I attended the opening show for the Divas of Drag tour at Irving Plaza in New York City on Friday, March 25th. I had the first level meet and greet tickets, which cost 80 dollars including processing fees and allowed me to meet the queens before the show, which definitely made for one of the best experiences I have ever had as a drag fan. The meet and greet was meant to be like a group mingle in a bar setting, so all of the performers scattered around the room and could be approached by anyone wanting to talk or take photos. This was my first time in a meet and greet experience like this, and I would say it’s definitely more fun and more personal than a meet and greet where you line up to meet the queens one by one and then get ushered away so that the next group has their turn. In a mingling bar setting, you can spend more time with particular queens, hold actual conversations, and get to be more friendly with them; this is evidenced by my conversation with the lovely Trixie Mattel about her sister Kim Chi and leafing through every page of Queen Magazine with Laganja Estranja. 
The show soon began with Vicky Vox as the emcee introducing the opening acts. The opening acts were all queens that won the Divas of Drag contest and gained the opportunity to perform that night. Each city has a different opening act featuring local talents, and New York’s performers were Aquaria, Pattaya Hart, FiFi Dubois, Androa TeeTee, and Serenity Lopez. Aquaria opened the entire show with her dance and lip sync performance of her mix for Madonna’s “Vogue." On the screen behind her flashed videos of herself lip syncing to the song, miscellaneous references to the vogueing era, and, finally, her beautiful feature in Vogue Italia for Susanne Bartsch. Pattaya Hart then performed “I Will Survive” as another extremely talented and lively dancer and lip syncer. Her beauty and fishiness were particularly memorable. She was followed by FiFi DuBois en pointe gorgeously performing Björk’s “It’s Oh So Quiet” in a black and white dress with a fluffy tulle skirt. Androa Teetee then performed “Naked Without You” by Taylor Dayne and killed the audience with a striptease down to a breastplate with pasties and a bandage getup. Her multiple costumes, one underneath another, were particularly striking, covered in stones that caught the light. The last of the opening acts was Serenity Lopez, performing Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” with a partner and en pointe. Her performance was one of the most humorous for the opening acts because, not only did she improve upon Taylor’s ballerina clips from the "Shake It Off" music video (Sorry, Tay), but she also did some adorable booty shaking and silly dance moves. I adored the inclusion of local drag queens because I firmly believe that, while being an amazing show, RuPaul’s Drag Race can sometimes give drag queens uninvolved with it a hard time making a career out of drag. People newly exposed to drag like to assume that RuPaul’s Drag Race represents the best of drag and that anyone who hasn’t been on the show is lesser; the inclusion of these local queens not only provided them with great exposure, but also showed fans of just Drag Race that incredible queens are all around us and that it wouldn’t hurt us to go to our local bars and tip! 
After a brief intermission including bops like Alaska Thunderfuck 5000’s “Hieeee” to prepare for the main act, some of the Haus of Edwards (Alyssa Edwards, Gia Gunn, and Laganja Estranja) performed a mix of multiple pop songs that featured all of them as individual performers and distinct characters, and then dancing as a group. Seeing these three lively performers working it out onstage together was something I will never forget. Think of hair flipping, legs for days, and flexibility like you wouldn’t believe. It was the perfect way to start off the main act because nobody can resist those high-kicking, death dropping sisters. 
Mimi Imfurst then graced the stage as the creator of the Divas of Drag tour and the emcee for the rest of the night and sang “Genocide Peroxide,” the first song from her new rock album, The Fire. Afterwards, she surprised the audience by bringing out a Drag Race favorite, Jiggly Caliente, funnily claiming that we would gain a Jiggly with our purchase of The Fire. Jiggly tossed one of the albums into the air for a lucky fan to obtain for free and scuttled offstage so Mimi could perform her fourth song and title track, “The Fire”. She performed her songs well, and the audience seemed surprised to hear music by a drag queen that didn’t sound as “draggy” as other Ru girls’ music. She then announced the following performer, Trixie Mattel, who tap danced on a wooden board to Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman”. She was as adorable and expressive as always, and I think everyone loves seeing Trixie tap dancing or on roller blades because we get to see different versions of Career Barbie just by watching her. 
