by Steve Desroches
Sapphira Cristál was in a bit of a pickle. She’d moved to Boston from Rochester, New York, transferring from the Eastman School of Music to the Longy School of Music in Cambridge. But after a dispute with two members of the administration she was asked to leave. It was a tough break. But at least she had drag to fall back on, an art form she began in Rochester and continued to pursue with gusto in Boston, having joined the Gold Dust Orphans. At the time, she was appearing as Smee in Ryan Landry’s production of Peter Pansy in the basement of the gay bar Machine, or as it was often called “The Ramrod Center for the Performing Arts.” Things were about to get more complicated when one of her roommates in her cramped East Boston apartment informed her that their fellow flatmate, who was struggling with addiction, threw all of Cristál’s belonging onto the street in a substance-induced rage. Things had gone from bad to worse.
“Back then I didn’t have the spoons to deal with all that,” says Cristál. “I was telling Ryan [Landry] about all the things that were happening to me and he said, ‘Girl, it looks like you’re moving to Provincetown.’ The Gold Dust Orphans helped me out in a big way. Ryan really set me up in Provincetown, and I’m very grateful to him.”
And so began Cristál’s Provincetown adventures in which the Texas-native would spend four summers on the Cape tip from 2011 to 2015 honing her drag skills and beginning a process that would ultimately take her to the most recent season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, launching her into superstardom.
Cristál is taking a break from her Cristál Ball Tour to swing through her old stomping grounds for a show at Town Hall the night before the Carnival Parade in which, at the invitation of the Provincetown Business Guild, she will be one of the grand marshals along with New York City nightlife legend Kevin Aviance and outgoing Fourth Barnstable District State Representative Sarah Peake.
In that relatively short time in Provincetown, Cristál made quite the impression performing with the Gold Dust Orphans and becoming a standout at Showgirls as well as a “barker” on Commercial Street with a theatrical flair for both Landry’s weekly freak fest and for Lady Bunny, where Cristál would dress as a pious church lady trying to cast the drag demon out of Provincetown in a street performance that both delighted and confused tourists. She also appeared in the original Zoe Lewis musical, Across the Pond, at the Provincetown Theater and the variety show Audition at the Crown & Anchor alongside Aviance and Marti Gould Cummings. All of that while working at Hocus Pocus and Ptown Massage in the burning the candle at both ends energy that is required of a young queen just starting out. But it was apparent then that Cristál had star power, and she saw it in herself to as it’s during those years in Provincetown that she began to audition for RuPaul’s Drag Race, which she would do 11 times before being cast.
However, during that time she also saw something in someone else. One night back in Boston she saw a very young queen wowing the audiences with her live singing, a performer who would go on to be her drag daughter known as local superstar Qya Cristál.
“Everyone was telling me that I had to see this queen,” says Cristál. “I watched her perform at Machine. She did a Beyonce song. And I never do this, but I walked up to her after and said, ‘I think you need to be my drag daughter. Would you like that?’ And she said, ‘Yes.’ She was amazing. Her makeup skills needed improvement, but she’s something special. I’m so proud of her.”
When Cristál takes to the stage at Town Hall in celebration of Carnival she’ll present snippets of her Cristál Ball Tour as well as tracks from her soon to be released album. But she’ll also be joined onstage by Qya Cristál, Kevin Aviance, and jazz musician Mike Flanagan in an evening of “conjuring a little magic and fun.” And then the next day she’ll reunite with Aviance riding a float in the big parade, something they did 10 years ago as they reveled on the Crown & Anchor’s entry. She’s excited to not only perform and enjoy Carnival, but to return to Provincetown for its signature event as a bit of a homecoming to a town that gave her so much support and opportunity to hone her craft. This past winter, when season sixteen of RuPaul’s Drag Race aired, she was aware that many in Provincetown were rooting for her as a hometown queen while attending viewing parties around town. And while now a proud resident of Philadelphia, Provincetown is always close to her heart.
“It was hard because you have to represent just one city, and I love Philadelphia, but I also love Provincetown and Boston and Rochester,” says Cristál of appearing on Drag Race. “Baby, I’m everybody’s girl.”
Sapphira Cristál performs at Provincetown Town Hall, 260 Commercial St., Wednesday, August 21, 8:30 p.m. Tickets ($45-$165) are available online at ptown.org and at the door day of if not sold out. For more information call 508.975.6394.
