“This program will be broadcast in HDS: High Definition Shade.”
So said
hostess with the mostess RuPaul, introducing the seven queens competing on
Monday’s season 6 premiere, part one. Yep. You heard that right: Seven queens,
part one. In an effort to shake it up like a stiff (no longer Absolut)
cocktail, Ru changed the game for this edition of Drag Race. For
starters, the premiere will take place over two weeks, with one batch of queens
arriving the first week and facing elimination. The process will repeat next
week because, as Ru put it, “The only thing better than one big opening is two
big openings.” On week three, the final 12 will merge and emerge.
Another big
change this go-around: No immunity this season. At all. Ru had no saucy pun for
that new rule. So I’ll leave it to the opening
line of her most famous song to communicate these new high stakes.
With that
business completed, let’s meet the queens!
Seattle's own
BenDeLaCreme. "DeLa for short, De for shorter, Ms. Creme, if you're
nasty," she tells Adore. She describes her character as "terminally
delightful," and I think I already love her. She's doing a sort of amped
up '50s housewife act, all sunshine and rainbows. It's cute, but this character
could quickly become schtick if she's not careful. She told me more about her
approach to character when I met her. She's inspired by queens like Varla Jean
Merman and Coco Peru. "I think of it as being a little bit like demon
possession. You got to share the body, you've to let it out." She's got
her character fully realized, she's got a super quick wit and, most
importantly, she's got the look down. Where previous comedy queens like Pandora
and even eventual season five winner Jinkx struggled, I don't think Ben will.
How could Michelle Visage have anything bad to say when she looks just like
her? It's the perfect strategy. Her Golden Girls gown was a work of beauty, and
won the main challenge.
Laganja Estranja walks in third and she immediately falls into a
death drop. It's great! And then she does it again, and it's less impressive.
When I saw her live, she did roughly 5,000 death drops to the point where it
was just like, WE GET IT. YOU DO DEATH DROPS. She's just all together a bit
much. To be fair, her winning photo in the mini-challenge was indeed sickening.
However, I think that attitude is going to be the death of her on the runway.
(Or the death of me if I have to hear her shriek "OKKKKRRRRRRRRRR"
every week.)
You may remember Adore Delano as the sassy Danny
Noriega on season seven of American Idol. It's easy to get
an Alaska vibe off her. She's a little potty-mouthed and proud to be lacking
some of the polish of the other girls. "I'm polish remover!" she
exclaims to the camera. Her lack of sewing skills was immediately a problem
when she glued her dress to the dressform during the main challenge. She told
me last week that shouldn't worry us too much. "Drag Race has
evolved; it's not a Project Runway with a wig now. Now it's
about having the ability to sing, act, doing the things Ru has accomplished in
his career." That hot mess runway look aside, she's got some spunk and
star power. (And is it just me, or was her look more Lil'
Pound Cake than Honey Boo Boo?)
Vivacious is a proud NYC institution, and she was even more proud when we
chatted with her last week. "Many girls have tried to walk into the clubs
I've worked in and they can't keep up," she said. "I work with a few
very big name DJs traveling around the planet. I don't do bars, I do physical
clubs." Though the whole headpiece thing was more kooky than couture (and
that stuck zipper did no favors in the "take me seriously" category),
she can perform. Oh, can she perform. If she ever finds herself in the bottom
two, it's going to take something like a Taylor Swift ballad to throw her off
her game. Even then, she might be unstoppable on the mainstage. One of the best
live performances I've ever seen from a queen.
If you're looking for fish, cast your
rods in Gia Gunn's direction. There might be a pearl of wisdom inside that
oyster, though. She reflected on her Drag Race journey: "What shocked me
most was the fact that I thought I was going to go there, just be super
sickening, gallivant my thousands of dollars of drag around and just be super
fishy, but that was not the case. It definitely makes you dig deep inside, get
in touch with who your chracter is emotionally, physically, just
everything."
April Carrion lands in a pretty butch
paratrooper ensemble. We asked her why she thought America will fall in love
with her. "Because I'm the Puerto Rican and everyone falls in love with
the Puerto Rican!" If first impressions really do matter, this debut look
was not her best foot forward. She worked it out with that Duck Dynasty attire,
but I wish she had as much personality as her runway look.
And speaking of not best foot forward ... Kelly Mantle.
Oh, Kelly Mantle. Kelly is an actor, which is probably for the best, because
she could use a costume designer. Her first look is a simple rockabilly frock,
and her Downton Abbey-inspired top definitely did read as bacon.
Her attempts at humor or cattiness just felt dull. So maybe she does her
best when her lines are written. Seeing her perform a fairly limp lip synch
to "#Selfie" in
NY last week did not further endear her to us. In the end, it was Kelly that Ru
(rightly) instructed to sashay away.
How would you rank this season's first seven queens? Spill all the
tea and all the shade!
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