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Jinkx Monsoon is “the most content and the most exhausted” she’s ever been.
“If I stop and think about it too hard, it will be hard to process,” the Pirates! The Penzance Musical star says in this week’s issue of PEOPLE, celebrating Pride month.
Stopping, or even slowing down, hasn’t been on Monsoon’s agenda since about 2012, when she was cast on RuPaul’s Drag Race — the show she credits with getting her all the way to her current status of Broadway regular.
She was the reigning queen of both season 5 and 2022’s all-winners All Stars season (and the show’s only two-time winner).
“Everything I’ve done since the first day of Drag Race becoming a part of my life has prepared me to be exactly where I am right now,” Monsoon, 37, says. “I know, hands down, without a shred of a doubt, that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be right now, doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.”
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This season on Broadway, that means starring in Pirates! as pirate maid Ruth. The New Orleans-inspired reimagining of Arthur Sullivan and W. S. Gilbert’s classic operetta The Pirates of Penzance, now playing at New York City’s Todd Haimes Theatre and costarring David Hyde Pierce and Ramin Karimloo, marks Monsoon’s second Broadway credit after a 2023 debut in Chicago.
In between was an acclaimed run as Audrey in the Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, as well as a Carnegie Hall debut. While on screen, she’s recently launched season 2 of WOW Presents Plus’ Sketchy Queens, and she even stole an episode of Doctor Who.
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How does the drag artist balance it all? Getting sober in the years between Drag Race seasons was one factor, she says.
“I won’t ever drink again,” Monsoon swears. “Unless I make it to, like, 99 years old. 100 and on, it’s anyone’s game!”
But it turns out two seasons competing for RuPaul gave Monsoon more than just a crown.
“I’ve taken the schedule of being on a reality TV show and applied it to my life,” she reveals. “I get up as early as I can, I get ready for as much as I possibly can, I do my hair and my makeup, and I get dressed in an outfit that I want to be seen in for the rest of the day.”
With characteristic pizzazz, she adds, “Because that’s New York, baby!”
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With Drag Race now a globe-spanning empire — its 10th All Stars season is currently airing on Paramount+ — Monsoon can’t help but reflect on its ongoing legacy this Pride month.
When she was cast on season 5, there was no telling the show would become such an Emmy-winning mainstay. “I had definitely hoped that this would keep going, because so much good reverberates out from Drag Race,” says Monsoon.
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She continues, “When you think about what’s universal, what’s going on in the world right now, what do I need to get through each day? I need a lot of silliness. And if you look at what makes Ru laugh, it’s stupid, stupid s—. But she’s so smart, too.”
That’s another way RuPaul’s series has informed Monsoon’s work today — as both artist and politically outspoken activist.
“The most important parts of Drag Race are filmed in The Werk Room,” she says, “and it’s always so funny because the stories that need to be told the most always end up happening when we’re all getting ready, looking silly as hell!”
There’s something special about contestants getting “to talk about the most serious topics in the least serious way,” she concludes. “And that has set me up to know exactly what kind of work I excel in, which is talking about very serious things in the stupidest possible way I can think of.”
Tickets for the Tony-nominated Pirates! The Penzance Musical are available now.
