Interview: Jinkx Monsoon on Playing Maestro in DOCTOR WHO and Returning to Her Seattle Roots

Jinkx Monsoon is booked and busy.

Currently, the two-time RuPaul's Drag Race winner is starring as Audrey in the Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors opposite Corbin Bleu. At the end of June, she will be reprising her role as Mama Morton in Broadway’s Chicago for 20 special shows.

Between that time, she will be returning to her Seattle roots for a month-long residency of Together Again, Again with her music partner Major Scales. And all of this comes ahead of her headlining concert event next February, where she will make her debut at Carnegie Hall.

On top of her stage appearances, she is also appearing in the latest season of Doctor Who. In The Devil’s Chord episode, now available on Disney+, Jinkx plays the villainess Maestro, the master of all music. She appears alongside the new Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, and his companion Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson.

BroadwayWorld sat down with Jinkx to discuss her role in Doctor Who, the difference between performing on stage and on screen, and what is next for the Broadway star.

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What was your prior experience with Doctor Who? Were you a fan at all before appearing on the series?

I haven't seen every season or every episode, but I have seen up to a point. I started at the beginning and saw all the seasons where Russell T. Davis was the head writer and showrunner. So, I'm very familiar with Russell's doctor. I'm excited to pick up with Doctor Who in this new season because it's very welcoming to new viewers and I'm a returning viewer [so] I feel like I'll be a step ahead of the new viewers. 

You mentioned Russell T. Davis. I heard he offered you the role after one of your shows. Can you talk about that interaction?

We've been friends for many, many years and he came to see my show Together Again, Again in Manchester. This is a show I created with my music partner where we play ourselves in our eighties in a dystopian future. Maybe it was the dystopian future or the fact that Jinkx in her eighties is just a monster [laughs] but something about that performance specifically [spoke to him]. He had seen me perform many times before in different shows with Peaches Christ, with Major Scales, with BenDeLaCreme, and this was the first time he said, “I think this role would be a good one for Jinkx.” It was very, very flattering and it was also affirming to know that it was a specific performance that spoke to him. As a friend of his, I never feared that I was being handed anything. I really felt like, “Oh, he trusts me to do this.”

You've had a pretty incredible run with Chicago and now Little Shop. How does your experience on stage inform your approach to doing something like the Maestro on TV?

I think all acting and performance is the same. There are just different ways you perform for different mediums. Essentially, it's about connecting with your scene partner and being genuine and honest. You get to a place where you can live as the character and you get to a place with the text where you're not thinking about your lines. They just come naturally to you. When you're there, it's about giving it all to whoever you're working with. Luckily, Ncuti [Gatwa] and Millie [Gibson] are also performers like that so we were all just giving each other everything. And the director Ben [Chessell] was so incredible and let us play around and try almost everything. It was an atmosphere of positive affirmation between all of us. We were ready to set our egos aside and put on the best show possible, and that makes for a really good production whether it's on stage, behind a camera, or in front of a camera. When you're working with people who don't care about being the center of attention but care about making sure the show is the best it can be, doing good work is easy.

The audience can also sense if you're having fun and if things are genuine. 

Absolutely. I think audiences are just tired of being lied to. As human beings everywhere in the world, we feel like we're being lied to by the people we're supposed to be able to trust. We don't want to be lied to by our artists as well. Even a sci-fi action-packed television show needs to be honest and connect with the audience and that's why Doctor Who does. I think that's why the audience is so excited about this fresh perspective that you're going to get in this new season of Doctor Who. Russell's really leaning in and inviting performers into this beloved franchise to play honest, true characters who just happen to be queer or maybe trans or maybe a person of color. They're bringing that perspective to these beloved characters and people are excited for it.

There are certain qualities to your character that are really funny. Your laugh, for example. Something like that is linked to the musical identity of your character, but how did you develop those idiosyncrasies, like the laugh and the different mannerisms?

That laugh specifically was written for the character because it's a character trait that plays into the overall story. But a lot of the character just came from playing around with the director and Ncuti. I always come with a pretty solid sense of what I want to bring to the character. With Maestro, they're the embodiment of music and music can be so many things. They're very powerful and scared of nothing [so] I wanted to bring the sense that you have no idea what this character could do. Sometimes my movement is fluid and legato and then sometimes it's very staccato. I let my understanding of music influence the mannerisms of this character. It's hard to conduct without getting into the rhythm. Even though my character is the embodiment of music, I would say that my limited dance training from my teenage years did come into play.

I wanted to ask about that music battle sequence at the end. It looked like you had to play at least four or five different or at least mime playing those instruments. What was that like?

It was just so much fun. It felt like being in a Looney Tunes cartoon. I can play the ukulele. I played the double bass in middle school briefly, and Ben, the director, plays the standup bass, so he reminded me of some of the things I used to know. That was one of the instruments I was somewhat competent at pretending to play. But a lot of it was more choreography than actually playing the instruments. That's the magic of television.

In June, you're going to Seattle to do your show Together Again, Again at the Seattle Rep. I know you spent a lot of time here and I'd love to hear a bit about your professional relationship with the city and what it's like to be coming back and doing that show there.

Even though I was born and raised in Portland, Seattle always feels like a homecoming. Anytime I bring a show there, like The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show, it feels like a homecoming. I worked there for 11 years and those 11 years were extremely formative because Seattle is one of the few cities that isn't New York or Los Angeles where you can really make a living as an actor. It's competitive and there's not as much as a bigger city, but, especially if you are someone who's willing to create your own work, Seattle's a great place to be a new artist. Seattle embraces and, as long as you're bringing authenticity, talent and tenacity, Seattle will let you do your thing. I think of the spectrum of performers that have come out of Seattle. We've got Dina Martina and BenDeLaCreme and myself, and then Waxie Moon. So many different and very unique performers have cut their teeth in Seattle. So there's got to be something special there, right?

Now that Doctor Who is under your belt, do you have any onscreen dream projects or things that you'd love to tackle in the future?

I'm just taking things as they come to me right now. I've got a very open mind and heart, and I'm not thinking about what's next because I'm thinking about how much I enjoy what I'm doing. Now that I've done some work on Broadway, and on a scripted series, I want to do a lot more of that. That's what I am continuing to manifest, and I try to bring my best self to this work so that it will lead to more work in the future. I really, really love what I get to do.

The Devil's Chord episode of Doctor Who is now available to stream on Disney+.

Watch a preview from the episode below: