Photo: Greg Endries
Sasha Velour Returns to Town Hall
by Steve Desroches
American culture is in a weird place right now. Some might say a queer place, in the varied definition of the word. Politically, there’s a backlash to advancements in LGBTQ rights, with the Republicans doubling down on demonizing the community and some Democrats wondering if supporting gay or trans rights is now a liability. And there’s a corresponding abandonment from much of corporate America showing that their allegiance was largely transactional and just marketing rather than real support, with the New York Times running an op-ed last week by Aaron Hicklin, former editor of Out magazine, declaring that “we’ve reached rainbow capitalism’s end.” Hicklin continues by saying that corporate marketing campaigns “seek to move product, not the culture,” thus the weak allyship. But when it comes to those in the arts, the force that largely drives cultural changes, it can feel like a contradiction to the times as it’s full of LGBTQ artists presenting work that unapologetically represents the full spectrum of the community in a clear voice, making what is familiar to gay and trans audience members feel fresh, exciting, and new to the public-at-large. One of the biggest forces in that artistic movement is drag performer Sasha Velour, who returns to Provincetown this week, with her new show The Big Reveal at Town Hall.
While Target and Toyota may have bailed on the LGBTQ community, it’s in the arts that LGBTQ voices are louder than ever, even in the financially high stakes realms of Hollywood and Broadway. Drag-centered shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race and We’re Here continue to win Emmys. Cole Escola’s comedy masterpiece Oh, Mary! won Tony Awards, was a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist, and is soon to star drag superstar Jinkx Monsoon in the title role after appearing on Broadway in Pirates! The Penzance Musical. And the Tony Awards broadcast played like a Pride festival in a wonderful swipe back at the conservative counterculture that’s taken over the Kennedy Center. The widespread respect for Velour’s stage shows has her performing in venues previously not open to drag performance, taking her everywhere from Warsaw to Guadalajara to São Paulo, earning rave reviews and wowing each city’s creative class by infusing drag into the total artistic zeitgeist.
While at times scary, Velour says it’s also a fantastic time to be a drag performer. “It’s certainly not the first time that drag artists have hit the mainstream in a big way,” says Velour. “Broadway is a business like anything else. They’re responding to what audiences want to see. Queer performance and its influence on the arts is too big to disappear in any political climate.”
Velour knows of which she speaks. Since winning season nine of RuPaul’s Drag Race with a reveal featuring rose petals cascading from her wig as she pulled it off her head, Velour’s artistry has not only garnered legions of fans, but the attention of universities and colleges, cultural institutions like the Smithsonian and Boston Public Library, as well as invitations to perform at the London Palladium and the famed Folies Bergère in Paris as Velour is a particular darling of the avant-garde in Europe. And that attention and esteem has only grown since her world tour of her smash hit show Smoke & Mirrors. Velour’s imagination and intelligence has also propelled her to the realm of global media with serious coverage of her work on the BBC, the New York Times, and the PBS News Hour. Velour laughs because she says for better or for worse, she can’t help be academic when it comes to drag. She also laughs when thankful for all the “gay interns” out there that get these news outlets to cover her work. But she laughs again as she adds that her new show The Big Reveal, while smart, is joyous and a blast.
“The show is so much fun,” says Velour. “I’ve gotten to tour it all over the world for two and half years. And Provincetown Town Hall is one of my favorite places to perform. There are 10 big reveals. There will be a wig reveal—don’t worry. It’s fun, it’s camp.”
This one-night-only performance of The Big Reveal comes at the end of a whirlwind global tour, which makes Velour very happy as she’ll be able to spend more time in town than on her last couple of visits. Provincetown is in and of itself a major cultural taste maker with the collection of artists here as well as the freedom to be oneself at all times. And to be here in Provincetown surrounded by this enormous drag scene is inspiring and has reach far beyond the shores of the Outer Cape. Drag in general is also finally acknowledged by the pop world for the influence its always had, as was mentioned in a recorded conversation between Velour and British pop sensation Dua Lipa recently. The mainstream might have always thought that drag merely borrowed from existing culture, but in reality it’s always been more symbiotic.
“I feel like our queer icons have always reflected their drag influences,” says Velour. “Madonna. Lady Gaga. Chappell Roan has definitely been open about drag and her work. I feel that it’s really powerful. They have a platform and a reach that we don’t necessarily have. The taboo is lessening. It helps to keep drag from being feared or shunned.”
Sasha Velour in The Big Reveal is at Provincetown Town Hall, 260 Commercial St., Sunday, July 6 at 8:30 p.m. Tickets ($50-$150) are available online at ptowntownhall.com or at the door the day of, if not sold out.
