The producers behind RuPaul’s Drag Race are aiming to expand beyond reality TV.
Since its debut in 2009, the beloved franchise has ruled the pop culture sphere with its incredible drag talent, sickening runways, and hilarious maxi-challenges.
Over the course of 16 years, Drag Race has produced 17 mainstay seasons, numerous spinoffs – including All Stars and Secret Celebrity Drag Race – and various international iterations.
Now, it looks like World of Wonder and Mama Ru have set their sights on expanding the Drag Race gospel to other sectors of the entertainment industry.
In a recent interview with Variety, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato discussed the show’s monumental impact and what fans can expect from the franchise in the future.
When asked about their desire to bring Drag Race to the Broadway stage, Barbato teased: “Drag Race: Live just celebrated its 1000th show [in Vegas], 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.”
The bombshells didn’t stop there, with Bailey also confirming that a Drag Race movie was in the works.
“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,” he revealed.”
Elsewhere in their interview, the producing duo opened up about the current state of LGBTQIA+ rights in the US and why Drag Race is needed more than ever.
“It’s a call of duty for us. America needs Drag Race. We need to deliver. Ru and the amazingly brilliant production team who’ve been working for decades all understand the value of what we do during times of darkness, and it’s like we’re all reporting for duty. I’m on set right now, and our sleeves are rolled up. We are in the trenches delivering joy,” Barbato explained.
Bailey echoed similar sentiments, pointing out that while drag doesn’t have to be “didactically political”, it is “fundamentally political.”
“It inherently is resistance, and at a time when people are trying to repress things. The natural reaction is, no, we’re not going to be repressed, because this is America,” he continued.
“This is a country that stands for freedom of expression and individuality, challenges to that are never going to be met, as it were, lying down. I think drag is the tip of the spear in terms of presenting resistance to that.”
While we’ll have to wait a bit longer for additional details on the untitled Drag Race Broadway show and movie, fans have plenty of content to consume in the meantime.
Currently, the tenth season of All Stars has treated viewers to plenty of drama, wonder and intrigue since its premiere in May.
Described as the “Tournament of All Stars,” the new batch of episodes features three different brackets of queens competing across three episodes for points and a place in the semi-finals.
Check out our recap of the latest All Stars 10 episode here.
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