After Trixie came Vicky Vox, who became one of my personal favorite queens by the end of the night. Not only does she have quick wit, a loud mouth, and a middle finger that never rests, but she is also sickeningly sweet and relatable in person and a hilarious performer. She lip synced to Crookers’ “That Laughing Track,” which consists almost entirely of different patterns of crazed laughing. The only word is essentially “ha.” Vicki started off the number by sticking a cigarette in her right nostril, lighting it, and then exhaling the smoke through her mouth. You can imagine my face. She then took the cigarette out of her nose, put it in her mouth, and smoked it normally. This was one of the funniest simple things I have seen a queen do live, and from that point, I was absolutely hooked. People contrast her tamer performance of this song to the wild, energetic renditions by other top notch queens like Mayhem Miller and Evah Destruction and claim that Vicki’s is boring in comparison, but I completely disagree. This is a song Vicki has performed for several years now, and I think she has refined the particular way that she does it, just like Mayhem and Evah. I find looking at the different ways she can manipulate just her face and mouth to be extremely captivating, and Vicki is a performer that can keep my attention without requiring lots of gimmicks that require her entire body. 
After Vicki’s iconic performance, Milk performed a hilarious take on Katy Perry’s “Firework,” with editing to turn the whole track into a tribute to feeling like a plastic bag, plastic bag, plastic bag, literally; she repeated that line throughout 85 percent of the performance, and we all loved it. On the screen in the background were different clips spliced together of people doing plastic bag-centric things like carrying groceries and picking up dog poop. Milk was wearing her crazy mullet pigtails and a dress made entirely of plastic bags and had multiple tearaways to reveal more outfits made entirely of more plastic bags. So very Milk. 
Mimi then introduced Wendy Ho to the stage. I appreciated so much that Wendy Ho was a part of the cast because she is a successful female, woman-identifying drag queen. You know someone’s loveable when their “Notable Work” on Wikipedia is, simply, “Poop Noodle.” She hilariously introduced her sex-positive song titled “Fuck Me” and sang it beautifully, with the guffaw-worthy music video playing in the background. Her voice is so pure and soulful, and she’s the kind of artist that can perform her songs even better live. She’s definitely proof that drag has nothing to do with sex or gender and is an inspiration to me as a woman. 
Then, Laganja Estranja took the stage, exhibiting another example of the perfect music mixes made for and performed by the Haus of Edwards. Her music mix consisted of songs like her own “Legs,” Beyoncé’s “Formation,” Fifth Harmony’s “Work from Home,” and RuPaul’s “Supermodel (You Better Work).” In classic Laganja Estranja fashion, she danced her heart out and wore us out in the best possible way, dishing out death drops galore and legs, legs, legs. She is one of the best dancing drag queens I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching, especially when her goal is to liven up a crowd. 
Then, Jujubee graced the stage in beautifully blown out caramel-colored hair and a gorgeous gown to lip sync to an Ariana Grande medley consisting of “Tattooed Heart” and “Break Free.” As a fan of Ariana’s music (I try to forget about DonutGate), I felt like Jujubee was lip syncing for me and for me only. Jujubee is known as being a consistent performer and having the ability to slay the house down with her dramatic facial expressions and killer looks. As much as I love a high-kicking queen, Jujubee’s classic lip syncing is equally entertaining and makes you feel like you’re in the presence of a star… and you are! 
Kennedy then emerged in her rhinestoned rainbow gown to lip sync to SWV’s “Right Here.” Her lip sync wasn’t high energy like her Lip Sync For Your Life performances on Drag Race, but rather more emotional and soulful. Even in a somewhat restricting gown and huge hair, she still found a way to keep us completely entertained by being expressive and using the stage to her own advantage. Towards the end of the lip sync, she descended from the stage and even performed amidst the crowd on the ground. This might have been the classiest act of the night. 
