Drag Queens Musically Mocking Christmas Is the Best Holiday Tradition

This week:

• Angelina Jolie is so, so good.

• These drag queens are so, so good.

• This Broadway show is so, so good.

• Laura Benanti is so, so good.

Christmastime Is Here

There are holiday traditions that, as the years have gone by, I’ve considered sacred.

There’s going to visit the Rockefeller tree; despite it being a touristy mob scene, there’s something that warms the soul about the pilgrimage. There’s watching A Charlie Brown Christmas and getting a little misty-eyed. There’s the ceremonial first listening of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey, followed by the first listening of “Underneath the Tree” by Kelly Clarkson, followed by the two songs being played back-to-back on loop for a month straight.

Each night ends with “you know what, I should just pull up that YouTube video of Darlene Love singing ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ one more time. And at some point when I’m with my family, we will be watching Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington in The Preacher’s Wife.

In recent years, something hallowed has joined that list of traditions: Watching two drag queens do holiday parodies of popular songs in an original musical that mocks the pomp and circumstance of Christmas while also driving home the exact reason the season matters.

The Jinkx and Dela Holiday Show is in its seventh year and, this week, I attended its 150th performance. RuPaul’s Drag Race legends Jinkx Monsoon and Bendelacreme write and perform the show, which is as unhinged and demented as it is heartfelt.

This year’s production featured a meta twist, with Jinkx and Dela asking whether there is even value anymore in going through the rigamarole and ceremony of their show, which has been done so many times that people know what to expect, let alone during a time when the world has made people cynical about transgressive acts like “a drag queen Christmas musical” even mattering anymore.

I can say, after seeing this year’s show, that the act does matter. It’s boring to talk about, so I’ll be brief: I’ve been feeling very jaded, resigned, and desponded, and at some point while giggling for two hours straight during the show, Jinkx and Dela sent a jolt that activated me again. Not in any hyperbolic way, but it was a reminder to still care, to still laugh, and to still just exist, but, in this community, it’s the caring, the laughing, and the just plain existing that matters.

The Funniest Duo in New York

Speaking of giggling for two hours straight, I need to shout from the rooftops how hilarious the new Broadway musical Death Becomes Her is, and how unbelievably and comedically genius its two stars Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard are.

I see a lot of shows—it’s why I live in New York and why my credit card is maxed out—and I can’t remember the last time that the book of a musical was this just plain funny. The production is a musical adaptation of the movie starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn, and Hilty and Simard are more than up to rising to the lofty standard of those performances. Every single scene features a line reading or acting choice that, I’m not exaggerating, stops the show because the audience is overcome by laughter.

There’s a lot of great theater right now, but for the pure pleasure of fun, Death Becomes Her is unmatched.

You Love to See It

Laura Benanti, you will always be famous.

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What to watch this week:

The Sticky: A Fargo-esque series about the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist—a real thing! (Now on Prime Video)

Hard Truths: Give Marianne Jean-Baptiste the world. Spectacular acting. (Now in theaters)

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew: Finally, a good Star Wars TV series. (Now on Disney+)

What to skip this week:

Y2K: A disaster comedy that is more disaster than comedy. (Now in theaters)