"My Royal Past: Cecil Beaton and the Art of Impersonation"

Arguably best celebrated as a fashion and portrait photographer who brilliantly captured 20th-century luminaries — Queen Elizabeth, Marilyn Monroe, Truman Capote, Pablo Picasso, Coco Chanel, Mick Jagger, the list goes on — Cecil Beaton proved himself a Renaissance man during a career that encompassed everything from war photography to Oscar-winning costume and set designs. As a diarist, Beaton espoused a brutally honest voice that earned him the nickname “Malice in Wonderland,” courtesy of fellow multitasker Jean Cocteau. Deemed “one of Robert L. B. Tobin’s quirkiest gifts to the McNay,” a collection of black-and-white photographs Beaton published under the pen name Baroness von Bülop comes to light in “My Royal Past,” a spoof memoir that casts theater stars of the era (and even Beaton himself) in elaborate scenes exploring gender, identity, status and style. Also on view: “Dressed to Kill: Glam and Gore in Theatre,” an exhibition of costume drawings celebrating “stylish seductresses and fashionable fiends” of the musical stage.