What is it about this holiday season that makes rule-breakers want to wrest the airwaves and stages away from the traditional likes of Bing Crosby, Michael Bublé and Mannheim Steamroller to tell their own delightfully or fabulously glamorous songs and stories? to be their own Rockettes, their own Bowie & Bing, their own Charlie Brown gang?
Maybe it’s something to do with the warm, treelit glow of childhood nostalgia, or maybe it’s the hope they can get all the sundry Grinches’ hearts to grow three sizes (we need it for sure), or maybe it’s even wanting to annex some of that undeniable feeling of togetherness and generosity for folks not often seen beaming on Christmas cards. Who can say for sure?
What we can say is that drag superstars Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme — comedy queens, writers and actors par excellence — have teamed up once again for their touring holiday roadshow and it’s bigger and merrier and more timely than ever. The holiday season begins now! And even our two Xmas heroines feel weird about it.
“As another year defiantly slaps the ‘Well, at least it can’t get any worse’ out of our mouths, we need ways not just to cope, but to gather strength. Are there any tools greater than comedy, sequins and song? Yeah, absolutely. But those are the gifts Jinkx and I have to share, and we hope you’ll share them with us,” says DeLa. “All the lights and songs and trappings of the holidays were created to help get us through the coldest, darkest part of the year. To keep our spirits bright as we steel ourselves for the winter to come and remember that spring will return once again. In a world that feels increasingly dark, please come make some light with us. We
will gladly share our warmth.”
“I seriously can’t believe it’s the holidays again already. Who has time to plan festivities when the world is bananas? What are we supposed to do when everything feels so chaotic? Well, what DeLa and I do is put on a show,” Monsoon chimes in.“The holidays are upon us whether we like it or not, but the Jinkx and DeLa team are well-equipped to bring you the holiday cheer and warm feeling of community we all need in the harsh winter months.”
Whether you know them from their respective stints on RuPaul’s Drag Race and Drag Race All- Stars, their film The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Special, TV, podcasts or Broadway, this live show promises different and festive sides of the two hard-working queens of all trades.
“Jinkx and BenDeLaCreme hold a unique position as good old-fashioned, over-the-top traditional parody queens who fall under the Miss Congeniality title. They’ve raised the bar for theatrical drag productions,” posits local alt-drag performer Davi Oddity on the duo’s impact and chops.
This is the seventh year of the festive duo’s hol- iday extravaganza — The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show — a rollicking roadshow that the New York Times has praised as “queer, clever, and heartfelt.” It’s completely co-written by DeLa and Monsoon, and produced and directed by DeLa. So it’s queer folks penning their own songs, parodies, monologues and routines without outside hands.
The duo seriously spend a month writing and then another month rehearsing and refining until every line elicits maximum ho-ho-hos. To say nothing of the dance number and costume designs …
There are a number of unique aspects to this year’s holiday show, so let’s run ’em down like we’re breathlessly opening windows on an Advent calendar, shall we?
This is a completely new show from previous years; no holiday re-runs here, buddy. Previous years saw them time-traveling a la It’s a Wonderful Life [BTW, that’s a satisfyingly socialist movie]; who knows where they’ll go this year.
Not to mention new costumes and new production design — and with Monsoon taking Broadway by storm, and DeLa becoming an increasingly in-demand director, this will be a proper (Christmas) pageant.
The 33-city tour is taking them South this year (an extra bit of metaphorical coal in DeSantis’ stocking?). Wednesday’s show (Nov. 13) at Steinmetz Hall is one of only two Florida dates, and there’s a bit of a sense of mission amongst all the tinsel and fake antlers.
“These trans and queer people in the South … they’re currently living under the dystopian future I’m fighting against,” Monsoon told The Advocate. “They’ve been suffering and either the suffering will lift or continue, but they need us there.”
Early on, Monsoon and DeLa used their holiday tour as an excuse to avoid their families and celebrate the season in their own way, among their own chosen families: Tonight, maybe we can get some communal respite of our own — and a few solid gags about trying to have sex with Krampus.
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This article appears in Nov 13-19, 2024.