Review: THE JINKX & DELA HOLIDAY SHOW At Town Hall Is The Annual Holiday Show People Should See

During the curtain call speech of their recent performance of THE JINKX & DELA HOLIDAY SHOW at Town Hall, Jinkx Monsoon declared the evening to be "An Act of Revolution" and the two-time RuPaul's Drag Race champion was not wrong, indeed, she was right in more ways than one.

When making her speech (alongside co-star, co-creator, and best friend BenDeLaCreme, who had her own speech prepared, as well) the widely-acknowledged political commentator was talking about the state of the world, the state of the country, the unfortunate steps backward that America and politicians have taken into bigotry, hatred, and violence, and how living out loud and unafraid is as defiant a choice as members of the LGBTQIA+ community can make. Monsoon stated that every time members of the Queer family and their allies gather together in a room to commune, to create, and to celebrate is "An Act of Revolution." And although times are tenuous for the queer people of the world, there is greatness to observed in the amount of queer representation there is in film and television, in the fact that the queer youth of this country is marching instead of hiding, in the fact that a trans actress (POSE star Angelica Ross) just played Roxie Hart on Broadway, a Drag Queen (Drag Race alum Shangela) just made it to the finals on Dancing With The Stars, and a Drag Queen, Jinkx Monsoon herself, will make her Broadway debut playing Matron Mama Morton in Chicago. Every day, artists like Jinkx and DeLa make bold statements with their art and their presence, defying those that would put them down, and declaring, as Queer people have done for many years, that they are here and that they will not be stifled. Every day, BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx Monsoon perform an Act Of Revolution, and good for them. And good for us, too

With their annual JINKX & DELA HOLIDAY SHOW, DeLa and Jinkx aren't just doing and saying things political. This production, this play, this holiday tradition is an Act of Revolution against unhappiness, against depression, against anger because the entire production, from start to finish, is one of the greatest natural mood elevators a person could ever hope to be a part of, to witness, to get lost in. Jinkx and DeLa have created a musical play designed to fill the heart with joy, to ring laughter into the air, and to raise the heart rate through entertainment, including blistering comedic social commentary and touching moments of heartfelt expression. There is no chance of leaving The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show in anything other than a cloud of happiness.

The Jinkx And DeLa Show is more, even still, than that which has already been laid out before you, dear reader, for it is also an Act Of Revolution against the mediocre, the substandard, the bland, the banal, and the boring. This is the fourth year of this holiday show (a different play every year) and Jinkx and DeLa are not content to put out anything other than quality entertainment. Produced by BenDeLaCreme Presents and directed by DeLa herself, the script (that DeLa tells, during her curtain speech, the Ladies wrote together) has the story arc of a play and is built around the kind of sketch comedy that the Queens of Drag Race can be seen performing while competing for the prize. That kind of sketch comedy is not unique to the RuPaul-created competition program, nor is it unusual for other Drag Queens throughout the history of show business: for decades the Ladies of Drag have looked to the sketch comedy of funny ladies like Carol Burnett, Lily Tomlin, Imogene Coca, Kaye Ballard, and Tracy Ullman for inspiration. Through musical sketch comedy, the Women of Drag can use all the parts of themselves, from song to dance to comedy to high drama. DeLa has not reinvented the wheel - she has just found the way that the wheel can, best, serve her good self and Jinkx - and it is serving them well.

