Drag In Entertainment

Films, music & TV that focused on drag and transgender.

D.R.A.G. (dress as resembling girl) -William Shakespeare

Drag shows and venues:

A drag show is a piece of entertainment consisting of a variety of songs, monologues or skits featuring either single performers or groups of performers in drag meant to entertain an audience. They range from amateur performances at small bars to elaborately staged theatrical presentations. Many drag shows feature performers singing or lip-synching to songs while performing a pre-planned pantomime, or dancing. The performers often don elaborate costumes and makeup, and sometimes dress to imitate various famous female singers or personalities. 

In films:

In music:

In television:

Drag queen Don McLean (drag name Lori Shannon) appeared in three episodes of the CBS sitcom All in the Family as drag queen Beverly LaSalle: “Archie the Hero” (1975), “Beverly Rides Again” (1976), in which Archie uses her to play a practical joke on a friend, “Edith’s Crisis of Faith, Part 1” (1977), in which her murder leads Edith Bunker to question her faith in God. The role was noteworthy for its uncommonly respectful and sympathetic treatment of Beverly as a “transvestite“.

CODCO was a Canadian sketch comedy series which aired on CBC Television from 1988 to 1993; two of its actors, Tommy Sexton and Greg Malone, were especially renowned for drag-based impersonations of celebrity women such as Queen Elizabeth, Barbara Frum, Barbara Walters, Tammy Faye Bakker and Margaret Thatcher.

What Would You Do?, airing since early 2008, has had episodes featuring drag queens.

In mid-2008, RuPaul began producing RuPaul’s Drag Race, a reality television game show which began airing in February 2009. The premise of the program has several drag queens compete to be selected by RuPaul and a panel of judges as “America’s next drag superstar”.

In 2018, American Idol featured a drag queen, Adam Sanders (drag name Ada Vox) as one of its contestants. He made it to the top ten.

In 2018, Celebrity Big Brother featured Queen Shane Jenek (drag name Courtney Act) as one of its contestants, placing first in the season with 49.43% of the public vote.

Also in 2018, So You Think You Can Dance featured Jay Jackson (drag name Laganja Estranja) as one of its contestants.

The Netflix show Dancing Queen, also released in 2018, starred Justin Johnson (drag name Alyssa Edwards) and his dance studio, Beyond Belief Dance Company.

A 2018 episode of The Simpsons, titled “Werking Mom”, featured many drag queens, including cameos from RuPaul and Raja (the season three winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race).

Dragnificent! is a television series on the American network TLC. The show started as a special branded as Drag Me Down the Aisle which aired on March 9, 2019. It features Alexis Michelle, BeBe Zahara Benet, Jujubee, and Thorgy Thor, four drag queens who are all RuPaul’s Drag Race alumnae, helping an engaged woman to plan her upcoming wedding.

The Netflix show AJ and the Queen, released in 2020, followed “Ruby Red, a bigger-than-life but down-on-her-luck drag queen [played by RuPaul] who travels across America from club to club in a rundown 1990’s R/V with her unlikely sidekick AJ, a recently orphaned, tough-talking, scrappy ten-year-old stowaway.

In 2020 RuPaul became the first drag queen to host Saturday Night Live, though he was not in drag at the time.