The curtains closed for the first time throughout the show, and Mimi announced Milk’s lip sync and quick change performance to “I Am Changing” from Broadway musical Dreamgirls. We soon learned that this was a play on words, as Milk appeared between half opened curtains wearing a nude leotard with a huge black and white cartoon styrofoam robe stuck onto her in paper doll fashion. Throughout her lip syncing through the song, she disappeared briefly behind curtains and emerged with new paper doll outfits velcroed onto her, like old fashioned lingerie, and a flouncy dress. She wowed us with her final look at the end of the song, which was a glittery paper doll gown with a white bustier and her signature huge mouth velcroed on top, uniting the dress’ top and bottom halves. The mouth displayed large, defined teeth, which we often associate with Milk. I know of other queens performing similar paper doll quick change numbers, and I was so excited to see Milk’s take on the concept. 
Wendy Ho then returned to liven up the crowd with raunchier comedy, introducing her performance by talking about her beliefs and procedures concerning anal sex. She then proceeded to perform her famous “Poop Noodle,” with the amazingly disgusting video playing in the background. Her seriously unbelievable voice paired with lyrics like, “I ain’t gonna do it, got the Hershey squirts” made for a hysterical performance. 
After Wendy, the Team Too Much duo of Laganja Estranja and Gia Gunn left us gawking with a number telling both of their life stories. With the pre-recorded music and narration blasting through speakers, Gia appeared onstage first, in a telling of her childhood undergoing classical training in Kabuki theatre. She wore an extravagant kabuki costume and performed with a paper parasol that revealed flying flower petals when she opened it and spun it. Gia looked so graceful as she floated around the stage and kicked up petals with the wind she created. Then, Laganja had her turn, performing a graceful, emotional dance to demonstrate her work with Alyssa Edwards as a dance instructor for Beyond Belief Dance Company. Then, after a quick costume change, the duo was onstage in matching gold leotards to dance as a pair and like how we know them to typically perform, which meant plenty of skin, death drops, and energetic movement. By the end of the number, I had an even greater appreciation for the two girls than I had before. I was able to see their differing talents and the extent of them, and seeing the progression of their style of performance made for an emotional experience. 
Of course, Team Too Much was followed by their mother, Alyssa Edwards, who started off her performance at the back of the crowd, forcing the audience to part like the Red Sea to make way for her to get to the stage. She began with “What’s Up” by 4 Non Blondes and had the audience rocking out with her. By the time she was on the stage, she was performing funner songs like Chic’s “Le Freak” and Anita Ward’s “Ring My Bell.” These late 70s to early 80s tunes had the crowd dancing, and the vibe was completed with Alyssa’s neon orange fringe dress and gigantic neon purple afro with a huge green peace sign-shaped fascinator. Throughout this lip sync, Alyssa went truly wild and climbed on top of several large speakers until she wound up on a ledge that I’m not even sure performers are supposed to be on. I’m surprised she didn’t fumble around, considering she was wearing heels much higher than a standard six inches. Up on the ledge, she danced, reached out to audience members at the balcony, and dangled her feet over the ledge to reach the audience on the ground. The funniest part of this was seeing a frustrated employee of the venue run onto the stage after the number to help her down. Of course, Alyssa brought all the drama. 
Jujubee then followed her up in a beautiful afro and animal print gown to lip sync to Rufus and Chaka Khan’s “Ain’t Nobody.” Again, her classic lip sync style utilizing mainly facial expressions and arm movements fulfilled our every Chaka Khan fantasy. She was quite obviously a favorite cast member, considering she won thunderous applause with anything she did, and she is quite subtle compared to splitting, high-kicking queens like Laganja. 
Mimi Imfurst then returned to the stage to perform a spoken word and multi-song lip sync mix. The mix began with No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak,” followed by the longest lip sync monologue ever. I’m not quite sure where it comes from, but it’s definitely a testament to her committedness to the number and her propensity for memorization. The mix also included a women’s version of “I Want to Know What Love Is” by Foreigner. This portion was questionable, considering she threw in a couple of jokes that many people felt crossed the line of appropriateness or correctness. Although I am someone who is lax about political correctness in the context of drag, one of the jokes she made caused some audience members to feel slightly uncomfortable, and some say the joke wasn’t complexly funny enough to justify it. Her following jokes were hilarious, though, including how she substituted a robotic voice saying “double sausage fest” for portions of the chorus in the Foreigner tune. If raunchy jokes aren't really your speed, you can at least appreciate the fact that she organized this fabulous show and turned out something she should be extremely proud of! 
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