Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme bring their touring holiday show to the Booth Playhouse in Charlotte Nov. 7-8. Image courtesy Witch House PR
Have you heard? Christmas is coming to Charlotte early this year. For the first time in their seven-year history of running their iconic Holiday Show, BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx Monsoon are bringing good cheer and laughs to the Queen City this November for a night that will be an unforgettable and entertaining presentation.
“The Jink & DeLa Holiday Show” is a comedy-musical that changes every year, and it’s a project the dynamic duo takes seriously. Each year that the production has gone on, Dela & Jinkx roll up their proverbial sleeves to dedicate a month exclusively to writing, and another month to fine-tuning the production through rehearsals, edits, and stagecraft up till the premiere. It’s hard work for the pair, all done while balancing their careers in the entertainment industry, with DeLa becoming an in-demand director and Jinkx’s thriving Broadway Career.
Here’s our conversation about the Holiday Show, the tour, and a little side-love on Chappell Roan as a pleasant surprise for LGBTQ+ music lovers.
Jonathan Golian: Jinkx, DeLa, how are you doing? How’s your day?
Jinkx Monsoon: Going good! Just plugging away, celebrating Christmas in September, you know.
JG: Oh yeah, I think they’re doing the same preparation for Ren Faire here in Charlottte. We currently have the opposite kind of weather right now. We’re excited you’re coming to Charlotte! Is this your first time coming to the south?
BenDeLaCreme: Well, we’ve hit a few southern cities in the past. But, you know, … this show has been going on for seven years, and we built it out of something very small. This is an independent queer production company. It’s me, my two co-producers, and an associate producer. Even that took a while to build. So, it’s a small group of really passionate people who are routing the sort of tour that is often only [handled] by large conglomerate corporations. We work really hard to figure out that routing every year. Sadly, there’s only so many days in November and December, but this year, it felt really important to us, even though it meant losing a couple of other cities, that we’ve been able to … hit the spots in the country that really felt like they needed some queer joy and levity and a sense of familial celebration more than ever right now. So, we’re honestly honored to be able to go and share those spaces.
JG:We do need some cheer, especially with everything political that’s come down between last year and this year. Tell us more about the show and some of your past themes, like “A Christmas Carol” and “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.”
JM: Those large story driven plots are in the recent years, [and] we really leaned in to what you’re kind of commenting on, which is taking classic Christmas tropes and applying them to contemporary moments and culture, mixing that all up together with the ‘Jinx and DeLa’ esthetic, and then putting on a show that year that’s unique to what’s going on that year. And so, yeah, we’ve done “Christmas Carol,” a “Back to the Future” mashup, “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.” Mixed in with it was the “Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Multiverse.” It was like Marvel and “Everything, Everywhere.” And the last two years have had commentary on AI.
BDLC: this year we’re coming in with [ideas], as we have in the past, but like a whole new way of doing it. Every year we come in and we say, “Okay, what’s the show that we need to make this year?,” so we always try to have it be somewhat of a surprise, but we’re coming in with another very well-known Christmas classic. It’s one we’ve never touched before, and it’s one that we’re really turning on its ear and making something completely unexpected. We always do that with these big themes. We’re writers, we’re storytellers, but, you know, we’re comedians. We’re primarily comedy writers, even though we know how to tug at a heartstring and bring someone on a journey. Regardless of what the themes are, we’re always coming at it with all the sparkles, all the spectacle [and] nonstop laughs. It’s all live singing, it’s original music, it’s pop parodies of both the big hits of the year and some obvious Christmas classics. We pull from whatever music is going to tell our story best. So, every year, we give people the thing that they really have come to expect from the Jinx and Dela world, but we always come at it a new way, and that’s important to us, that it feels authentic to the moment that we’re passionate about it.
JG: There’s a lot going on, there’s a lot of good popular music that’s come out this year. I think everything’s kind of chilled out a little bit with Sabrina Carpenter, and our friend that’s in the news a lot lately.
JM: Chappell Roan!
JG: Yes! So I came into journalism through music reviews and artists interviews, and I still have yet to go over to her Spotify to check her music out and see what the big deal is. I really need to.
BDLC: Oh my gosh, you know, I like, avoid, honestly, I’m just a contrarian. And when I hear a lot about one pop star, I tend to shy away just because I’m like, “No, we’re not going to like what everybody else likes.”
JM: Oh yeah, okay, so one of the reasons why I shy away from contemporary pop music is because it has become so formulaic. It’s become so about what’s going to trend on Tiktok? What’s the sound that’s gonna’ be like everyone’s go-to lip sync to in their social media. That’s what music has become about instead of storytelling. What Chappell Roan is doing is true musicality, true storytelling in her songs, true authenticity and unapologetic queerness. And I am all for any new queer mainstream star who wants to say, “f*ck you, I’m queer. F*ck you.”
BDLC: Not only is she a great spokesperson for the queer community, when people compliment her, she brings it back to drag, she brings it back to trans women [and] she also brings it back to other female artists. She sings the praises of Sabrina Carpenter, and we’re seeing a solidarity among female and presenting folks out there that I think is so important, that solidarity of, whether it be among women, among queer people, whatever. It’s like, this is a crazy time, and I love that there’s examples. You know, people in the spotlight are leading by example, that we are stronger when we band together. And that is also a big mission of our holiday show, that it is about family, it’s about homecoming, it’s about the power of the queer community. I think it’s in the zeitgeist. A lot of people are cultivating that right now, and I think it’s really beautiful.
JG: So, you’re coming down through the South. along with Charlotte. What are some of the other destinations and venues you’re excited for this year?
BDLC: We get to play so many more cities every year. We’re hitting 33 in the US and Canada this year. I don’t think Jinx nor I have a [single] favorite. And the reason we’re so proud is that we have really built something very specific and it draws a specific audience. Not only draws a specific audience, but it creates a specific vibe. And so, no matter the place we are, we actually get to enjoy really consistently joyful, excited, celebratory, loving, supportive audiences. I know that is not something that everyone gets, and I am so grateful that half the time you couldn’t tell what city we’re in based on the audience, because they are all just reveling and we’re reveling in them.
The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show comes to Charlotte’s Booth Playhouse at the Blumenthal Arts Center November 7-9 . For tickets and additional information, visit https://www.jinkxanddela.com/.