Eight queens (including Michelle Visage) rocked Glasgow’s O2 ABC last week in Ru Paul’s Drag Race Battle of the Seasons Extravaganza Tour.

The tour sees host, Michelle Visage and contestants from the hit US television show Ru Paul’s Drag Race perform on the world stage, making the art of drag known. The show was anything but a drag, everything you want in a show was there! Music, costume changes, glitter, sequins, dancing, alcohol, Disney realness, surrealness, celebrity impressions and shade.

The show opened with a Little Mermaid drag parody lip sync. The lyrics were clever and introduced each queen in an entertaining way. This all lead up to the entrance of Michelle Visage as Ursula the Sea Witch, singing a live alternative to Poor Unfortunate Souls called Poor Unfortunate Queens. Everyone loves Disney so that was winning!

Throughout the show each queen did their own thing playing up to their individuality and talent. The midpoint of the night was the turn of Drag Race does Rocky Horror. Michelle and three Queens took to the stage to play the parts of three characters and belt out hit songs from the show. Courtney Act as the naive yet endearing Janet Weiss, Jinkx Monsoon as Riff Raff, and Sharon Needles filled those Tim Curry stockings as Frank N Furter. An excellent set piece that was topped off with the entire audience joining the Queens doing the Timewarp.  Spectacular!

For fans of the show the highlight was definitely Snatch Game, a parody of the game show Match Game. Queens impersonate a celebrity of their own choosing. In Glasgow we saw Caitlyn Jenner, a foul mouthed cockney Queen Elizabeth I, Hillary Clinton and Russian athlete Svetlana Khorkina answer questions and battle for laughs.

The show was unique allowing each performer to do whatever they desired. Let’s go through each of the queens in this leg of the tour and rate their performances…

Michelle Visage: A singer, radio personality, author of The Diva Rules and first lady to president Ru on the hit US television show Ru Paul’s Drag Race. Michelle performed fantastic musical numbers and acted as host throughout the show displaying humour and engaging well with the audience. She was the glue and giving everyone eyebrow envy!

Adore Delano: Singer songwriter whose new album After Party made it to number one on the iTunes dance chart. She sang two songs on the night and blew the audience away with incredible vocals. She also dances like a dog with worms and we love her for it!

Courtney Act: Singer who found success on Australian Idol. Not a patch on Adore but entertaining all the same. Very strong but her vocal styling is very different to Adores.  It’s up to you which you prefer!

Jinkx Monsoon: Winner of season five. Hilarious, theatrically trained, and brought a touch of old vaudeville glamour to the show. Queen Elizabeth didn’t give a f**k! A real stand out!

Katya Zamolodchikova: A newcomer to the Ru Paul family, she won the audience over with her madcap antics and any shtick. Without a doubt a firm favourite on the night!

Pandora Boxx: Hailing from way back in season two, Pandora has always been a fan favourite. She was possessed by Hillary Clinton at one point and her Star Wars themed routine spoke to the geek in us all. Her R2D2 costume was to die for!

Sharon Needles: Season fours ‘Queen of Spook’ is always a crowd pleaser. Her David Bowie tribute was incredible yet delicately moving. She presented layers playing Caitlyn Jenner, playing Joan Rivers, playing Michelle Visage, allowing us all to laugh at the world. She also sported one of the most shocking costume changes on the night; appearing as a fully featured alien!

Violet Chachki: Winner of Ru Paul’s Drag Race season seven and pin-up delight. Violet has an incredible vintage aesthetic and on the night her aerial performance was up there!

Michelle Visage ended the evening, bringing the house down with a note perfect song backed by images of monumental moments in LGBTI+ history. Michelle couldn’t be more proud to be part of the community and it absolutely showed. From there the Queens took to the stage one last time to say their goodbyes, leaving us all exhausted, sweaty, and crying out for more!

**Thank you to my partner Marc McKeown, who surprised me with tickets and helped me to review the show.**