Dear Friends,

I have an embarrassing confession to make: I was a relatively late arrival to the RuPaul’s Drag Race fan club. It took many years, and the recommendations of countless friends, before I finally started watching Drag Race late in its ninth season – which meant that my introduction to the show was Sasha Velour’s indelible lip-sync performance of Whitney Houston’s “So Emotional.” Sasha began the number in a long, fiery red wig, plucking a long-stemmed rose, and at the climactic moment of the song, she pulled off her wig, showering her bald head with a cascade of rose petals.

The poetry, playfulness and surprise of that reveal, I’d soon learn, is a hallmark of Sasha’s artistry. So when Moisés Kaufman – a treasured theatrical luminary in his own right – called me to say he and his company, Tectonic Theater Project, were teaming up with Sasha and House of Velour to create a one-of-a-kind show, there was no way I’d…well, “sashay away” from that opportunity.

Velour: A Drag Spectacular marks the continuation of the Playhouse’s rich, decades-long relationship with Moisés and Tectonic. Our last collaboration was 2022’s Here There Are Blueberries, which went on to become a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize while enjoying a record-shattering off-Broadway run after its Playhouse premiere. Moisés’s partnership with Sasha is a meeting of two amazingly creative minds, and the melding of those two artists and their processes has been tremendously exciting and fruitful.

It’s no accident that we’re premiering this show at this current moment. Two states have already passed laws explicitly restricting drag performances, while four other states have passed laws against “adult” performances that could be used to target drag. But what makes me happiest about this show is that it isn’t interested in shouting anyone down. Rather, it’s first and foremost a celebration of an incredibly vibrant art form that has provided an essential outlet for self-expression for so many. That sense of wonder, beauty, affirmation and surprise couldn’t come at a better time.