Drag queens on art ahead of 'Priscilla' in SF
Chad Jones, August 15, 2013, 2:23 pm

Today, RuPaul is again having a pop-culture moment with the hit reality show "RuPaul's Drag Race" on the Logo network, and if drag isn't having a heyday on film, it's conquering Broadway in the Tony Award-winning best musical "Kinky Boots..."

"Priscilla," with all 500 of its Tony Award-winning costumes (created by the same team that won an Oscar for the movie), is taking its "drag queens are (more fabulous) people, too" message from coast to coast in a touring version of the Broadway show...

Wade McCollum, who plays Tick/Mitzi, says the show tested the drag tolerance waters by opening in Peoria, Ill., in January.

Quells anxieties
"They liked it," McCollum says from his New York home. "The show does a good job of disarming people with spectacle and well-known disco songs. That quells their anxieties about drag and lets them enjoy it. By the end, I think they find themselves accidentally caring for people whom they might judge in real life. The humanity comes shining through, and they find themselves rooting for these gender-queer people."