Drag Race Bosses Tease Broadway Show and Feature Film

After conquering the Vegas strip, it looks like Drag Race bosses and World of Wonder co-founders Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato have their eyes set on conquering Broadway and the big screen.

via: Pink News

Since crash-landing on our screens back in 2009, RuPaul’s Drag Race empire has changed pop culture forever, and committed to world domination.

Over 16 years, the show has spawned numerous spin-offs, including All Stars – with All Stars 10 airing right now – and more than a dozen international franchises.

Plus, the RuPaul’s Drag Race Live! show has been storming Las Vegas since 2021, with the concert residency, featuring Drag Race alumni, taking to the stage nightly at the Flamingo Las Vegas.

Now, the Drag Race universe is getting even bigger, as Bailey and Barbato have confirmed a musical and movie about Drag Race are being worked on right now.

Speaking to Variety, Barbato said that the stage show may come to both the US and London’s West End.

“Drag Race: Live just celebrated its 1000th show and we are taking that and developing it for stage, ideally Broadway and London. We were thinking about starting in the West End, but f**k it, let’s just go to Broadway,” he teased.

Bailey then added: “I guess it’s no secret, there’s an untitled Drag Race movie coming. It’s shooting in Los Angeles; we’re keeping it local.”

The latter also confirmed that more international Drag Race franchises are coming soon, but “they can’t be revealed yet”.

Fans of the 29-time Emmy Award-winning reality show have speculated in recent months that upcoming franchises will include Drag Race Japan, Drag Race South Africa, and Drag Race Ireland.

During their chat with Variety, the pair also addressed whether the raft of anti-LGBTQ+ orders Donald Trump has attempted to introduce since his re-election has put drag performers off applying for Drag Race.

“We had a 30% increase in auditions. There’s been growth every single year since the franchise started,” Barbato revealed.

“This current season [season 18, which recently finished filming] had a lot of young queens, and that wasn’t a reflection of the demo; it reflected who we wanted to cast and who popped,” he said.

“But I can tell you the growth is expanding on both ends, with younger and older queens, more of both are auditioning for Drag Race.”

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 10 continues on Paramount+ in the US on Fridays, and WOW Presents Plus internationally.

I'm actually excited to see Drag Race conquering Broadway the way they've already conquered the Vegas strip. The closest queen to get a show based on drag closest to Broadway was Alaska, who had the off-Broadway show Drag: The Musical.

As for the future of Drag Race, I hope with Barbato revealing that both old and young queens have auditioned for future seasons that we will see both demos represented.

Last but certainly not least I'm not sure how you can make Drag Race entertaining for the big screen, but if they come up with an interesting idea and it's executed well I will check it out.