by Chris Feil
After a phenomenal premiere last week, RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars retuned with a nod to it’s new VH1 home for a lipsync tribute to VH1 Divas Live.
For the children who may not remember this landmark televised event of living legends sharing a stage and its subsequent installments, this was the thunderdome of vocal runs and balladry. Some helpful context: last week Aja’s jawdropping performance snuck up on formiddable competition and Céline-d a stage of Aretha’s and Mariah’s. Morgan McMichaels was Carole King and didn’t stick around. Valentina Whitney Houston-d because everyone wondered why she wasn’t there.
Seriously VH1, it’s the 20th Anniversary of the first Divas Live. Be good to us and start a revival. And true to Divas Live, this episode delivered as much on personality as it did performance.
The queens performed hits from Mama Ru’s Available on iTunes songbook while in character as their assigned diva. Some assignments were too good to pass up (Trixie as Dolly Parton, Chi Chi as Patti LaBelle) and some would be more difficult to pull off (Dela as Julie Andrews, Milk as Céline). Cue the high expectataions and nightmares of Milan’s S4 Snatch Game because Bebe was given the pressure Ru’s favorite diva Diana Ross.
Thorgy, already pegged last week as our complaining queen, had some things to say regarding her diva role Stevie Nicks. Stevie Nicks not a gay icon? Foot in mouth. Stevie Nicks as providing a lack of comedy or gagworthiness? Plain foolishness. Or maybe she was THAT stuck in her head.
Great Moments in Unintentional Quotability:
Meanwhile Shangela’s method acting shenanigans as Mariah Carey brought out the worst in Milk’s ever-present ego. Now, it’s always an eyeroll when viewers complain about contestants having an ego on this show - as if they have suddenly forgotten they are watching a show about drag queens. However, Milk’s dismissiveness and inflated sense of his Céline vs. Shangela’s focus-pulling clownery illustrates exactly the kind of ego we want to see and the kind that is never a cute look.
Before the performance, the queens discussed how they were perceived on their original seasons. Time has been kind to Shangela, so you might have forgotten that at the time of season three she was somewhat divisive. This time around she has much more polish and she takes herself less seriously, let’s just hope she doesn’t let the competition take over her creativity again.
Best Resting Bitch Face Look - Kennedy’s Makeup Dress
Touch the fashion, change your life.
Can we love on the Dancing Diva of Texas for a second? If you’re not on board with Kennedy Davenport’s adorable grouch status, get on board. This was simply not her week though, and she was the furthest off of all of the queens with her words and choreography. And the choice to deliver “What’s It Gonna Be?” Janet (though reader, I screamed) over the Rhythm Nation/Control Janet that matched her verse didn’t do her any favors for precision. If the runway had been more of a factor this week, her Long Night of Hooking rehash was strong enough to have saved her. I suspect she’ll bounce back as soon as these queens get a true comedy challenge next week.
The rest of the Divas Live performance was fun, but my unpopular opinion is that these mega-lipsync challenges don’t always showcase the queens themselves. This one did better than the previous Kardashian musical and Glamazonian Airways iterations because it did provide more time for each queen to shine. Unlike Thorgy’s claim that she had less to do with her role, the real imbalance here was in the actually song pairings. Kennedy’s Janet had safely the least interesting song portion, but Trixie and Bebe weren’t done any favors either.
Is there an argument to be made that Shangela had the biggest advantage with a choreo light and comedy heavy portion? Sure, but I think that ignores the brilliance of Shangie’s embodiment of Mariah. From the look to the aura to the self-awareness, this was a spot on Mariah. If you argue the win was handed to her on material alone, you can’t ignore Shangela worked her ass off for it. Similarly you could reduce Dela’s bit to the irony of Julie Andrews saying filthy lyrics, but that does disservice to the layers and giddy exactness he brought to the verse.
Best RuDemption Runway - Aja
While some queens revamped looks they originally did well (Dela and Trixie), Aja completely turned her lowest moment in the competition on its head and made them eat it. Nothing but respect for MY Disney Princess, Dizastah.
Forget that I mentioned the judging positively last week because the top and bottom divide this week was bonkers aside from Dela and Shangie deservedly snatching the top two spots. The strangest choice was putting Chi Chi in the bottom after delivering one of the funniest and precise performances because she... wore a coat? The judges said almost entirely positive things for her. And if she wasn’t already playing right to my heart this week, she had to throw in some love for junk 90s cinema. “Eraser, baby, Eraser!”
Bebe placed in the top after once again hardly being featured. This twist is quickly becoming one of Drag Race’s most underwhelming. We’ll avoid discussing those rumors about her role in returning to simply say this: bring her back for more reasons than twists, because this queen deserves the air time. Her Diana Ross was hilarious, but how is the show supposed to reintroduce her when it keeps forgetting her?
Milk on the other hand should have been rejoicing to be safe instead of pitching a fit. If Kennedy’s Janet was mildly placeable, Milk’s Céline was unplaceable without the assistance of the funny vocal track. Céline’s dramatics are intense, not manic. You can understand the parts of her breakdown that come from a place of simply wanting feedback (particularly for this runway), but the more petulant parts remain unjustified. If she was going to pander to the judges requests for unconceptual glamour, this look was pretty boring. We want an All Star that confidently showcases their creativity, not gives us what they think we want.
Thorgy and Kennedy took the bottom two, and Thorgy and Shangela openly discussed creating an alliance. Has it really taken this long for contestants to openly go there? While we want a fair game, we kind of want a war between alliances again, right? And who better to recall the battle of Heathers and Boogers than the Queen Booger herself? At this point in the competition though, the notion of Thorgy saving Shangela from an elimination was a bit of a stretch.
The Lipsync for Your Legacy belonged to Dela and Shangie. Dela threw in the towel early after Shangela brought out a jump rope for the Pointer Sisters’ “Jump (For My Love)”, but Dela’s mimicry of Shangela’s moves was an uproarious way to defer the win.
And with that, those alliance talks were just that and Thorgy was sent home like a neon Amneris - every story was not a love story, and we wanted to love her more. The shame is that Thorgy had all of the uniqueness and tools (the Stevie portion of the medley was one of the best pieces, girl!) to win, but this isn’t a friendly competition to those stuck in their heads. But maybe she’ll still give us something delicious if her bitterness comes to play with this impending Handmaid twist.
Lots of movement on the ranks this week, but the top remains the same:
- BenDeLaCreme
- Aja
- 🔺Shangela
- Trixie Mattel (time to step it up...)
- Bebe Zahara Benet
- Kennedy Davenport
- 🔺Chi Chi DeVayne
- Morgan McMichaels OUT
- 🔻Thorgy Thor OUT
- 🔻Milk
Gif as Episode Grade:
