Interview: Suzie Toot Is Tappin' Her Way to the Top of RuPaul's Drag Race

Look out world! Suzie Toot has shuffled her way onto the RuPaul's Drag Race stage and there's no telling where her tap shoes will take her next.

The self-proclaimed "theater queen" of Season 17 has been keeping Broadway lovers entertained all season long. From her now viral talent show debut to her Snatch Game nod to the great Ellen Greene, Suzie's been bringing a Broadway-style sensibility to each and every challenge, and it's a brand we can get behind. 

Will Suzie make it to the finale? Fans will have to tune in to find out. In the meantime, she checks in with BroadwayWorld to discuss everything from her awesome Rusical performance to her theater roots.

Let's start at the very beginning...  You're from Florida, correct? Tell me about your creative outlets as a kid.

I was born in Long Island, but I moved to Florida when I was five. First I did art. I was never crazy good at it, but I was an artistic kid. I practiced really hard so I could get into an arts middle school and then they rejected me! Then I went to a Jewish summer camp in the Pocono Mountains.  The first show we did was Fiddler on the Roof, and I was in the ensemble... which for Fiddler on the Roof Jr. is pretty low on the bar. [Laughs]

Hey, we've all got to start somewhere, right? 

Truly. Especially if you're only in "Tradition" and "Sunrise, Sunset" and then the play ends because it's the Jr. version! But what was really transformative for me was the next year we did Little Shop of Horrors, because I realized that theater could be weird. I was introduced to Repo! The Genetic Opera a little bit after that... and that's when I knew that this was for me. It was so irreverent and it spoke to every part of me as a person and as an artist.  

Then you continued in high school?

Yeah, I was so involved and so crazy and wanted to do anything besides the work that I had to do in high school. We did Shrek the Musical and no one was stepping up to the plate to do the make-up and it mattered to me! That's also when I was getting into Drag Race and was starting to fall in love with makeup and the feminine. I was Lord Farquaad, but also, me and my friend Sarah did like everybody's makeup.

And when did tap become a thing for you?

In the 1910s! [Laughs] No- in my sophomore year of high school we did Mary Poppins. Honestly, it was a joke that I was a bad dancer. But then we all started learning tap together, even the girls that had been doing ballet since they were six, and it was this level Playing Field. I just really liked it! I would practice it and I would watch videos about it and I would watch Debbie Reynolds in Singing in the Rain. I just got really good at it!

And what a convenient skill to show off on the Drag Race stage years later...

I know! In Season 16, Plasma chose tap for her dance runway and I was so upset because she beat me to it! But it's very different to do it in performance, and that was exciting to me. 

Ok, so after high school you decided to get your BFA?

I did. But actually, I dropped out of my BFA program with a year left. I was doing  regional and community theater all through college whenever I could, and some of my best memories are from doing the Slow Burn Theater Company production of Head Over Heels. I got to play 'Billy' in 42nd Street. I had so much fun.

And then when did the passion for drag start to grow?

I had done one show before COVID, but it wasn't really the Suzie Toot character. In quarantine I really developed the character and what I wanted to do with it and I became laser focused on who Suzie Toot was.

In my last year of college, I was doing drag- I had maybe one or two shows a month at the diviest dive bars you've ever seen... but I felt so cool. And then as soon as I dropped out of college, I was full-time doing both. Whenever I was not in a show or doing theater, I was doing drag. Or sometimes I was taking my bows at Head Over Heels, then went backstage to do my face in 20 minutes to perform at Monkey Business.

I love both theater and drag so much, so equally. But also, there's stuff I didn't like about only doing one. So it's always been my dream to combine the two, to be doing full-scale musical theater as Suzie Toot. 

You took on theater icon Ellen Greene in the Snatch Game a few weeks ago. I just want you to know that I got it and I think you should be so proud of it.

I appreciate that! Every time I do a meet and greet, there's at least one person who comes up and says, "I understood it!" There's also a lot of people who are like, "I'm the biggest fan of Little Shop of Horrors and you should apologize to Ellen Greene!" But to me, my impression is a caricature of Ellen Greene's 2015 Encores! version... in which she's doing a caricature of herself. 

That makes SO much sense.

