By Nick A. Zaino III Globe correspondent, Updated November 27, 2024
Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme know how to do merry and bright. “The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show,” which comes to the Wang Theatre Dec. 2, marks their sixth year of collaborating on their holiday extravaganza, which arrives complete with dancing, singing, and a heaping spoonful of camp and humor. Befitting two of America’s premiere drag performers, the costuming and art direction are always on point. It’s a big production, and audiences enjoy the sheer spectacle of it. But Jinkx and DeLa have something to say, for those who look.
“We try to really give people the opportunity to just laugh for two hours and escape if they want to,” said DeLa, “but also something that they can read a little bit more into, if they like.”
Some favorite numbers are held over from their 2020 “Jinkx and DeLa Holiday Special.” “Everyone Is Traumatized by Christmas” has earned its place in the canon. But Jinkx and DeLa write a complete new show every year, with new songs and sketches. This year, the election of Donald Trump prompted a rewrite.
They were prepared for how their audience might be feeling regardless of the outcome, and said the new ending is somewhat less hopeful and aspirational. “We really figured out how to write from the perspective of, OK, well, what’s going to be true regardless?” said DeLa. “[The audience is] going to have been through something that has been a difficult fight, and there will be more fights to be had. And we need to be together in queer spaces to celebrate our community and know that we’re still strong.”
The program has continued to grow over the years, from clubs to theaters to even bigger theaters. The Wang, with a capacity of around 3,500, is the biggest venue they’ll have played in Boston. And as the stages have grown, so has the show itself. What started as more of a revue is now a fuller theatrical experience. They travel with six dancers, and say the dancers have evolved into something better described as cast members, more fully incorporated into the narrative.
“The last few years, DeLa and I have been really leaning into narrative, long-form stories,” said Jinkx. “This tour started out as a very traditional drag vaudeville variety show, and a few years ago, because of the circumstances we’re living in continually as queer people in this country, there was a lot we had to say, and a lot of topics to discuss with our community, and we found the best way to do that was through a fuller narrative. Nowadays, our shows are more like two act plays with variety [and] musical elements.”
Jinkx and DeLa also draw from 15 years of deep friendship, and all of the industry experience they’ve gained along the way. They’re more seasoned performers than they were when they first met in the Seattle drag scene. Both were stars on multiple seasons of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Jinkx, who studied theater in college, won the fifth season and the “All-Star” seventh season and made her Broadway debut in “Chicago” last year. DeLa, who studied fine arts, has had success off-Broadway with solo shows as a performer and a director. DeLa is directing Jinkx’s solo show at Carnegie Hall next Valentine’s Day. They’ve been able to build on those individual skills in their collaboration.
“DeLa and I had a lot of experience writing for ourselves, but when it came to writing for one another and writing a show together, it’s another thing that has grown exponentially through the years,” said Jinkx. “In 2018 it was kind of like, here’s Jinkx’s half of the show, and here’s DeLa’s half the show, and it’s woven together with a light story. Nowadays, it’s Jinkx and DeLa versus everything.”
In simple terms, Jinkx has been the naughty one in the partnership, and DeLa the naive innocent. They developed their characters separately before they started working together. Now they have a rhythm, onstage and in the writing process. “We have such distinct characters with such distinct perspectives,” said DeLa, “but at this point, we write for each other pretty seamlessly. Jinkx writes some of my goofiest, naive, wide-eyed bits, and I write some of her filthiest bits. Half the time, we don’t even remember who wrote which joke.”
Jinkx and DeLa won’t have much time to celebrate outside of show and their annual Christmas Day party with the cast and crew. But that’s fine with them. The bottom-line message of the show is that people can create their own holiday traditions, and even their own family. “The holidays are a difficult time, especially for the queer community,” said DeLa. “It’s a time where we’re inundated with messages about family and homecoming that not everyone has access to, and that messaging can feel really difficult when it’s coming at you from every direction, and that’s not a thing you have.”
The holiday show is about fun, about laughing and dancing and singing in a room with like-minded people. But Jinkx and DeLa want audiences to know that there’s no one right way to create a family or a tradition. “The thing about the queer community is that we have historically been able to define those things for ourselves,” said DeLa. “The message of our show is that, if family or home in the traditional senses that you’ve been told have to exist from a bloodline — if that’s not something that is resonating with you or feeling good to you, you get to define those things for yourself.
“It’s really about autonomy,” she adds, “knowing that there are other people out there who want to form that community with you, and that we are two of them, and that we want to bring others together.”
THE JINKX AND DELA HOLIDAY SHOW At the Wang Theatre at the Boch Center. Dec. 2, 8 p.m. Tickets $49-$299, www.bochcenter.org