, and most of all drag queens. This place meets the abc’s of gay night clubs in Louisville.

A group of my friends decided to meet up in Louisville to celebrate NYE. We made a stop at Play along the way of festivities.
Play is a fairly new gay bar that opened up in Louisville. It’s owned by a past bartender from Play Nashville & a few other people. Being from Nashville, I’ve been to the Play there more times than I can remember. I’ve always had a great time at Play Nashville, so I was looking forward to seeing how that translated in Louisville.
We arrived around 10:30pm on the 31^st & the place was packed. We’d bought our tickets online earlier because there was some discount. I think we saved 5 bucks or something, I’m honestly not sure what they were charging at the door. The complex looks huge from the outside, a large, winding ramp leads into the bar. The people working the door we friendly & they have a coat check for $ 2 which isn’t too bad at all.
The drinks here are pricey, but what else do you expect? We got a Long Island ice tea & a jack & diet & it ate our $ 20. We Über’d to the place so I’d already drank PLENTY & I think I nursed the jack a while until I was gone. The main bar is located where the stage is. If you’ve been to the Play in Nashville, it has somewhat the same set up, just that the main bar & stage area is about 40% larger than the Nashville bar & stage.
The entertainment for the night was Derrick Barry who is FAMOUS for his Britney Spears impersonation. I’m a huge Britney fan and was happy to see him perform. Also, Jade Jolie from RPDR is a playmate here & does Blank Space by Taylor Swift that makes you wanna get on stage & join him.
From the main bar, you can walk through the foyer of the bar to another bar & a seating area, that is located by the outdoor patio where you can smoke or cool off on a cold night like I did. I must’ve been dancing because I was burning up inside the place. Probably from all the body heat, I honestly can’t remember. I think I might have drank too much to remember. The patio is large & overlooks the parking lot & Washington. It also has a lot of tall tables for you to set your drink which I like. It’s probably nice out in the summer time.
I feel like here is more to the place, but I only remember flashes here & there. There’s a single bathroom off of the smaller bar area at the seating area near the patio. I used it once, & I never figured out where the main bathroom was. They’ve also got a dance floor which I remember being in, but I can’t place how I got there. They also had a balloon drop that was supposed to happen, but I think they got stuck.
Overall, Play Louisville lives up to all the fun of Play Nashville. Same great entertainment, same great music, same pricey drinks! It’s a great time. I still like The Connection, but this might be the new place to go for a good/​messy night.

My college friends live all across the country, but we reunite every year for a weekend in February. It was my turn to host, and someone suggested we go to Play, and I am sure glad they did, as it was hands down the highlight of the trip.
I reserved a booth in the Theatre for the Drag Show for $ 125, which at first I thought was steep for one show, but while we were there we found out we actually had the booth reserved for the entire night for the 10 pm, 12 am, and 2 am shows. I’m certainly glad we did the booth for our group of six, as it gave us a great view of the stage, room to dance if we wanted to, and a place to sit down. I do wish the cost of the booth would have included our cover for the evening ($ 10). We also had a great cocktail waitress, Jessica, who would come check in and see if we needed another round of drinks, allowing us to stay in our booth the duration of the night.
The 10 pm show was a great way to kick off the evening, but the bar was certainly not full at that point. We could have easily gotten up and been able to access the bar. By the time the 12 am show came around though, the place was packed. At that point, we were certainly glad that we had a booth. We didn’t know that the acts would be different in each show, but we were definitely happy we stayed for the 12 am show, which we were told is typically the best one. The 10 pm show was amazing, but the 12 am show was astounding… it was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen (drag and non-​drag).
On Sunday, all we could talk about was the show the night before and what a great time we had. Our only regrets were that we didn’t make it to the 2 am show, and that there wasn’t enough time in between shows to go to the dance floor in the next room. I would highly recommend Play for a great Girls Night Out!

Always a great time. Come see David behind the bar for all your drink needs! Thursday’s are Ladies Night and Sunday’s he is on the Patio!

