Sasha Velour is in San Diego rehearsing “Velour: A Drag Spectacular,” her new autobiographical stage show at the La Jolla Playhouse.
The “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 9 winner and “We’re Here” co-host not only stars in the project, but she co-wrote it with her director Moisés Kaufman. “Velour” chronicles Sasha’s story, from growing up as a genderfluid child in the Midwest to becoming an international drag superstar. It is a co-production with the Tectonic Theater Project.
Velour’s introduction to drag was watching “Some Like It Hot” with her grandmother. “It was filmed in San Diego, where I am right now,” Sasha tells me on this week’s “Just for PvNew” podcast. “And I learned … when I was researching for my book [“The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag”] that the person who trained them to do drag for that film was Barbette, who was this super famous aerialist drag artist who toured Europe. She had kind of retired by the time she helped them with the film, but I love that there was like this world-famous drag artist who designed their makeup and taught them how to do drag. So of course it had a little bit of authenticity to it.”
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“Velour” features plenty of Sasha’s signature lip-syncing as well as some newly acquired wire skills (photo below). “I’m learning to fly,” she says.
While Sasha spoke openly on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” about her struggles with an eating disorder, the issue will be addressed more in-depth in “Velour.” “We’re really going to go there with the show,” she says.
There are 14 costume changes, which all happen on stage, Sasha teases: “I’ve never been so fully dressed or so naked on a stage before.”
She believes the show will resonate even more now as the presidential election heats up. “I feel like everything we do is politicized because when you’re visibly queer, you can’t even … wear a pretty dress without it becoming a political act,” Sasha says. “I do feel that the vitriol against drag, especially the vitriol against trans people or the entire trans community, it definitely comes from a place of ignorance and fear.”
Our talk turns to “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling’s frequent anti-trans statements. “She’s a very dangerous presence because she just spreads misinformation as if it is the truth,” Sasha says. “When I was interacting with people [while filming ‘We’re Here’] who share those viewpoints in Tennessee, in Oklahoma, I was really shocked how little they are interested in the truth or in even hearing from the people that they want to completely demonize.”
She adds, “It’s just tragic that someone whose writing swept me into a world of possibility as a child has become such a troll and such a figure of hatred.”
On a happier note, Sasha recalls meeting Lady Gaga and being asked to interview the music superstar as part of the promo for her HBO concert film, “Gaga Chromatica Ball.” “Getting to meet her in this backstage setting and talk to her as a person, that was a moment I will never forget,” she says. “I felt like we had a real conversation. I just fell into her eyes and was just like, ‘I just want to spend hours here talking to you.'”
Listen to the full interview with Velour above or find “Just for PvNew” wherever you download your favorite podcasts.
“Velour: A Drag Spectacular” runs at the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, Calif., from Aug. 13 to Sept. 15.
