Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Drag queens Jinkx and DeLa bring the ha-ha-ha’s and the ho-ho-ho’s with their annual Christmas show

By Jordan Tolley-Turner The Spokesman-Review

To say Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme are busy bees may be an understatement.

From their time on RuPaul’s Drag Race to DeLa’s production company and Jinkx’s theater career, the queens have been more than occupied for years.

But, every year when the two make the time to combine forces, the end result is the project they are perhaps the most proud of.

The annual “Jinkx and DeLa Holiday Show” consists of peculiar plots, intricate dance numbers, comedy, musical numbers and a plethora of perfectly planned details that create a Broadway-esque spectacle. And over the show’s seven-year history, each year just gets more and more complex.

Before any of this is presented on stages across the country, as the show will be at the First Interstate Center for the Arts on Friday, Jinkx and DeLa get away from their usual hustle and bustle to fully emerge themselves in the creative process.

Earlier in the year, the two will spend about one month writing with each other day after day. Once the words are down on lengthy scripts, they take another month deep in the actual production process where each scene is nailed down to a science.

While inspirations can be found in more traditional theater, much of the assembly process is very different from a “normal” show. While some productions take years to assemble, Jinkx, DeLa and their crew do it all in roughly 60 days.

“It’s a luxurious amount of time to take away from our other projects, but it is a very breakneck schedule,” DeLa said.

Both believe a key aspect of why this fast-paced process works is the differences between them. Jinkx is a classically trained performer, while DeLa’s background is in fine arts. Their two mindsets meet in the middle and create an extravagant hybrid product. But that’s not to say their similarities don’t come across either.

“I think where we overlap is we both love ‘camp’ and we both love being over the top,” Jinkx said.

This year, the show is bigger than ever.

What once began as more of a variety show has become a full-blown, narrative-driven production based off “The Nutcracker” – with many twists and turns.

The two-act play features everything from Christmas tropes turned upside down, numbers by talented dancers and parody as well as original songs – such as a Nutcracker-themed song sang in German but set to a song originally sang in Hawaiian.

Jinkx’s character is intentionally on the more cynical side while DeLa is more upbeat, “dragging” Jinkx through Christmas traditions. But this year, with “The Nutcracker” being one of Jinkx’s all-time favorites outside of the show, they have switched roles to DeLa finding the play boring and making tongue-in-cheek jokes instead.

The goofs and gags based around holiday traditions are meant to help create a new kind of Christmas show for the queer community, which is an end-goal for Jinkx and Dela, they said, one that often feels the complications of the holidays.

“Our intention is to create that homecoming space and that chosen family space and for the two hours that you’re in our theater you can laugh and have a great time with like-minded people,” DeLa said. “We get to tour around with a traveling safe-space, and we’re very blessed to be able to do that.”