'RuPaul's Drag Race' winner Sasha Velour's new one-woman show is a tour de force, exploring different parts of the genderfluid drag artist's life in 12 uniquely designed lip sync performances.
I genuinely do feel kind of sexy and aggressive while performing ["Fame"], and that’s sort of the mode that I need to be in to tell [Irene Cara]'s story," she laughs. Throughout the number, five other Sasha projections dance on the wall behind her, meant to represent the multiplicity of her being; she's about finding peace with the ever-changing nature of her identity, and believes that mercurial senses of self are the most beautiful things about humans.
Velour admits that she's shied away from revisiting the "So Emotional" number in the years since her win, both because it wasn't a song she ever chose for herself and because she doesn't count the experience amongst her favorite onstage moments. But through the process of developing she"wanted to embrace the performance because it spoke to people." She adds,"Truthfully, it is really fun to do, and through the show, I'm learning that again.
I actually didn’t realize what an impact it would have for me to be publicly clear about my genderfluid identity," she recalls."I've tried since to be purposeful about showcasing it at every turn because I realize it's unusual to see someone talking about it publicly, and not just talking about it as a source of struggle but as a source of success and fabulousness."
The show reaches its emotional zenith in the penultimate number: a hypnotizing performance of Shirley Bassey's"" that Velour originally performed for her ailing mother years ago. "That one is challenging on a lot of levels," she reflects."It's a confusing thing to look at this number and figure out how to make it better and to decide on my own.
That spirit of constant improvement and development fills everything that Sasha does both professionally and personally, and has had an obvious payoff that is evident throughout Just revisiting a number and trying to edit it and improve it—that’s not usually a part of the drag process," she concedes,"but I’ve really tried to make it part of mine, because I think it yields better results.
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