The mid-January weather may have been cold, wet and foggy, but the inside of Fisk Hall was hot, fabulous and fierce this Wednesday night.
Members of Northwestern’s Dolphin Show packed the unassuming Fisk 217 lecture room with a rightfully rowdy audience for a drag show to promote ticket sales for the 81st annual Dolphin Show’s production of “Kinky Boots.”
Chicago-based drag queen Coco Sho-Nell hosted the event, aptly named “Kinky Cats.” Sho-Nell is known for her appearance as a contestant on season four of OutTV’s Camp Wannakiki, a summer camp-themed drag reality show.
Communication senior Ryan Nguyen, one of the Dolphin Show producers who helped organize “Kinky Cats,” said they initially reached out to Sho-Nell through the Evanston Public Library to host a drag queen story hour in support of “Kinky Boots,” but the event was canceled due to last week’s cold weather.
Because the Dolphin Show usually hosts a drag show in anticipation of its winter musical “Kinky Cats,” seemed the perfect solution to still be able to collaborate with Sho-Nell and support the musical in an on-theme way.
Sho-Nell kicked off “Kinky Cats” with her own show-stopping opening number, sporting a sparkly, fringed bodysuit and bedazzled booties, lip-syncing and flying across the floor to a perfectly choreographed dance.
After laying down some ground rules for the show, Sho-Nell welcomed all members of the audience who had never seen a drag show before to come up and introduce themselves to the audience — each one met with raucous applause by the animated audience.
Then, with pleasantries out of the way, the drag queens took the floor.
The first queen to grace the stage, Glory Hole (Communication junior Alex DeVito), kicked off the performances with a ‘royally’ rousing interpretive Princess Diana-themed number, shedding a tacky ’80s wedding dress for fishnets, red underwear and a cigarette.
Next up was Barbee (Communication senior Matheus Barbee), who lit the room on fire with a rendition of “World Burn” from the “Mean Girls” musical, tossing sheets of paper at audience members. Barbee also plays Lola, the drag queen at the center of “Kinky Boots,” in the Dolphin Show’s production.
Tigress (Weinberg freshman Tiger Lee) and Ally Oops (Communication senior Luke Byman) performed a ‘victorious’ duet to the classic song “Give It Up” from classic Nickelodeon TV show, “Victorious.”
What drag show would be complete without a select performance of all of Beyoncé’s greatest hits? “Kinky Cats” certainly checked this box, with queen Demi Pointe (Communication senior Daniel Calderon) performing to a mashup from Queen Bey’s iconic discography.
Keeping in the theme of fiery female artists, Madam Galactus (Communication junior Nathan Hiykel-Smith) executed an angelic — or perhaps, godly — rendition of Ariana Grande’s “God is a Woman.”
In the penultimate performance of the night, some of the queens reunited on stage for a Spice Girls-themed performance of “Wannabe” before Coco Sho-Nell officially closed the event, sporting a fully blue sequined outfit, light-up gold sneakers and lip syncing to Lizzo’s most popular hits.
The Dolphin Show’s production of “Kinky Boots” will run this weekend. The last two shows will be on Friday, Jan. 26 and Saturday, Jan. 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @TabithaParent12
Related Stories:
— 81st annual Dolphin Show laces up its ‘Kinky Boots’ for upcoming musical
— Mitski elevates production to the stratosphere with album ‘The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
— Fall songs guide: Tunes to get you into the autumnal spirit
