- The holiday special, featuring RuPaul’s Drag Race alumn BENDELACREME and JINKX MONSOON, will stream on SOHO THEATRE ON DEMAND exclusively in the UK/IRELAND from 1 DECEMBER – 3 JANUARY
- VIRTUAL MEET & GREETS with BENDELACREME and JINKX MONSOON to be made available for purchase from SOHO THEATRE ON DEMAND
For the past two years, world-renowned drag artists and RuPaul’s Drag Race alum, BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx Monsoon have owned the holiday season with their critically-acclaimed sold-out holiday tours (To Jesus, Thanks for Everything and All I Want for Christmas Is Attention). With stage shows out of the question in 2020, these two legendary queens are bringing their high camp holiday magic to your homes with The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Special, a 60-minute musical special that is made for the screen, available via video on demand on December 1, worldwide and exclusively in the UK and Ireland on Soho Theatre On Demand, and worldwide and exclusively in the US on jinkxanddela.com.
Filmed safely under CDC guidelines in September on a Seattle soundstage, this marks the first film project directed, co-written and executive produced by BenDeLaCreme under her production company, BenDeLaCreme Presents.
The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Special is the story of two queens who set out to create a classic Christmas TV variety show, but just can’t agree on how. With the help of a chorus of dancers and DeLa’s deceased grandmother – whose spirit lives on in a glass of eggnog – DeLa tries her hardest to uphold the cheery Christmas traditions of her childhood, while Jinkx is much more interested in bawdy jokes and boozy libations. As they sing and dance their way through numbers about everything from St. Nick to the Christ child, the tension between them mounts, culminating in an all-out battle for control of the show. After some insight into the ghosts of their very different Christmas pasts, and with the help of a mysterious naked man with a surprising holiday secret, the two realise that tradition can be whatever we make of it, and family is whomever we choose. This campy, side-splitting romp is equal parts sacrilegious and sweet, with a sharp tongue and a heart of gold. The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Special is sure to be a new holiday tradition for all the lost toys who know that the best traditions are the ones we create ourselves.
Following on from last year’s holiday tour, All I Want for Christmas Is Attention, in Manchester, London and Glasgow, DeLa decided to produce and direct a holiday film in the style of her favourite classic TV specials.
BenDeLaCreme says, ‘If there’s anybody who knows how to adapt with the times and create art while facing adversity, it’s drag queens. I have been producing and directing theatre for myself and other queer artists for years, and getting to make my first foray into producing and directing film for ‘The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Special’ has been an experience I will never forget.’
BenDeLaCreme is excited to be the first Drag Race alumnus to produce, direct, and co-write a narrative feature film in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jinkx and DeLa lead the charge in a dazzling surrealist world populated with some of Seattle’s finest performers in theatre, dance, burlesque, and puppetry. BenDeLaCreme Presents is thrilled to have assembled an all-star cast and crew.
On COVID restrictions, BenDeLaCreme adds, ‘Our cast and crew, along with our amazing COVID supervisor, made sure we all kept each other safe by wearing masks, maintaining distance, and getting tested regularly while we quarantined together for 3 weeks. I moved to L.A. at the start of the pandemic with my partner Gus – who’s also a key producer on the project – so getting to come back to Seattle and reunite with my queer creative family was so needed. I couldn’t have accomplished this without having the love and passion for drag as our foundation.’
The show will be available for 48-hour streaming for £10, with subtitles in English (Closed Captioning), Mexican Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. Additional information about virtual meet & greets to be announced soon. Images can be downloaded here.
The official soundtrack to The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Special — BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx Monsoon’s made-for-screen drag spectacular — is now available digitally via iTunes and wherever you listen to music. In the film as they sing and dance their way through numbers about everything from St. Nick to the Christ child, the tension between them mounts, culminating in an all-out battle for control of the show. The soundtrack features soon-to-be classics including “Everyone is Traumatized by Christmas,” “A Gay in a Stranger,” and “Passive Aggressive Christmas.”