On the latest episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the queens are faced with the Maxi Challenge of competing in a Rusical. It’s a time honored tradition on the series, farmed out even to international editions. This season it’s for The Sound of Rusic, inspired extremely loosely by The Sound of Music, and we have to ask: Is Drag Race hurtling toward an actual Broadway production?
For the past few seasons, the show has been turning out some really solid stageplays. Madonna: The Unauthorized Rusical from season 12, Moulin Ru! The Rusical from season 14, Wigloose: The Rusical from season 15, and even JOAN: The Unauthorized Rusical from All Stars season 8 were all standouts. (We do not speak of Social Media: The Unverified Rusical in this house.)
And while one could say that this is potentially just the show getting better at something they do every single year, the inclusion of Adam Shankman makes me think of how Jamal Sims clocked the hours for years as a choreographer on the show before taking up residence as the co-director of Drag Race Live!, the show’s Vegas residency. Could Skankman do the same on Broadway?
The queens certainly have the talent. The Sound of Rusic shows off Plasma deeply in her element as the lead, Mariah. Sure, she had to fight for the role — the “fighting” mostly entailed saying, “I want this,” over and over until others changed their mind, but she performed. Like every Rusical, it also platformed queens who can do the most even when given the least — Sapphira Cristal as Mother Superior shushing Plasma will never not make me giggle.
And if I’m being honest, Leland (who writes and produces most of Drag Race’s original music) went deep in his bag for this one. Years ago someone told me that a metric of whether a musical is good or not lies in whether you find yourself humming at least one song afterwards. Between the remixed snippet that called back to the Frock Destroyer’s viral track “Break Up, Bye Bye,” and the family Von Snaps’ “Girl, Tea, Shade,” I’ve been humming.
Thinking about all of this, in addition to everything else happening on Broadway — Jinkx Monsoon is returning to Chicago after having sold out her initial run; Marcia Marcia Marcia is going to be Victor in Cabaret; and more — makes the idea of a theatrical permutation of the show really viable. And again, maybe I’m just talking out of my ass but it seems plausible.
As for this week’s Rusical, Plasma and Sapphira do end up in the top. They are there alongside Q, and I have to agree with Megami’s on-screen critique for this one; the judges applauded her on choreography that was just walking around stage, dragging a piece of fur behind her. Let’s be for real here! If we’re being real, we must also admit that her makeup for the Rusical, and I Can Buy Myself Flowers runway look were both amazing.
Plasma takes the win. For the bottoms, it was Mhi’ya Iman Lepaige (she did get tangled up in her habit,) Morphine (she was great but the level of competition was just higher than what she was giving,) and Megami in the bottom three. It ends up being a full circle moment as at the top of the episode, Megami and Morphine Love Dion both vie (unsuccessfully) for bigger parts because they fear they aren’t standing out enough.
The final lip sync is Megami and Mhi’ya. Mhi’ya takes it home with a penguin slide and her heels kicked off!
Latest
