Review: Sasha Velour Dazzles With Wicked Humor in Velour: A Drag Spectacular

The La Jolla Playhouse continues its proud tradition of world premieres with the dazzling Velour: A Drag Spectacular. Drag icon Sasha Velour and vanguard theater writer and director Moisés Kaufman collaborate on this extravaganza, which mixes burlesque, acrobatics, history, and multimedia. The production, based on Velour’s 2023 memoir The Big Reveal, personalizes the journey of the LGBTQ community through the eyes of a queer boy who grew into a performance artist despite social and financial challenges.

Velour, who won season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, comments on the art of drag by juxtaposing her journey with that of trans actress Pinke. Her odyssey begins with a forgotten German film in the 1930s and moves to a ’70s interview during Pinke’s cabaret days, culminating in quiet moments between Pinke and her loving sister. Velour’s wicked humor and sense of self are conveyed through inventive lip syncs interwoven throughout the show.

Velour speaks to the experience of society’s outsiders, and her musical numbers illustrate that experience with extraordinary ingenuity and graphic metaphors. In one video, her male doppelgangers attempt to trip her up and she murders them all with glee. In another, she paints three images of herself on a blank canvas, then sings with them.

A lip-synced medley of tense telephone sequences — from Adele, Beyonce, and Lady Gaga songs to film dialogue snippets from Scream, Serial Mom, and Mommie Dearest — leads up to a devastating phone call that Sasha received in real life. Her use of clips that are so heightened, frantic, and funny, only to set the mood for tragedy, is brilliant. Kaufman and Velour finish the show with a wild drag finale featuring fellow queens Ezra Reaves, Moscato Sky, and Amber St. James.

Kaufman creates a feast for the eyes and the ears, and Velour seems to defy gravity in several numbers with the help of aerial designer Angela Phillips. The stark dollhouses by scenic designer David Rockwell come alive through projections by Cosette “Ettie” Pin, which paint them bright colors or emulate them catching fire. Diego Montoya Studio’s costumes are sparkling body suits, avant-garde squiggly yellow outfits, and an elegant, green, gossamer dress straight out of Oz, all of which make Sasha look like a dream. The videos by House of Velour lovingly pay homage to the early sound film period and television documentaries.

Velour: A Drag Spectacular is all about transformations. The stage morphs through the projections, the musical numbers build to a fever pitch, and the little boy we saw in home movies wearing dresses made of old clothes emerges as an alluring chanteuse.