I worship her! I wish it had gone differently, but I have plans with her... with that character that will come to fruition. 

Moving onto the Green Witch... I feel like that character ended up suiting you so well.

I know. I think it's tough to choose a role while on camera. I liked the Green Witch, but I thought I could win with Kanas Dorothy. But as soon as we starting singing, my mood immediately changed. 

I especially loved  when you squinted to see into the house at the top of your song. It was so A Chorus Line.  

THANK YOU! I'm so happy you noticed that!

Obviously you got all of the A Chorus Line references, but did everyone else? 

You can see on camera that Sam [Star] and I immediately get it. I think Jewels [Sparkles] and Onya [Nurve] also got it immediately. Most of the rest of the cast wasn't privy to that at first. For me, it really helped to inform the performance. It really gave me the room to play with my character. 

(Jamal Sims shares more about the Rusical episode)

I also loved watching you do your thing in your "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" video. 

That one really meant a lot to me. And I did not think it was going to do  even half as well as it did. Especially the comments on that one, people were just so excited about it. It was so out of left field! My my Best Friend Dan [Ingram] is a filmmaker and we worked on that together. While we were making it, we knew it wasn't for everybody. We thought that if we were pushing people away, at least we're doing something that means something and is cool. 

I'd love to talk about the negative implication of the title of  "theater queen" this season. It seems like so many queens have come for you over it.

I think that on Drag Race, there's a kind of a fraught history over theater queens. There's actually many Reddit posts and theories about why that is and is there a theater queen curse? Going into the show, I knew what I had.

I feel like there has in the past been a conversation about actors who did not find success doing professional theater, turning to drag because it's more accessible and finding their talent and their thing there. I think that misunderstanding can sometimes rub people the wrong way. But for me, I never felt like drag was something to fall back on. Suzie is my theatricality. So I would never have ever taken offense to someone calling me a  "theater queen" because that's the whole point!    

You live in New York City now, correct? I do. 

Yes, I moved to New York right after filming the show.

Have you gotten to see a lot of theater while you've been here? 

I have! One of the biggest things for me happened before I moved. Jinkx Monsoon was in Little Shop and I got to see that. I was sitting literal front row with my white wine in a sippy cup just sobbing the whole time.

Jinkx is truly living her best Broadway life...

What's so cool about what she's doing is not only is she delivering incredible performances that will be remembered forever and are Broadway caliber, but she's also proving to producers that casting people like her is lucrative! Not only is it good art, but queer people are coming out in droves to see art that is made for them. Mama Morton broke box office records. That is revolutionary! The door is opening. 

Given Suzie's inspirations, I feel like you need to be invited to Boop!...

They did invite me! I am so excited. I guess people started tagging them in things I would post and after the Rusical episode, Jerry Mitchell posted me on his story and I lost my absolute mind. I hope I get to meet him! 

Who would be like a really fun Broadway person as a guest judge that you would lose it over?

This is just because I'm obsessed with her, but Patina Miller. I had an actual dream once that I was on Drag Race and they announced the guest judge was Patina Miller and I  started violently sobbing. [Laughs] Pippin was my first Broadway show ever in 2013 and I will go on record saying that she as the Leading Player was the best performance ever put on by a person. She's so good. 

I feel like this answer goes without saying, but like if a Broadway opportunity came your way, would you be all over that?

One million percent! I have so many so many dream roles! 

Let's speak them into the universe so that they can come true!

My number one is I want Suzie Toot as Charity Valentine in Sweet Charity. If you take Sweet Charity and look at it through a queer lens of drag queens and trans performers in the nightclub.... It's just... so drag. 

Also, I keep hearing about a Rocky Horror revival- we need Suzie Toot as Columbia. It's too easy! She taps; she wears 1920s makeup; she has a high pitched voice! I would go to town on that role. 

I would absolutely pay to see both of those. And until then, where can fans see Suzie?

I have many plans for what's happening after the show, especially cabaret and and one woman show material. I will definitely be in New York. I will definitely be in P-Town. There will be many opportunities to see Suzie Toot singing some real musical theater.  

Catch up on all things Suzie Toot here! New episodes of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 air on Fridays, at 8pm on MTV. 

Photo Credit: MTV