Sasha Velour brought down the house on "RuPaul’s Drag Race" in 2017 with her rendition of Whitney Houston’s "So Emotional." Now she is dazzling audiences with the world premiere of "Velour: A Drag Spectacular" at the La Jolla Playhouse.
When Sasha Velour was young she saw the movie "Some Like It Hot" in which Jack Lemmon taps into his feminine side and tries to sashay like Marilyn Monroe.
"The drag in 'Some Like It Hot' was supervised by a very famous drag queen named Barbette, who traveled all around the world, and who's one of the references for some of the pieces in this show, even though her name is not really known as part of the film," Velour said.
Enlightening people about drag artists who may have been erased from public consciousness is something Velour wants to do with her show "Velour: A Drag Spectacular." The show, currently being staged at La Jolla Playhouse's Potiker Theatre, is inspired by her life as well as the grand history of drag.
"There's something fearless about doing drag," Velour said. "You stop maybe caring about how others are going to react to you and follow your instincts about what feels right. And that leads us to stand up for things, and against voices of authority that maybe are pushing back. I think that's why drag feels so political still. It's because being visibly queer in this world sometimes politicizes you against your will, and you get wrapped up into these political conversations when in reality, we're making art, we're having fun, we're entertaining people."
Indeed she is! Her "Drag Spectacular" involves flying across the stage, interactive projection, lip synching and miniature houses that transform before your eyes.
"I love creating a complex puzzle to perform in," Velour added. "I feel like that's what a drag costume involves. It's padding and corseting and exaggerating and diminishing. And so I feel like the set and the whole play should be just like that."
It’s a breathtaking array of moving parts that require precision timing. Velour wanted to up her game because she hopes to make a case for the art of drag.
"I think we're at an interesting time in drag's role in culture," Velour stated. "For a lot of us, we're still trying to make a case that drag is a part of theater and is an art form that everyone can find themselves in and find entertainment in. Even though it grew out of the queer underground, I think there's a message of self-determination and radical freedom that speaks to each and every person in the world."
One thing that has helped Velour reach more people around the globe was winning "RuPaul’s Drag Race" in 2017. The experience also taught her something.
"The thing I learned by being on 'Drag Race' is how moved people are by our real-life stories, and our experience," Velour said.
Velour’s personal experiences led her to shave her head and become a bald drag queen after witnessing her mother’s discomfort with hair loss during cancer treatments. In the show, Velour pays a beautiful tribute to her mom.
"She had always been very worried about what other people thought," Velour recalled. "But she got to a point where she said, 'other people's comfort isn't our responsibility, and life is too short to be afraid or to hold yourself back from living as you need to. I learned from her how to be unapologetically yourself, which I think is the key to putting yourself on stage in your full glory and taking it to the next level."
And for this "Drag Spectacular," Velour absolutely takes it to the next level.
"For me, drag is liberation from any tired ideas about what a man or a woman is supposed to look like or act like or perform like, and I think that opens up a wide range of possibility," Velour said. "And you really see that in our drag spaces. It's not just one idea of what a drag queen looks like or a drag king, or a drag thing. That's the newest thing. Because why should we be binary with our fantasies? So I think a lot of political ideas have gotten their start in spaces around drag."
If you miss out on "Velour: A Drag Spectacular" at La Jolla Playhouse, don’t give up all hope of seeing it. You may have another opportunity.
"I always have things I want to fix. The drag makeover never stops. We're going to try to do another run of this somewhere," Velour said.
"Velour: A Drag Spectacular" has been extended through Sept. 15 but tickets are going fast.
