“My blood was just pumped,” Bob the Drag Queen tells Billboard of her first performance in Broadway’s Moulin Rouge! The Musical on Jan. 27. “I was on so much Red Bull.”
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Although Bob is no stranger to the stage (or an eye-popping outfit), stepping into Harold Zidler’s ostentatious coattails marked the artist’s Broadway debut — more than 15 years after first arriving in New York City and making the audition rounds with the rest of the city’s theatrical hopefuls.
“I’ve been on a lot of wacky journeys, from reality TV to books to music to Broadway to stand-up, and I’ve had a lot of people go with me on every single journey,” says Bob, who won RuPaul’s Drag Race season 8 and served as the MC on Madonna’s globe-trotting Celebration Tour from 2023-2024. “I’m really appreciative.”
Below, Bob walks Billboard through his non-audition audition for the role of Zidler, her winding road to Broadway and what other roles could be a perfect fit for The Drag Queen on the Gay White Way.
You’re obviously no stranger to being on stage, but were the nerves for this different because it was a thespian situation?
Not really. I’ve been acting for a minute, and I’ve done quite a few plays in my day—not as many as a tenured Broadway actor. The last big play I did was Angels in America eight years ago. I get excited more than I get nervous.
Any preshow rituals?
I just listen to video essays or podcasts and do makeup and chat with the people backstage. I do vocal warmups and stuff, but no, nothing super earthy or ritualistic.
You’ve released songs before, but how comfortable do you feel singing on stage in a live environment eight times a week? That’s a lot.
I like singing quite a bit. I’ve sang live and professionally several times, but this is more than I’ve ever done. It’s definitely outside of my wheelhouse, but it gets me really excited.
Did you get much time to rehearse with your castmates before your grand debut?
No. For the most part, it’s just me all by myself, as Céline Dion would say. We did one “put in” show which is where you get to run a show, but not everyone’s in costume, and the whole band is not there. It’s just the piano and there’s no audience. So that’s the closest you get to doing it all before the show.
That’s wild. I know you’ve been looking to get on Broadway for a long time, but how did you land this role? Did they come to you, did you have to audition?
They reached out to me and said I didn’t [have to] audition. They said it was a “work session,” but I was auditioning. [Laughs] I flew to New York and I worked out some scenes with them. Then I was offered the role after that, after the “work session” which was certainly not an audition.
Right, absolutely not an audition. They wanted you regardless, but they also needed to see you first. Do you have a personal history with Moulin Rouge!, the Baz Luhrmann movie? Was that a seminal film for you?
No, not at all. I hadn’t seen the movie until maybe a month ago, to be honest. I saw the play twice before I saw the movie once. I’m more familiar with the play than I am the movie. Even before I was casting, I was more familiar with the play than I was the movie.
As you prepared, did you find yourself comparing your approach to what other actors had done in the role? Or did you try to keep a blank slate?
I’m mostly trying to keep a blank slate. And I’m so different than all the other Zidlers who played the role. I’ve seen Wayne Brady in the role, I’ve seen Robert Petkoff, and I bring something very different than they do to the role. I’m also the youngest Zidler of all time, but not by not by much. I’m barely in my thirties; I’ll be 40 before the year is over.
One of my co-workers was telling me he needs to go to Coachella this year, because he’s never been and wants to get there before he’s 40.
I have no desire to go to Coachella. Nothing about it.
I saw Madonna’s Celebration Tour several times, which you were a big part of. I absolutely loved it. You were such a perfect MC. Did you draw on any of that for this role?
You know, not so much. I didn’t learn to MC through the Madonna tour, I have been emceeing in New York City for, my God, 17 years now. I’ve hosted Werk the World tours and comedy tours and drag queen tours and stand-up shows. I hosted Stand Out for Netflix, the Queer Comedy Festival. If anything, for the Madonna tour I was just applying what I’ve learned over the years, and I’m still applying that here on Broadway.
Any chance Madonna will come see your Broadway performance?
