No trip to Provincetown is complete without taking in a show. At the Art House, Jinkx Monsoon is in residence with her accompanist Major Scales at piano. The show Beach City Bimbo is drag catnip. Musical numbers and randy jokes are to be expected. Here they are delivered ingeniously. Jinkx apparently has been told her other shows are too serious so she has to camp it up raunchily for the P-Town crowd. She succeeds.
Ms. Monsoon was the winner of the fifth season of Ru Paul’s Drag Race. I had not yet seen that television show so I learned of this talented performer when the New York Times raved about their musical revue The Vaudevillians. Two legendary performers were buried alive in an avalanche but, thanks to global warming, they thawed out and their old act survived!
What makes Beach City Bimbo a unqualified top notch drag show is the technical proficiency of this act. Ms. Monsoon can sing well. Along with a very busy Major Scales, there are major musical numbers with fun choreography. The pantomime scenes are priceless for their length and skill in execution (“That took us five months of rehearsal.”) A music video break for a costume change is not merely filler, it is a stylized homage to the best MTV had to offer. Super smart humor combined with a send up (and embrace) of the drag show formula, Beach City Bimbo is an excellent example of the genre as practiced by one of the most creative talents in the business. This piece should be recorded for a Netflix special.
After The Vaudevillians, I saw Jinkx Sings Everything. If you cannot get to PTown over the next month, these two sublime entertainers will be in London the week of October 24th with that show. Treat yourself, laugh and smile. A few months ago I reviewed another show that would be a perfect fit for Jinkx, The Confession of Lily Dare. As I’ve discovered, it’s always Monsoon season.
theaterreviewsfrommyseat/theconfessionoflilydare
If you want a taste of the Jinkx Monsoon sensibility, try this You Tube video for the single, “Cartoons and Vodka.”