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Jackie Cox opens up about playing a trans icon & Marcia Marcia Marcia returns to Broadway out of drag

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Jackie Cox and Marcia Marcia Marcia

Jackie Cox (aka Darius Rose) from RuPaul’s Drag Race, season 12, is going into Make Me Gorgeous, an illuminating off-Broadway play about a real life drag/trans notable who was a stripper/hustler/hairdresser to the stars and who was apparently the basis for Mrs. Madrigal in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City.

The amazing original star of the solo show—by the one-named Donnie—is Wade McCollum, who’s going to Broadway with the Water for Elephants musical. The talented Cox is getting ready to take over February 1st through the 25th, pausing to talk to me about appearing as “Kenneth/Kate Marlowe”.

Hi, Jackie. So you’ve seen the play you’re high-stepping into?

Quite a few times now. I thought, “This is so interesting and important” and then, the third thing was how much fun it will be to do it!

I assumed you’d be busy on tour or I would have recommended you.

This is kind of a slow time of the year. I did a big Christmas tour with Jan Sport and a couple of girls were doing DragCon UK, but I decided not to do that. And this fell into place.

Is it deadnaming, the way the show says “Kenneth/Kate”?

It’s interesting to look at this piece from our 2024 lens because there are so many things we can apply to history that wouldn’t have existed. Kate, once she transitioned, never disowned her prior life as Kenneth and all her published work is as Kenneth. I think this piece explores a little bit of how she saw her past life. With Hedwig and the Angry Inch, John Cameron Mitchell didn’t have the term “non binary”, and that story is really about a non binary person who discovered themselves through the course of the evening. This one, we see them on cusp of transition and what they’re discovering about themselves. I can apply what I know about myself and some of my trans siblings. It’s beautiful to see it humanized in this piece and put into historical terms. Kate dealt with all the foundations of queer trauma that we talk about and was able to use art—as a drag queen, author, hairdresser–to push through all the traumas.

Are you non-binary?

I’m gender expansive, so I see myself as a gay man plus. I use he and they pronouns out of drag. I’m open to the expansion of gender to include both the masculine and feminine. I see myself not so much as anywhere on the spectrum, but pushing to an even bigger version of the spectrum than we even think about. We’re all trapped in our idea of binary, which is how our culture is, so anything we can do to open our minds interests me. Just like we’re conditioned to wear certain clothes or cut our hair a certain way, we’re also conditioned to feel certain ways about ourselves, and it would be great if we could think beyond that. When I started drag, it had to be very feminine and now drag is all sorts of things. It’s much more open and the possibilities are endless.

I see you haven’t thought this through at all! [laughs]

If there’s any problem with me, it’s overthinking.

There’s no such thing as thinking too much. You’ve certainly done drag shows and held the stage, but how do you feel about a one-person play for 90 minutes, totally solo?

It’s absolutely terrifying–and I can’t wait! People who are expecting a Jackie Cox show won’t be disappointed, but they’ll be surprised because this is something different.

Do you have a background in musical theater?

I did theater in college and moved to New York shortly afterwards. You were there at New World Stages the first season of So You Think You Can Drag in 2010. A promoter basically forced me to do it. They knew I had done Hedwig in California. They said, “Come do drag”. I’d never done drag for myself. That night, Jackie was born and it was wild, it was mesmerizing. It started me on this path. Here, I’ll be reborn.

One great thing about this play is that it shows the evolving attitudes towards queer people through the years, with Kate as our proxy.

We as queer people are raised in our history. Some people think drag began with Paris is Burning, and that’s just not true. As much as it’s informed the drag culture of today, there was drag before that in places small and big. Having now been to some of those places with the privilege I have as a Drag Race queen and create a story that speaks to their history is important to me. And another thing is to have fun!

Come taste the wine

One more fab queen is heading to the legit stage: Marcia Marcia Marcia! The RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15 star—aka Marty Lauter—is playing the Kit Kat boy Victor in the imminent revival of Cabaret, starring Eddie Redmayne as the slithering MC.

At the annual Glam awards for queer nightlife, I asked Marty—who had previously appeared in Kinky Boots—if he auditioned to get the part.

“Yes,” he said. “I auditioned as Marty. Drag Race was in my resume, but it never came up. I don’t even know if they knew!” Let’s hope they find out and let him do a curtain call as Victor/Victoria.

VOTE for your Drag Race Royalty, future Drag Race All-Star and other LGBTQ+ favorites in the 2024 Queerties here.

Related:

Will an out gay finally win an Oscar for playing a gay character?

For your gay consideration…Andrew Scott in ‘All Of Us Strangers,’ Jodie Foster in ‘Nyad’ and Colman Domingo in ‘Rustin.’

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