Who knows? Probably not. I don’t think she’s in the States now. I think she’s deep into Confessions Part 2.
You were the standout of The Traitors season 3. What’s your take on this new season?
I think Alan (Cumming) is just eating so hard this season, and I really look forward to seeing how it all plays out. I am currently hosting the official Traitors podcast, and it’s currently the number one podcast for television and film.
Congrats! I love The Traitors. I feel like they need to have two drag queens a season, however. The Housewives get four contestants, which lets them have a little block to protect each other. You, Peppermint and Monét X Change were just out there on your own each season.
Apparently we can get to figure two Olympic figure skaters but we can’t get two drag queens in one season! Two figures skaters and one drag queen? Crazy numbers.
So back the Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Eight times a week is an awful lot. What are you up to when you’re not on stage? I know you have podcasts, but are those prerecorded? Are you just resting when you’re not on stage?
I still work! I still do my podcast. I review RuPaul’s Drag Race with my drag sister, Monét X Change, over on our YouTube page. I’m still doing the Traitors podcast, my solo podcast, Only Child. So I do about four or five podcasts a week.
Sometimes I’ll talk to Broadway actors and they’re like, “The second I get offstage it’s vocal rest, I go straight home.”
I mean, I probably should do that. [Laughs] But then you got Jessica Vosk walking the streets of Times Square interviewing people and then going on and singing in Hell’s Kitchen, singing her tits off.
Hell’s Kitchen was great. What’s your all-time favorite Broadway show? Or what are the best shows you’ve seen on Broadway?
My favorite Broadway show I’ve ever seen is probably Once On This Island. It was really good, I saw it twice. I also really enjoyed Kinky Boots, also at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, where I’m at [in Moulin Rouge! The Musical]. Oh, Mary! was fantastic. A Strange Loop changed my life. I could do this all day,
Who did you see in Oh, Mary!?
I saw Cole [Escola] and Jinkx [Monsoon].
Same, plus Jane Krakowski. So when you’re watching these shows on Broadway, are you in fan mode or is part of you thinking, “I could do that role”?
Oh, every actor watches a play and casts themselves. Every actor cast themselves in every TV show, especially every play they go to. I remember watching Moulin Rouge! and saying, “I can play Harold Zidler.”
Damn. You put it out there, and it happened. Are there any other Broadway roles you want to toss out into the universe?
I would love to do Jesus Christ Superstar as King Herod. I would love to do Annie as Miss Hannigan. I would love to do Mary as either Mary Todd Lincoln or Abraham Lincoln. I would love to… I mean, again, I could do this literally all day. I really, genuinely love theater.
What’s your favorite song in Moulin Rouge! The Musical?
Well, I’m really into [Adele’s] “Rolling in the Deep” as a song and “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley. I just love both those songs so much. They get mashed together, it’s really good. I was thinking back to when Gnarls Barkley first dropped the song “Crazy” and how f–king good it was. It changed the zeitgeist. It really did; it was everywhere.
When your Broadway gig wraps, what’s next?
When I’m done with this run, I’m going to be back on tour, you can get tickets for my comedy tour. My first love was theater, but the first love I had to love me back was stand-up comedy. It took theater 17 years to love me back, but stand-up comedy immediately embraced me, and I will always return to my stand-up comedy roots every time.
To wait so long and finally get the love back must be very gratifying.
I always knew the day would come. I just had to be patient enough to wait for it. It came when it came.
So 17 years ago, you were doing Broadway auditions?
Yeah, down at Pearl Studio and Ripley-Grier Studios. I once got kicked out of an audition. Okay, not kicked out, but asked to leave a dance call for Wicked. I fell and I tried to get back in, hop back in, and I was obviously behind the steps at that point. The guy, while everyone’s dancing, he tapped my shoulder and was like, “You can just go.”
Brutal. I hope he sees you now on stage.
Well, I’m not doing it to get back at him. And in his defense, I would probably still be bad in the chorus of Wicked. [Laughs] Maybe I could be a Madame Morrible or Doctor Dillamond or The Wizard.
