Videos, tour court controversy

When Todrick Hall made his splash on season nine of “American Idol,” he assailed the boring status quo by forcing ballsy renditions of pop favorites into the mix. He admits it wasn’t enough. “My biggest regret was that when I was on ‘Idol,’ I held back so much,” Hall, 33, explained by phone on one of his tour stops in Indianapolis. “I wanted to perform Britney Spears’ ‘Circus’ with a ringleader costume on. Maybe I would’ve got booed off the stage, but my biggest regret is that I didn’t do it, that I didn’t come out swinging, but gave a half-assed version of what I wanted to give. I played it safe.”

Today Hall is breaking, or rewriting, every rule of convention, and he’s winning. With over a million followers on Instagram and 544 million views on his YouTube videos alone, he stands tall as one of the most influential artists in LGBTQ entertainment. He’s done legit Broadway (“Kinky Boots,” “Chicago”), choreographed parts of the “Blow” music video for Beyonce, cameoed in a music video with bestie Taylor Swift and dropped a star-studded visual album “Straight Outta Oz.” He’s gal-palling with RuPaul as a guest judge and part-time choreographer for the competing queens on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

He calls “Drag Race” his favorite gig all year, although he wants to offer more to the Emmy Award-winning hit show. “I don’t wanna step on anybody’s toes or come for somebody’s gig, but I would love to actually write a musical [for it], ‘cause when I write my musicals, it inspires Now Hall is hitting the road for the 50city international tour “Todrick Hall Amer-

By J. MATTHEW COBB