Huge day for annoying ppl (RECAP)

RuPaul's Drag Race S16E7 "The Sound of Rusic"

It’s another week of Drag Race, and at long last this season’s Rusical. Everyone but Dawn rejoice!! A well-deserved win awarded to this season's most unapologetic theater kid (and newly-minted frontrunner?) serves as restorative justice for fallen musical theater BFAs turned unfairly maligned 4th-7th place Drag Race finishers everywhere. I.e. huuuge day for annoying ppl!

The Sound of Rusic bares precious little resemblance to its source material (save for a few inside baseball references and inspirations for characters’ names and likenesses) but it succeeds in being a very entertaining vector for the talents of this season’s cast. Every year, it seems more and more clear that Drag Race has cracked the code for these musical parodies. Let’s go!

THE BARONETTES

The queens are essentially divided into girl groups. Our first group, the Baronettes – maybe racist/maybe just violently Austrian – are played by Q, Xunami, and Plane Jane with Q frontlining as the delightfully wicked, fat-lipped Baroness Braun. Ever the self-aware queen, Plane volunteers immediately to play one of the bitchy henchwomen and Xunami takes the opportunity to pair with her (alleged!) crush. A small tiff between Q and Megami ensues over the role of the Baroness with Q emerging on top after a tense round of rock/paper/scissors (the preferred decision method of casting directors everywhere). After their group has formed, the Baronesses engage in a bit of Werkroom pot-stirring/cuntiness in the name of method acting. This is all at the suggestion of, you guessed it, Plane Jane. It’s fun to watch Xunami and Q cosplay meanness by doing a silly voice while Plane really goes in for the kill. She said sit back and watch a real bitch work, ladies.

Whether their intimidation strategy was actually effective is up for debate, but you can’t deny the results. The Baronettes kinda killed this shit! Xunami and Plane strike a great balance between being mean girls and being a little thrown off by Q’s comically long stole. And Q herself is pretty unimpeachable as Baronness Braun, bringing a real comedic nuance to the character’s Austrian accent/speech impediment. Doesn’t hurt that she looks hot while doing it either. And her runway, a flower-covered praying mantis creature, might be Q’s finest yet. It’s instantly memorable, and she finds herself, yet again, with a highly deserved top placement.

THE BAD HABITS

Next, the Bad Habits, the slutty nun girl group consisting of Sapphira as Mother Superior, Mhi’ya, and Morphine.

While Mhi’ya and Morphine do an admirable job, Sapphira is far and away the MVP (Most Valuable Prioress) of this trio. I’ve said it every week, but it just keeps becoming truer and truer: star quality and stage presence ooze out of Sapphira’s every pore. She’s perfectly at ease every moment she’s on stage and you feel safe watching her. The little lip quivers and deft hand gestures she pulls out during her lip syncs betray her years of experience entertaining audiences in drag. And on the runway, it’s truly a moment. My jaw dropped seeing Sapphira round the corner as a gorgeous flower in full bloom. Oh, rho she betta... denderon! (Or something. Whatever… Fuck you!!) If Plasma had been even a little less than perfect, or gone up on even one line of her 10 minutes straight of dialogue, I’m confident Sapphira would’ve taken the win this week. I cannot wait to see what she does next week, and what voluminous garment she’ll take out of the storage unit she double parked outside of the Drag Race soundstage.

THE FAMILY VON SNAPS

Dawn, Megami, and Nymphia make up the members of the final singing trio, the Family Von Snaps. Despite her total detestation for all things musical theater, Dawn plays the gap-toothed, ditzy Streudel with aplomb. Nymphia also does well as the psychosexually pinecone-obsessed Diesel: admirably balancing choreo, character work, and lip syncing with her cumbersome prop. And Megami as Schnitzel isn’t bad either. If I were being picky (which we must) I’d ask her to ditch the distracting fake eye glasses prop, but overall it’s a solid showing from the Von Snap trio. Unfortunately for them, they’re all far outshined by their usurper leader. 

PLASMA

Like many Drag Race Rachel Berry incarnations before her, Plasma has to fight for the role of Mariah (this Rusical’s lead.) Morphine and Sapphira both express deep interest. “It screamed for me, boots,” says Morphine. But Plasma clings to the role with a vice grip. “I hate to be the girl who’s like ‘I wanna be the lead and nothing else!’ But… I wanna be the lead and nothing else.” And so she is. It’s almost nerve wracking watching Plasma get so giddy with excitement over her impending star role. “Don’t you know how this goes?” I want to shout, shaking her. “Plasma, you have to stop. Your vibrato too tough. Your jazz hands too different. Your kick-ball change too bad. They’ll kill you!” As we watch Plasma practically move herself to tears recalling her college graduation – while Dawn gets the ick – it recalls past over-eager drag queens to mind. And those (Jan) stories (I’m referring to Jan) don’t always have happy endings (remember Jan??) But tonight at least, Janstory does not Janpeat itself. Over the course of a nearly 12 minute musical number, Plasma stars in every single scene. And throughout it all, she dropped not one line, missed not one step, skipped not one beat. A truly magnificent display. Sealing her win is her floral runway: a Fanny Brice meets Eliza Doolittle dress that could not have been better timed if she planned it. And so, finally, the ambitious, cringey theater kid takes the win. Nature is healing. The cycle of Janerational Trauma is finally broken. Roséperations have been paid. The universe is at peace.

With the winner decided, hairs must now be split in order to pick the bottom two. Based on garment nitpicks, and some small performance snafus, the judges decide on Mhi’ya and Megami. A tough break for two talented ladies who definitely were not bad, but sometimes that’s how the cookie c(Ru)mbles.

Appropriately enough, the lip sync song this week is “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus. Megami thinks she has the edge in a softer ballad against the Queen of Flips, but she’s quickly proven wrong. Mhi’ya not only keeps pace with Megami’s emoting, she also does so with expressive choreography that feels true to the song’s essence. “No flips involved.” And so Mhi’ya, our new lip sync assassin, sends home her second girl in as many weeks. We’ll miss u, Megami!

READING RUNDOWN

Plasma: “Literally in one of my high school graduation cards my grandparents put the lyrics to Climb Ev’ry Mountain, and I sobbed.”
Dawn: “Diva, I’m so happy for you. 😒 😐”

There’s more lens spiking this season of Drag Race than there was in nine seasons of The Office, and Dawn is responsible for a good two thirds of it, but I don’t mind.

Also musical theater kids need to be humbled as often as possible or we become too powerful.