With minimal sets but plenty of props, and costumes that would make Mackie marvel and Edith envious, Jinkx is given every opportunity to stamp around the stage like Bette Davis, while DeLa bounces over the boards like Bette Midler, the two of them acting as broad as Crawford's shoulder pads, belting as big as Barbra's Brice, and cracking as wise as Lucy and Ethel. The fact that they are best friends (as mentioned in those curtain speeches) is obvious - they have chemistry for days, not to mention affection galore, and comic timing that could draw a smile out of the season's biggest grinch. The ladies know their brand and lean into it, with ditzy DeLa as optimistic as Doris Day and jaded Jinkx as truculent as Tallulah Bankhead, and every moment of it works, and then some. Acting alongside a glorious and hilarious corps de ballet, the two divas have a cast of characters leaping and dancing around them in the most outrageous outfits you could shake a sequin at, performing acts of acting that would embarrass a wallflower at a Christmas party. There are tributes to the decades by way of appropriate costumes (and graphics), song performances of hits through the years (with re-adjusted lyrics for maximum comedy value), as much double-entendre as can be crammed into a drag show, and a bonafide stand-up comedy set from Jinkx. The entire program is, frankly, one of the most entertaining nights out this writer has had in his years as a club and concert go-er - and it's not just something for devotees of drag. The art of drag has ceased to be something for the Queer community, only - it's for everyone to go to and enjoy... and having some heterosexual males in the audience gives Jinkx some wickedly delicious comedy opportunities. But it's more than the art, it's more than the play, it's more than the entertainment: that's just a place to start... a good place, a valuable place, an important place. But it's not the only place.

The energy in the room at Town Hall last week was healing energy. A group (an enormous one, at that) gathered together to revel in The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show, and revel, they did. They also sat for two and a half hours (don't think of it as long, think of it as generous), enjoying the wash of positivity provided by laughter and community - and that's what DeLa wants to present with her shows. From her very season on RuPaul's Drag Race, BenDeLaCreme has been the Queen of Hope. She's a good girl and she wants to spread goodness, which is why a holiday show is so perfect for her, and she really does excel at every aspect of it. As the creator and producer of the program, it lies in DeLa's hands to see to it that it all works - and it does work. That is, undoubtedly, why the final message of hope comes from the Bitter Broad of the play - that is DeLa's playwriting smarts showing: having the moral come from Jinkx makes more replete and resonant the moral of the story. It also gives Jinkx a great number (and a single) with which to close the show - the Lady is possessing of one of the most amazing voices in the business (this writer will be going back to see Chicago for the first time in nineteen years). Every move that DeLa and Jinkx make in the creation and presentation of their play is a good one, and would-be-audiences would be advised to get tickets, take someone they love (and love to have fun with) and settle in for a long winter's laugh because the Act of Revolution that is THE JINKX & DELA HOLIDAY SHOW should be Google calendar scheduled on repeat for every year.

Further performances of The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show:

December 6 - St. Paul, MN (The Fitzgerald Theater) *SOLD OUT*

December 7 - Chicago, IL (Auditorium Theatre)

December 8 - Detroit, MI (Royal Oak Music Theatre) *SOLD OUT*

December 9 - Indianapolis (Murat Theatre at Old National Centre)

December 11 - Austin, TX (Paramount Theatre) *SOLD OUT*

December 12 - Dallas, TX (Majestic Theatre) *SOLD OUT*

December 14 - Denver, CO (Paramount Theatre) *SOLD OUT*

December 16 - San Diego, CA (Balboa Theatre) *SOLD OUT*

December 17 - San Francisco, CA (The Warfield) *SOLD OUT*

December 18 - Los Angeles, CA (Orpheum Theatre) *SOLD OUT*

December 19 - Los Angeles (Orpheum Theatre)

December 21 - Seattle, WA (Moore Theatre)

December 22 - Seattle, WA (Moore Theatre)

December 23 - Seattle, WA (Moore Theatre)

December 24 - Seattle, WA (Moore Theatre)

December 27 - Portland, OR (Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall)

December 29 - Calgary, AB (Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium)

December 30 - Vancouver, BC (Vogue Theatre) *SOLD OUT*

Photos by Curtis Brown provided by Heart Spade PR.

Visit the website for THE JINKX & DELA HOLIDAY SHOW for all intel HERE.

Get the single LOOKING AT THE LIGHTS on all platforms HERE.

Visit the Town Hall New York website HERE.

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