If you’re in NYC this August, make plans now to see RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 5 winner Jinkx Monsoon in her super-fun Off-Broadway musical revue, The Vaudevillians. This past Thursday night I luckily snagged a ticket (the show is totes sold out for the rest of its July dates), then stood in line outside the Laurie Beechman Theater amid the sweltering 90-degrees-at-9:30PM temps on 42nd Street, waiting for the second show of the night to begin. And… it was seriously worth it.
Jinkx and her onstage partner, composer/musical director Major Scales appear in The Vaudevillians as Kitty Witless and Dr. Dan Von Dandy, two 1920s-era show folks who got frozen for decades (thanks to a wrong turn in Antarctica and a lot of cocaine). They’ve since thawed out, and are ready to entertain.
The show is a complete hoot, sharply funny, packed with brilliant Tin Pan Alley send-ups of tunes by Britney Spears, Janis Joplin, Queen, Madonna – and Jinkx is LIVING onstage, killing it throughout. Also, she manages to deliver a version of one of the world’s most overused disco tunes which may be the best dramatically re-interpreted cover I’ve heard in years. (It’s very Gloria Gaynor meets Ibsen. Really. It’s amazing.)
Fans of Jinkxy will be wowed, folks who’ve never heard of her will be won over. (The NY Times has chimed in, gushing.) Thursday night’s crowd was a mix of Drag Race devotees, show queens, Glee-ish kids, moms and daughters, tourists and spiffy NYC gays. Joan Rivers has even caught the show! And so has Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
Side note: Behind me in line on 42nd Street before the show, two little gay boys were playing the Drag Race mobile game Dragopolis on their phone. For reals! It’s a Drag Race world, chickens… We just live in it.
Word has it more Vaudevillians shows will be added for September. Make plans to get Jinkx’ed!
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