Shante you stay! Even though the holidays are over, RuPauliday season has only just begun! With a 7th go-round the runway looming on Logo, RuPaul’s Drag Race is the gift that keeps on giving as February 1st of this fabulous new year marks the kickoff for the Battle of The Seasons: 2015 Condragulations Tour. Hosted by judge and fabulous foil to the Queen of the Runiverse, Michelle Visage, the tour features the finest performers of seasons past, dueling it out on the biggest stages starting in Las Vegas, then traveling across 20+ states, parts of Canada, and the most glamorous cities of Europe. I wish I could be a BOTS-Head and follow the tour around the world (especially in Paris ooh-la-la), but luckily there are plenty of opportunities to catch an epic serving of drag battle realness for those of us who don’t have magical trust funds. Check and see if there’s a show near you at http://rupaulbots.com.
Reviews from last year’s tour spoke of it’s hilarity, high production values and gloriously inappropriate imagery. Don’t fret if you’re a younger fan of the show though. In a refreshing confirmation that drag appeals to everyone, there are many all ages and 16+ or 18+ performances, so the the whole family can attend at some venues. As RuPaul says “a family that drags together, stays together.”
BOTS is the drag equivalent of Motown’s 25th Anniversary concert, a wigged glamazon gathering of the best of the best, combined with the thrill of seeing your favorite actors doing live theatre. This is a chance to experience in person that shared energy exchanged between great performers and the audience, and there is no other show around that can compete with this cast. Here you get to bask in the glitz, ghouls and glam with no camera filter or commercials interrupting the proceedings. You won’t be seeing them in small bars or deep inside the downtown underbelly clubs, but in major venues like the House of Blues in many cities. These girls are filling mainstream concert halls, like proper superstars. Who knew that places where I once saw rock concerts, classical music and theatre, would become the places where I could see all of the above and more rolled together into one glittering fantasia of RPDR fabulousness. Finally, my worlds have come together!
The lineup will vary from show to show, culled from a list of many of my favorites including RPDR royalty, winners Raja, Sharon Needles, Jinkx Monsoon, and Bianca del Rio (I wonder why Tyra Sanchez isn’t included here…). Also in the mix are top performers who were instant stars in their respective seasons: Azusa queen Adore Delano (Season 6), the “terminally delightful” Ben De La Creme (Season 6), the beautiful and “mind-blowingly talented” (said Visage herself) circus queen Ivy Winters (Season 5), forever my girl Pandora Boxx (Season 2), the once-polarizing showgirl Phi Phi O’Hara (Season 4), Jiggly Caliente (Season 4), the ever-addictive Detox (Season 5), the 49th state Alaska 5000 (Season 5), Australian drag superstar Courtney Act (Season 6), Darienne Lake (Season 6) and “serving Panay fish” Manila Luzon (Season 2).
I’ve had the good fortune to see some of these ladies perform, such as Alaska 5000, but many I have never had the chance to be dazzled by outside of LogoTV. If Bianca del Rio reads you, it’s a badge of pride because she is an insult comic genius, different from the comic geniuses that are Jinkx Monsoon, who I’m dying to see perform live, and Alaska. Ben De La Creme’s always a hoot too (she and Jinkx performed together in a live version of the movie Hocus Pocus for Halloween last year) so laughs will be plentiful at the battle.
In particular, I’m excited to see Sharon Needles, because my mama raised me right- on horror movies and horror-tainment since I was but a wee babe, so I can’t wait to see what Sharon’s going to pull out of her undead hat. In a recent interview with QVegas magazine, she hinted that there may be some inspiration from American Horror Story in her act this year, so consider my interest thoroughly piqued and stimulated already.
I’m also excited to see Ivy Winters perform, as the interweb was quite abuzz with tales of her bowling crowds over last year with jaw-dropping skills she learned from her years in the circus (see above). She seems like quite the sweetheart, I just can’t imagine her name without RuPaul’s nasally drawn out pronunciation/announcement of it.
No matter which fierce queens roll through your city, on what is sure to be the most entertaining tour bus of all time, you are bound to get more bang for your buck at RuPaul’s Drag Race Battle of the Seasons: 2015 Condragulations Tour then you will anywhere else this year.
So what are you waiting for? If you love yourself at all go buy tickets now, if they’re not already sold out! Because if you can’t love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else? Can I get an amen?
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