Certified drag icons Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme are back on tour in the US and Canada with their eighth annual The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show bringing even more bite, irrelevance, and fiercely defiant tidings of comfort and joy than ever. Not to forget plenty of dick jokes. It’s that kind of holiday show.
In the 2025 edition, which stopped at the magnificent Kings Theatre in Brooklyn this week, the satirical, pun-tastic banter between the drag queens of Christmas fizzes while the sometimes clever, sometimes gloriously stupid, but always highly entertaining parody musical numbers really pop.
This year, the queens have decided to go back to their roots to offer up a “good old fashioned holiday drag show”, like the ones we used to know. No intricate framing devices, just Christmassy/witchy winter solstice drag fun. But the sinister Mr. Fir (engagingly voiced by Emmy-winning Somebody Somewhere star Jeff Hiller delivering a vivid, characterful performance in beautifully-crafted pre-recorded video segments) soon puts a stop to that plan. Our trusting heroines make the mistake of allowing him to introduce the show and as narrator Mr. Fir quickly reveals his dark side, setting up a Tales from the Crypt-style, fiendishly festive anthology series, “The Gingerbread House of Horrors!” With Jinkx going on to yell the snow people dancers off stage, cutting short the traditional opening number before it’s even got going. She’s “on edge”, she tells the audience. Aren’t we all.
Given our current times, a horror-themed holiday show couldn’t be more appropriate, and the format turns out to be a genius innovation that takes things to uncharted territory for Jinkx and DeLa. With a string of delightful surprises along the way, the queens find themselves entrapped within four “ghastly tales of yuletide terror” that playfully riff on the Nativty (a story that would not have passed the Bechdel test, as Jinkx points out), as well as some classic movies that I won’t reveal here. Praise be, the scene-stealing tattooed heartthrob that is Hunky the Elf (Gus Lanza, who also serves as producer and production manager) finally gets to be at the centre of one of the evening’s stories.
As ever, the gals have been keeping tabs on the pop culture zeitgeist. They have also upped their puppet game, with their Rudolph-inspired spin on the ubiquitous Labubu, the “Rodudu” (a memorable creation by Erik Andor) in a tale that contemplates the terrors of fad-fueled consumption combined with today’s increasing over-reliance on intrusive AI. While real-world experts casually discuss their “probability of doom”—p(doom)—numbers, the show ponders what might happen if AI decides to turn its laser beams on us. There’s a killer “Protect The Dolls” gag delivered by Jinkx that had me howling and the entire audience whooping and cheering. As for the song choices, the very 2025 KPop Demon Hunters hit “Soda Pop”, is reworked here as “My Little Santa Clause”, taking aim at the insatiable consumerism of the season.
With eclectic musical styles throughout, the show incorporates 70s glam rock vibes with “The Ballroom Blitz” inventively becoming a toe-tapping song about Santa’s “Naughty List”. While the jaw-dropping burlesque-meets-BDSM “Rudolph” parody number set to Prince’s anthem to horniness, “Get Off”, performed by DeLa channeling Jinkx (it’ll all make sense when you see the show) is something to behold. It is one of the stand-out spectacles of the night with some show-stopping moves from Ruby Mimosa as the sexiest, sultriest reindeer of all. Lyrically, “24 positions in a one night stand” gets a seasonal makeover to become about Santa’s sleigh taking in “24 time zones just in a one night span”.
In a number that put me in mind of the observation that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did “backwards and in high heels” (a quote that originated in a Frank and Ernest cartoon), Jinkx delivers flawless, soaring vocals while cycling—in high heels—in a romping parody reworking of Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”. While earlier in the show, a demonically pregnant Jinkx belting “It’s Beginning To Look Apocalyptic”, set to the tune of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”, feels like the perfect fit for where we are as 2025 draws to a close.
The spectacular sextet that makes up The Jinkx and DeLa Holiday Show dance troupe—Mimosa, Isaiah Brooks, Jace Gonzalez, Jim Kent, Derrick Paris, and choreographer Chloe Albin—bring kinetic commitment, personality, and friskiness to every number, with moves that not only tickle, but form an integral role in the storytelling.
