RuPaul’s Drag Race has been one of the great successes of the last decade, in television and well beyond. The series, which sees a dozen or so drag queens battle it out each season to be crowned “America’s next drag superstar”, isn’t the first to bring drag into the mainstream, but it has certainly shoved it centre-stage. Nowhere is this more the case than in the Werq the World Tour, where a bevy of former contestants, a compere and four underdressed, overenthused dancers show their gifts to the world. It’s a bit like the Strictly tour, but everyone is more open about using Botox.
Tonight at the Troxy, the audience could be any pop crowd. The show is loved by people of all shapes and sizes, and the clientele is noticeably mixed, with nearly as many women as men. In fact it’s the women who seem to have got into the spirit more, wearing wigs, hats and glitter, while the men tend to play it more, well, straight. Perhaps dressing up as a woman is a job best left to the professionals.
Because they are professionals. One of the reasons Drag Race is such a hit is because it relies on real craft, each contestant producing their own looks and routines. If the opener, Kennedy Davenport, gives us something quite classic – Beyoncé high-kicks to a Rio carnival-style megamix – it’s not long before we meet Sharon Needles, winner of season four. Coming on like the lost child of Cher and Elizabeth Báthory, mouthing quotes from The Exorcist, Needles soon treats us to a performance of her single, Black Licorice, while a video shows a dead rabbit decomposing.
The show ploughs on, aided by more star turns: Violet Chachki makes a stunning old-school showgirl in nocturnal blue, contorting herself circus-style on an aerial hoop; Detox gives us lurid sex-club Madonna with more aplomb these days than the real thing. But they all succeed, really, because they have charisma to spare. Even if Kim Chi can’t lip-sync so well, even if Latrice Royale’s rap is a little messy, the goodwill outweighs the clunkiness 10 to one. And the compere, Lady Bunny, does fine. Her shtick is based on old variety comedy gals, all beehives and dirty jokes. She’s presumably referencing the likes of Carol Burnett, although she had me thinking of Carol Thatcher on LSD.
The star of the show, though, was a queen of a whole other order. Halfway through, four audience members were summoned onstage to lip-sync a pop classic of their own. The clear winner was a woman who did Proud Mary with such enthusiasm and ease that she had surely been waiting for this moment all her life. She gave a nice acceptance speech too. “Next stop, Britain’s Got Talent!” said Lady Bunny when she got the microphone back. Compliment or shade? In Drag Race’s world, the two go gloriously together.