$ 20 for 2 vodka tonics. Didn’t ask for top shelf, in fact saw him pour bottom shelf. Maybe you can sneak this false bill by a drunk patron, but one drink later — I KNOW I got ripped off. Didn’t feel that I could argue with the bartender in a loud bar, but I plan on CASH next time … The drag show was amazing — wish I could’ve thrown those extra dollars to the performers rather than the bartender who over charged me.
Have some respect for your patrons.

I enjoy Play so much. But it doesn’t deserve 5 stars for one reason; their point-​of-​sale (POS) system. I will address that in one moment.
The good stuff:
Arguably, Play is the best club/​bar in the city. It has one of the largest dance clubs in town and amazing local DJs. And some celebs too; I saw Boy George dj here after Oaks. They have a huge space to work with and they’ve used it wisely. Three different sections: the stage area (drag shows), the dance floor, and a quieter bar area with a patio. There different areas, three different atmospheres. And three different bars to order drinks from. …and therein lies my issue with Play.
The bad stuff:
I love that there is so much going on at this bar. You can walk around to see different things. Relax on the patio/​chill area, dance some, then watch a drag show… but, that means you will probably be ordering drinks from separate sections of the bar. That is a problem at Play. If you are using a card/​opening a tab, their system is such that you not only have to order all of your drinks at one bar area, but you ALSO have to order them from the same bartender! I have never heard of a system like this! The bartenders are great and professional but the system holds them back.
The only way to get around this is to use cash or to close your tab after every drink you order. Obviously this would be cumbersome. They keep your card behind the bar. So if you don’t have cash, you have to go back and find the same bartender every time you want another drink. For a bar that appears to doing so well (and charging a $ 10 cover), you would think they would have a much better POS system. They are losing money and diminishing the experience for the customer. It’s the only black mark, in my opinion.
— — — — –
Also, here is just some other stuff I like about the bar
–huge VIP area near the dance floor
–lots of lights and hanging things on the walls– the most ornate bar in the city
–the coolest bar bathroom I’ve ever been in– the mirrors have missing sections in them so the men and women are looking at eachother and interacting while at the sinks
–the bar is organized in a big circle so you can walk around; it has a great flow pattern
–the patio/​chill section is much quieter so you can go there if you want to talk with friends
–the drag shows are top notch and there are VIP sections in this area as well

I love a good drag show and this one certainly did not disappoint. This place is so huge there really is something for everyone. Come with an open mind and be prepared to dance the night away!

Place is very nice and modern. The staff is very friendly, but apparently they have lost Deeranged. She hasnt been there in months. Recently Leah Halston hasnt been there either so the show was not very interesting at all. Second there is no where near enough seating in the show room area and half of what is there seems to be always «reserved». The cover charge is normally double what the Connection or any other club in the Louisville area charges and when there is an event its of course even more. It also seems to be turning into an aquarium. Its becoming overrun with straight couples and women. To the point last night I picked out I think 5 gay guys the entire night. I really hope they get the new connection complex open soon. Im really disappointed with this place.

Awesome place. Very up to date and nice atmosphere. The dance floor is spacious. The drag show is in a separate area and doesn’t take all night. Good performers. Drinks are (much) cheaper than connections and strong. It’s the best gay club in Louisville.

This was my first time being at Play, we were seeing Adore Delano the Wednesday before Pride weekend. Atmosphere was great, beautiful place. Pretty packed because of Adore. The performers were great, especially Jade Jolie and Vanessa Demornay. The tables came back kind of far passed where everybody was standing, so it was kind of cramped, but it may have just been that night. Staff was ok.
After the last show we went into the dance room which was very nice. They had music videos that coincided with the music projecting on a wall. It was very fun, a lot of people had left at this point though. I would have loved to be there for the pre-​Pride foam party.
Definitely will come again!

#letsbehonest What a disappointment. I was expecting so much more! The place is beautiful inside, but I cannot say the same for the entertainment. The drag show was a drag :(and the dance floor/​room was a joke. What kind of music were you playing? It was awful! I went on a Saturday and the place was dead and not a soul in the dance room. Please change the music, and I will consider coming back. I would love this place if it was wall-​to-​wall filled with awesomeness, but it was quite the opposite. I had high hopes for this one!