Every year, DeLa (star, co-creator, head writer, director, lyricist, and producer through her company BenDeLaCreme Presents with co-producer Kevin Heard) and Jinkx (star, co-creator, writer, and lyricist) continue to build upon what they’ve achieved in Holiday Shows of Christmas past. With this edition, they have really outdone themselves. Both at the top of their game, these queens bring another 12 months of high-level professional experience with them; like Jinkx’s Valentine’s Day Carnegie Hall debut, which DeLa wrote and directed; DeLa’s own summer stint as a special guest performer and creative consultant in Teatro ZinZanni’s Spectacular Summer Show in Chicago; and of course Jinkx’s triumphant Broadway runs in Pirates! The Penzance Musical and Oh, Mary!
The result is two performers so palpably at ease on stage that they make their impressively detailed stagecraft, and all the heavy lifting that goes into pulling off a show of this scale, look like a breeze. Although it is tightly-scripted, Jinkx and DeLa bring an appealingly loose, off-the-cuff quality to their repartee that makes you believe they are experiencing it all for the first time right along with us. One of the things that makes this show so fun and intensely pleasurable to watch, is that you can tell how much these dedicated and talented queens relish working with each other and that inviting warmth, love and light radiates from the stage.
In a show where every production element feels enhanced from previous years, from the vibrant, delectably camp costumes (designed by DeLa and Nova Dobrev, and created by Dobrev, The Lady Hyde, Jamie Von Stratton, and Paris Original) to Mike Faba’s lighting design, the Mr. Fir filmed sequences do not disappoint. There is an enchantingly tactile and nostalgic look to Mr. Fir and his world, giving 1964 Rudolph vibes, which contrasts nicely with the charismatic but villainous character’s fearful Christmastide tales. As with the live show, the filmed segments are directed with verve and attention to detail by BenDeLaCreme, with cinematography by Eric Adkins, editing and VFX by Amy Enser, puppet creation and puppeteering by Greg Pinsoneault, and gorgeously intricate production design by Amy Chinelli.
Once more, Jinkx and DeLa prove that when you have such well-drawn, distinctive characters, and first-rate performers embodying them, you can put them in any situation and deliver something surprising time and time again. For those of us already familiar with this duo, our pleasure is heightened by our anticipation of how they might react.
After spending two hours laughing, I had a cathartic cry as things got real. These mistresses of drag art and theatre effortlessly shift tones as they bring their characters into the real world they’ve been referencing allegorically. As a message encouraging the audience to vote as part of the pre-show visuals reminds us, “drag has always been political”. Drag queens have helped us to get through the worst of times and this show steps up to the moment. Allowing us some much needed respite, a way to synthesize the horror, while easing us back into the reality of 2025 with renewed fight, and that most precious and powerful feeling of all, hope. As we gather together at the Kings Theatre—or wherever you may be lucky enough to see them on tour—we’re made to feel part of a community that Jinkx and DeLa continue to create by putting on these shows year after year, and we’re reminded that we’re not in this alone.
Jinkx: How can we keep singing and dancing when the horrors just keep on coming?
DeLa: I think all those horrors are the reason we need to keep singing and dancing.
By James Kleinmann
The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show 2025 Tour continues through December 30th, 2025. There will be a global live stream of the show from Moore Theatre in Seattle on Tuesday, December 23rd at 7pm PT with tickets available at JinkxandDeLa.com.
December 6 – Detroit, MI (Masonic Cathedral Theatre)
December 7 – Chicago, IL (Chicago Theatre)
December 8 – Minneapolis, MN (Pantages Theatre)
December 9 – Omaha, NE (The Astro)
December 11 – Kansas City, MO (Uptown Theater)
December 12 – Denver, CO (Paramount Theatre)
December 14 – Los Angeles, CA (Dolby Theatre)
December 17 – Phoenix, AZ (Orpheum Theatre)
December 18 – San Diego, CA (Balboa Theatre)
December 19 – San Francisco, CA (Golden Gate Theatre)
December 20 – Medford, OR (Holly Theatre)
December 22 – Portland, OR (Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall)
December 23 – Seattle, WA (Moore Theatre)
December 24 – Seattle, WA (Moore Theatre)
December 26 – Seattle, WA (Moore Theatre)
December 27 – Seattle, WA (Moore Theatre)
December 28 – MATINEE – Seattle, WA (Moore Theatre)
December 30 – Vancouver, BC (Queen Elizabeth Theatre)
For more details and to purchase tickets head to JinkxandDeLa.com.
VIP Packages, including photo opportunity and a Q&A with the stars, are only available to purchase separately at JinkxandDeLa.com with proof of ticket purchase.
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