“Premium ticketholders will get a post-show meet and greet opportunity.” That’s not just a ticket offer, it’s an indication of the show in store: not so much standup, not even drag, more celebrity opening up to her adoring fans. Monét X Change is “the first double-crown winner in RuPaul’s Drag Race herstory”, and Life Be Lifein’ traces her journey – from closeted Kevin singing in the middle-school chorus, via tentative queer experiences as a teen, to her apotheosis singing Bellini to a worldwide audience of drag fans.
It starts as an extended digression: Monét is about to sing us a song, but keeps interrupting herself, with this or that bit of essential backstory. The backstory becomes the show, flashing us back to a homophobic, religious upbringing in Brooklyn, her first sexual encounters – jerking off in a basement with a macho classmate – and the foothills of her musical career, peeing herself on stage while singing Flying Without Wings. Later sections lead us through her years of vocal training in alarmingly white Princeton, where Kevin finds his voice in a karaoke club, and through a passionate but doomed romance while finding fame as Monét X Change.
There’s no doubting our host’s star wattage here: she’s a great storyteller, expressive, commanding and playful – all with a garnish of backstage Drag Race gossip for fans. I wouldn’t say the stories always ring true: one senses dramatic licences being taken to heighten this or that emotional payoff. It’s not quite clear, either, where the story of her near-miss love affair fits into the tale of Kevin/Monét’s musical education, what its purpose is here other than to let our host play – for a moment – teary and vulnerable.
Fair enough, I suppose: she plays teary and vulnerable, and everything else, meticulously. There are veils drawn, mind you: coming out to her family is superficially dispatched here. That’s Monét’s prerogative, but it does leave us with a show that focuses on fabulous and feels judicious with its disclosures. Happily, the 34-year-old does fabulous exceptionally well – and sings her long-delayed song, finally, with an oomph to rattle the rafters.
At Soho theatre, London, until 23 March
