Photo: José Guzmán Colón
Latrice Royale Brings Why It Gotta Be White Christmas?! to Provincetown
by Steve Desroches
Every time Latrice Royale says the name of her new Christmas show she laughs. Why It Gotta Be White Christmas?! is an all-live-singing comedy extravaganza that RuPaul’s Drag Race superstar Royale performs with her pianist husband Christopher Hamblin. The duo is bringing it to Provincetown after a California tour and a stop in Knoxville, Tennessee, for that festive time in town between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. She can’t stop giggling every time she says the layered meaning implicit in the title. And the laughter is infectious, a sign that indeed the show itself will be a holiday laugh riot as Royale lampoons Christmas traditions, presents holiday parody songs, and delivers more than a few surprises. Royale might be spending Christmas in New England, but when it comes to the holidays, she’s more used to palm trees and sunny skies than any image Irving Berlin crafted of glistening tree tops and sleigh bells in the snow.
“I didn’t come up in a white-Christmas part of America,” says Royale, laughing as she adds she grew up in Compton. “I’m from L.A. and I’ve lived in Florida for years. Definitely no snow for Christmas.”
While Christmas was never about wandering around a winter wonderland for Royale, she does have warm memories, which in part inspire the show, which emulates the spirit that resulted in her being named Miss Congeniality of her season. Kindness, professionalism, and commitment to craft is what helps to make Royale the stand-out performer she is as she’s achieved legendary status—the true definition of the word in a culture that overuses the title. The Fort-Lauderdale-based drag performer has traveled the world several times over, making her a global icon of drag since first appearing on RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2011. Her star continues to rise as she’s not only appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars as well as Drag Race holiday specials, but also Celebrity Family Feud, the Netflix show AJ and the Queen, and the Emmy and Peabody-winning HBO show, We’re Here, in which Royale and her castmates visit small towns to have residents participate in a one-night-only drag show in a Too Wong Foo-esque moment of a celebration of community. As her accomplishments and accolades continue to grow so, too, do her ambitions. And she has her sights set on Provincetown. Royale has continually packed the room at the Pilgrim House whenever she’s visited the Cape tip, but those have been for abbreviated runs. Provincetown is one of, if not the capital of drag in America, continually attracting the best of the best. Royale wants in and as an addition to her Christmas show, she’s hosting a New Year’s Eve Ball at the Pilgrim House, welcoming 2026, the year that just might be when she firmly plants both heels into the sands of Provincetown.
“Absolutely,” says Royale as to whether she wants to be a bigger part of Provincetown’s drag scene. “I guess the key thing is finding a home and I think we’ve done that with the Pilgrim House. It’s just been such a warm reception there and from Provincetown. We definitely want to be there for a full summer and more.”
Provincetown more and more feels like home to Royale and Hamblin, in a big world that Royale has made so many relationships in, as she’s a force wherever she goes, managing to deftly combine a message within the fun and glamour that is a Latrice Royale show. She’s well known as a long-time activist for marriage equality, voting rights, racial justice, and more. She does this in a variety of ways, but most of all it’s her cool and calm confidence and commitment to bringing out the best in people that make her a global cultural icon that inspires others to be their best selves.
Progress can feel slow, but it’s worth taking stock from time to time of how things can and do change for the better. Prior to kicking off her holiday tour, Royale is heading to South Africa for shows in Johannesburg and Cape Town. It’s her first time back to the country in over a decade, but she’s kept tabs on the drag sisters she met there and notes how drag has really grown in accomplishment and influence over time, so much so it’s soon to have its own Drag Race franchise. The drag scene there is multi-ethnic and multi-racial, both on stage and in the audience, a remarkable phenomenon in a country that only 35 years ago was ruled by a racist, homophobic authoritarian regime. Drag can, and often has had a part in combating oppression and ignorance, and is once again at the center of activism as a vicious anti-LGBTQ backlash continues to reverberate throughout the United States. Royale offers both a salve and solutions for the times we live in in her show as we enter into a new, uncertain year.
“I don’t get too preachy in my shows,” says Royale. “I know people want an escape and to have fun, and we will. But I 100 percent talk about what’s going on. Drag has always been political and on the forefront. Drag knows how to mix the political with entertainment, without it being too much. Above all else, we’re going to have a great time with lots of shenanigans.”
Latrice Royale and Christopher Hamblin present Why It Gotta Be White Christmas?! at the Pilgrim House, 336 Commercial St., Friday, December 26 through Sunday, December 28 at 8 p.m. The New Year’s Eve Fantasy Ball with Latrice Royale is on Wednesday, December 31, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Pilgrim House. Tickets for the show ($40-$75) and for the ball ($40/$140) are available at the box office and online at pilgrimhouseptown.com. For more information call 508.487.6424.
