Several stars from previous seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race graced the stage at the House of Blues Feb. 19 for the annual "RuPaul's Drag Race: Battle of the Seasons." Among the Chicago line-up were Alaska 5000, Ivy Winters, BenDeLaCreme, Jinkx Monsoon, Sharon Needles, Manilla Luzon and Raja, hosted by Michelle Visage.
"I'm happy to be in this frozen tundra with you all," announced Visage.
The opening act this year was Cary NoKey, Rob Fusari's self-invented persona and stage name. Cary NoKey was invited to tour with Battle of the Seasons this year because of his "charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent," ( RuPaul saying ). While Cary NoKey does not identify as a doing drag, he has recently come out to himself, coworkers, and no the world as having an alternate persona similar to that experienced by drag performers.
Rob Fusari was the producer who found and helped create Lady Gaga, co-producing popular songs including "Paparazzi"—which Cary NoKey performed an EDM rendition to during his performance.
Fusari felt honored to be included to RuPaul's annual event Battle of Seasons—a fun, less serious competition hosted by Visage. The show was a mix of trivial competitions that were spoofs of Snatch Game and a mini challenge as well as sickening performances.
The night began with a Meet and Greet with the queens and VIP audience members and ended with a party in an adjacent lounge and enough merchandise to appeal to all fans.
There was several notable acts. Sharon Needles entered in a coffin followed by singing one of her new singles; BenDeLaCreme's burlesque inspired comedy act in which she stripped off multiple nude bras with pasty tassles; Jinkx Monsoon's multiple phenomenal singing performances; Ivy Winter surfacing her butterfly stilt ensemble from season five with a lipsync dance performance; Alaska's performance to her single "Your Make-up is Terrible;" and Manilla and Raja's duet lip-sync dance to a K-pop song. And don't forget Visage's singing numbers.
Alaska's performance was in stark contrast to a visit to Chicago last September during which alter ego Justin Honard was part of an Illinois Humanities Council event on drag.
Throughout the show many queens took the mic to give a shout out to Chicago or Raja who sold her merch on stage.
Later in the show, Raja took a moment to express to the crowd:
"Who would have known that there would be a time in our lives that boys dressed up as girls could be at the House of Blues in Chicago and perform. I personally want to say thank and from the bottom of every single one our hearts, thanks so much for being here tonight."
Visage discussed what to look forward to for season seven of RuPaul's Drag Race: "It's another year, another season. This season I think is a lot more energetic, it's younger. It's newer—there's a lot of newbies. Which is fun because they grow up now—at this point, seven seasons—they grow up learning drag on YouTube and RuPaul's Drag Race."
