DANCE OF THE SUGAR QUEENS // A THEATRE REVIEW OF “THE JINKX AND DELA HOLIDAY SHOW" 2024”
BY MATEO MORENO
Every year it gets harder and harder to find a worthwhile holiday show. I mean sure, there’s always a local theatre playing A Christmas Carol for the umpteenth time, but unless it’s a radical rework of it (slight wink out to the very funny Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big KC MO Christmas Show at The Unicorn Theatre and other shows like it), it’s the same thing over and over. Scrooge is a jerk, the ghosts steal the show and Tiny Tim breaks our hearts. And his leg. He is on a crutch after all. And if you find that comforting, more power to you. But when your only holiday offerings end up being a show you’ve seen a million times or your nephew singing his heart out on “Silent Night,” very loudly and very off key, well, the holidays can get depressing real quick. So that’s why I’m so happy to introduce to you your new holiday tradition: Ladies, Gents and friends beyond the binary, I present to you: The Jinkx and DeLa Holiday Show, now currently on tour in North America.
If you don’t know who Jinkx Monsoon or BenDeLaCreme are, well, that makes me sad. But for the purpose of you enjoying the rest of this review, let me break it down. Both Jinkx and DeLa are past favorites from Ru Paul’s Drag Race and are real life best friends. You might also know Jinkx from this past season of Doctor Who playing the fabulously evil villain Maestro or on the Broadway stage playing Mama Morton in Chicago The Musical These two fabulous Drag Queens are known for their witty banter and scene stealing performances. For the past seven years, they’ve been touring with a holiday show, changing it every year and watching it grow bigger and bigger. And this year’s show is epic. It’s hilarious. And you still have a chance to see it, whether you live in one of the cities they’ll be in or not (thank you Live Stream). More on that later. For now, let’s delve into their deliciously bonkers plot.
The show starts off with the two besties singing about the show, with the self-described title “That Kind of Holiday Show.” It’s a hilarious and high-spirited start to the evening and lets you know exactly what you’re in for. DeLa realizes right away though that things aren’t quite right this holiday season, like her snow globes and her tree are all just slightly “off.” Hell, even her country dancing Santa seems to be permanently powered down. Due to the unseasonably warm weather, they’re not even getting a White Christmas (except for when I saw it in Kansas City, which was very cold and DeLa repeated, “I mean not so much in this town).” Worst of all, her snowpeople are all murdered, now just a pile of water. So DeLa vows to solve this horror and, well, Jinkx is here with her, so she supposes she’ll help too, even though she hates Christmas. But wait! When they are magically transported to the world of The Nutcracker, Jinkx changes her tune. Now THIS is something she loves. And I don’t mean lowercase loves. She LOVES it, ALL CAPS STYLE. And so, the wild shenanigans begin.
What’s so delightfully fun about The Jinkx and DeLa Holiday Show is that even though it pokes fun at holiday shows and is wonderfully crass, it’s also a truly wonderfully sweet holiday ride. There’s lots of fun holiday song parodies throughout: DeLa starts it up with a parody of “Pink Pony Club” but feels uninspired by her own lyrics. But don’t worry. Her inspiration soon comes back with a vengeance. Jinkx dabbles in the parodies as well, riffing off Wicked’s “Popular” and turning in a “Secular” tune. I don’t want to spoil many more of them, but trust me, they are all very funny and will have you singing their parody lyrics instead of the original ones on your way out the door. Watching Jinkx and DeLa interact onstage is the biggest highlight though. Both of them have written and incredibly funny script but also often go off script and throw in hilarious ad-libs (on my particular night, a front row member put his beer on the stage and when he didn’t notice the security guard motioning for him to take it off, Jinkx picked up the mic and said, “He wants you to take your drink off the stage asshole,” followed by thunderous applause. And she continued to poke fun at the clueless front row patron for the rest of the night. It’s immediately clear how comfortable they both are with each other and with physical comedy in general. Best of all, it’s not too late to see them! Not only do they still have live shows still to come on their tour, but if you’re not lucky enough to live in one of those towns, you can stream their show on Dec. 21st from the comfort of your own. home! Or someone else’s home. I’m not telling you what to do. Now there’s NO reason you can’t catch this spectacular ladies! Let us also not forget their fashion, and that the costumes (by Mr. Gorgeous, Nova Dobrev and DeLa herself) are all wonderful, highly creative and always a riot. The ensemble, especially Gus Lanza as the Hunky Elf, are all great and the entire evening feels like a dizzying fever dream that takes the traditional holiday special, grabs it by the neck, chokes it to death, and then rises up on the third day and mocks EVERYTHING that came before it. Now THAT, is a Christmas Miracle.
GRADE: A
WRITTEN BY BEN DELACREME and JINKX MONSOON DIRECTED BY BEN DELACREME STARRING JINKX MONSOON, BEN DELACREME, GUS LANZA. FOR INFORMATION ON UPCOMING TOUR DATES: http://jinkxanddela.com