^{Photos courtesy of Jackie Cox, except as noted}

The Expanding Universe of Jackie Cox

by Steve Desroches

It’s the year 3100. The cadets at the Starfleet Academy are heading to an off-campus bar to blow off some steam. At the dawn of the 32nd century the Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets is beginning to recover from a devastating Klingon war, rogue AI, and a cataclysmic event called the “Burn.” This new class is studying aboard the USS Athena, which docks at the Academy in San Francisco, where the cadets are on leave on the night in question. And though over 1,000 years in the future, San Francisco still has a thriving gay community. Perhaps the scene is set in the Castro, because the bartender is an alien drag queen. Yes, there are drag queens in the year 3100…and Cher is probably around somewhere, and RuPaul, too. The universe imagined by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was always an inclusive one, featuring not just a diverse cast of humans, but otherworldly creatures trying to live in peace and harmony. But this was new terrain for the ever-expanding franchise and RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Jackie Cox was ready to go where no drag queen had gone before.

“I played a purple alien with blue hair in drag,” says Cox of her role on the TV series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. “I was the first drag queen ever on Star Trek.”

As a lifelong fan of science fiction, Cox was over the moon to play a character from some far off, super-gay galaxy. So much so, it inspired her brand-new show, Beam Me Up, Jackie!, which she’ll be performing all summer long at Red Room as she starts her second full season in Provincetown. A campy, musical comedy Beam Me Up, Jackie! takes audiences on a glittery and glamorous tour of the cosmos, lampooning not just Star Trek, but a large canon of stories from outer space. Vice President JD Vance might think all these UFOs that have been sighted are actually “demons” (it’s true, look it up), but Jackie knows it’s just a bunch of hot astronauts, fabulous space creatures looking to party, and yes, most likely anal probes.

A show with Cox zig-zagging on an intergalactic road trip in some ways mirrors her real life. A standout on season 12 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Cox has taken the Midas touch that can come from being chosen by RuPaul and World of Wonder productions and gone into warp speed. While yes, the exposure from the show can open all kinds of doors, it’s also made the universe of drag much bigger, inspiring thousands more to pursue drag and creating more competition with the 700 or so queens who have appeared in some RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise around the world. In short, it’s a crowded field. But Cox at the moment has a strong gravitational pull appearing everywhere from TV, film, and the stage, to music videos. This week marks the premiere of season one of Canada’s Drag Race All Stars, which features Cox, a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

This is all coming off the high heels of her appearance in the Academy-Award-nominated film Song Sung Blue starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson. The 2025 film tells the true story of the Wisconsin-based couple Mike and Claire Sardina who find fame with their Neil Diamond tribute band Lighting & Thunder, achieving notoriety for opening for Pearl Jam in Milwaukee in 1995. Cox plays Babs, a drag queen who impersonates Barbra Streisand and tours with the duo and other tribute acts as well as being the wardrobe mistress for the whole production. Cox spent part of her youth in Milwaukee, but the production took her elsewhere. “We filmed in Jersey, which looks a lot like Milwaukee in the nineties,” says Cox. Cox spent a lot of time on set with Jackman and Hudson, more so with the latter as they sat next to each other for hours in hair and make-up. But what Cox remembers most about the experience is a scene that didn’t even make it in the film. It took two days to shoot a scene where the duo performs “Coming to America,” with those days being Election Day 2024 and the following day when it was revealed Trump was going back to the White House.

“It was one of the most surreal experiences,” says Cox. “I’m sitting in the make-up chair next to Kate and she turns to me and says, ‘What the hell happened?’ And then we’re filming this scene where everyone in the crowd is waving American flags. In between takes I was watching Kamala give her concession speech and Hugh comes over and watched it with me. It was all such a bizarre experience. The election is so tied to that day. And I’m in full drag as Barbra Streisand! And that whole scene was cut!”

With all she has going on, Cox is singularly focused on her Provincetown show now as she and her boyfriend Zach, who works at Joe Coffee, settle into a town they’ve come to love. As they’ve gotten to know Provincetown on a deeper level, they tell everyone they know to come for the town and not just the party. If you only want to party, go to Fire Island, she says. There’s so much more to Provincetown than just partying, and she encourages everyone to explore it all. While she’s here until mid-September, her calendar is full far beyond that with gigs, shoots, and projects in progress. But there is one thing for which she’ll always make room.

“I’m heading to Puerto Vallarta for the winter,” says Cox. “But if an opportunity comes again that requires me to put clothes on Hugh Jackman, I’m available.”

Jackie Cox presents Beam Me Up, Jackie! Thursday and Saturday at 9 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. now through September 13 at Red Room, 258 Commercial St. Tickets ($41.50/$51.50) are available at the box office and online at redroom.club.