A Ru done it?
MURDER MYSTERY CAST IS MADE UP OF RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE STARS
STRANGERS are invited to a remote island for a dinner to celebrate Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s tenth wedding anniversary. No one knows the host or why they have been summoned. But before they can figure it out, they start dying... mysteriously... one by one.
Holly Stars’ Death Drop might sound like your classic murder mystery but it’s not. That’s because the actors are some of the most celebrated drag performers, flown in from all four corners of the world. No doubt at great expense!
Ready to star in the back-by-popular-demand production of the show that reopened the West End after lockdown with a smash-hit run at the historic Garrick Theatre are, from the States, RuPaul’s Drag Race legends Willam and Ra’Jah O’Hara.
And fresh from the Australian version of Drag Race, shown in the UK this year, there’s Karen From Finance, playing against type in her first scripted role since school. And then there’s London’s finest, Vinegar Strokes, reprising the role she originated to rave reviews.
Vinegar, plays Lady Von Fistenberg, the lady of the manor on Tuck Island, who may or may not be the reason why things start getting a bit unhinged.
She is excited about the new touring version. ‘‘Everyone’s amazing, everyone’s gorgeous and we’ve all been drunk together already.’’
As for her look, ‘‘I just told them I wanted more rhinestones and more camp… and they said, ‘We can accommodate those requests’!’’
‘‘It’s exciting playing someone mean for a change,’’ says Karen From Finance, whose regular persona, as Drag Race fans will know, is ‘‘everyone’s favourite auntie, the loveable, cuddly, committed single woman who works in finance’’.
‘‘I’m Ms. Morgan Piers, obviously named after Piers Morgan but in real life she’s based on the monster that is Rebekah Brooks…’
Rebekah was the News of the World executive questioned by MPs over phone hacking.
Says Karen: ‘‘I’ve been reading up on her and my jaw is constantly smacking the floor! Quite a woman! There’s definitely a bit of a Cruella vibe going on with Morgan Piers.’’
Luckily for Karen, she already has the executive look down.
‘‘Karen already exists in the corporate world but we’ve elevated her from bottom of department to CEO,’’ she says… of herself. ‘‘It’s Karen From Finance playing a completely new role.’’
Ra’Jah O’Hara, from RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, plays meteorologist Summer Raines, complete with Southern drawl (well, she does live in Texas). The look was put together by wardrobe – ‘‘I did get to add a little bit of my signature, which is purple’’ – but the make-up is all Ra’Jah ‘‘because nobody can make me as beautiful as I can make me, OK?’’
The show features plenty of real death drops – where drag queens collapse backwards as if they’ve been shot, legs akimbo.
And Willam, who plays Shazza, reckons the copious death drops have left her ‘‘in the best shape of my life’’.
She adds that the international cast will get on like a house on fire as ‘‘we have the same three jokes in all the countries for all the drag queens’’.
And Willam doesn’t accept that the Australian drag queens are bitchier than US or UK queens, despite what anyone says about the Australian Drag Race episodes.
‘‘Australians in general are more honest than most people and have less time for artifice and say what they think, which is quite nice,’’ says Willam. ‘‘And that translates into the drag too, for sure.
‘‘But I rarely meet a drag queen who holds her tongue. Besides, I’ve worked with Karen for years in Australia. She’s funny.’’
But, adds Willam, and never mind what you think you have learned from The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, taking a tour bus to accommodate the whole cast is a risky business.
‘‘If you get a bus or any vehicle and put a bunch of drag queens on it, it will eventually break down,’’ she says. ‘‘We have to travel alone or in pairs, two by two. Like in Noah’s Ark.’’
And finally, the big question: These may be the most famous drag queens in the business, but can they act?
‘‘I can act!’’ insists Ra’Jah, astonished at such a question. ‘‘I can also act the fool.’’
If you put a bunch of drag queens on a bus eventually it will break down
William
Death Drop is at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, from November 23-27.