Photo: Privilege Clavel
Alexis Michelle Does Double Duty at Red Room
by Steve Desroches
While a native of New York City, Alexis Michelle recently completed a theatrical bookend of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Back in 2024 she starred as Albin in a production of La Cage aux Folles at the Barrington Stage Company in the Berkshire County city of Pittsfield, and she recently wrapped up a turn as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray at the historic Cape Playhouse in Dennis, here on Cape Cod. “I’m the wicked witch of the East and the West,” laughs Michelle. A standout from season nine of RuPaul’s Drag Race who distinguished herself again on season eight of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, Michelle performed at the Cape Playhouse as Alex Michaels. But as she drives up Route 6 for a late-summer engagement at Red Room, she’s ready to roll in drag, as theater and drag are two separate enterprises, even when the theatrical role calls for a wig and high heels.
“There is a difference between my acting and my drag,” says Michelle. “They intersect, but they are different expressions.”
It’s a topic she addresses in the 2025 book No Tea, No Shade: Life as a Drag Queen, featuring essays by some of the country’s top drag performers. As Michelle sits in the dressing room at the Cape Playhouse, which next year turns 100, she can feel the history in the bones of the building where actors like Bette Davis, Margaret Hamilton, Gregory Peck, Betty White, Humphrey Bogart, Henry and Jane Fonda have all performed. But now Michelle has her sights on Provincetown, where drag has an equally long history, being home to drag pioneers such as Charles Pierce, Arthur Blake, Craig Daniels, Lynne Carter, Jim Bailey, Bobbie Callicoatte, and of course Divine, who originated the role Michelle just played. And as she arrives to begin her run in Provincetown during Carnival Week, she is offering a twofer, Heroine Worship and In the Key of Bea.
“It’s a really fun cabaret show about all the women who made me do what I want to do,” says Michelle, of Heroine Worship. “Bernadette Peters in Into the Woods made me want to be an actor. She was an inspiration in the most powerful way. Dionne Warwick. Shirley Bassey. Liza Minnelli. Heroine Worship celebrates all the women who continue to inspire me. In the Key of Bea is very special. It’s a familiar cabaret to those that know Bea Arthur. It’s based on her Broadway show, and I play Bea Arthur in character.”
Testament to Provincetown’s fabulous history, Arthur herself closed out Carnival Week in 2004 performing at Town Hall accompanied by Billy Goldenberg on piano. Michelle’s pianist will be played by Brandon James Gwinn in In the Key of Bea. Both shows illustrate how, if society allows it, young boys can find women as role models and craft a life for themselves in the same pursuits, embracing femininity all the while rather than trying to fit into strict gender roles. Having studied at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and then receiving a BFA in musical theater from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michelle notes that as drag has grown in mainstream popularity, there’s no longer such a sharp divide. “It’s created this expansion in the theater at large,” says Michelle. “I think the theater now has a larger understanding of the multi-hyphenate that drag performers are.” That phenomenon helped Michelle land the role in Hairspray and allowed her to see more of Cape Cod this summer beyond just Provincetown. However, she’s elated to be back in town after having had brief engagements over the past few years. And this is her very first time celebrating Carnival, a golden time for drag and drag performers in Provincetown. Having just finished her run in Hairspray, Michelle is keeping an eye out for John Waters, who of course wrote and direct the 1988 film that has become an ever-expanding universe. But it was another theatrical juggernaut that also occupied her summer and in particular her relationship to the town.
“I just love Provincetown,” says Michelle. “During Hairspray some of the castmates and I would go up for a visit and walk around Commercial Street, get some ice cream, and enjoy the night. We also went up to see The Jack of Hearts Club, which was such a special night. It’s such an amazing show. It was great to see it with some of the younger castmates as they could see this wonderful love letter to Provincetown and then fall in love with the town on their own.”
Alexis Michelle presents In The Key of Bea, Tuesday and Saturday, August 18 through September 1 at 7 p.m. and Heroine Worship, Thursday, August 20, Thursday, August 27, and Wednesday, September 2 at 7 p.m., both at Red Room, 258 Commercial St. Tickets ($41.50/$51.50) are available at the box office and online at redroom.club.
