Two-time RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon has made a name for herself as a Broadway star, first as Matron Mama Morton in Chicago, and now as Ruth in Pirates! The Penzance Musical, a role that could earn Monsoon her first Tony nomination.
Now, Monsoon revealed that one of her roles inspired her to take the leap and begin her medical transition. It was neither of her Broadway roles: rather, it was her star turn as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors off-Broadway that Monsoon said “gave [her] permission” to transition.
In a new interview with The New York Times, Monsoon broke down her theater career, including landing the role of Audrey. “I’ve always thought I could play Audrey amazingly, but I never thought anyone would even look at me for her, so I had this dream of playing Audrey II, the plant,” she said. “I wanted to play its voice until it was big enough, and then it blooms into a personification of the plant and I would be like Poison Ivy.”
“My agent calls and says they wanted me to audition for Audrey,” Monsoon continued. “I was like, ‘You mean Audrey II?’ He goes, ‘No, Audrey.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, but the plant is named after her so they want me to audition for Audrey II.’ And he goes, ‘No, Jinkx, they want you to audition for Audrey. Not the plant, the human being.’ I was shocked and stunned.”
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From there, Monsoon discussed how being cast as a leading lady was a breakthrough in her own journey with transness.
“Being cast as Audrey was what gave me permission to finally begin my medical transition,” she said. “It was like, ‘I think the world’s ready to see you as an actress. They don’t need to see you as a drag queen, they don’t need you to perform maleness for them anymore — they see you as the actress you wanted to be.’ The world is at a place where they’re ready to see me, and that’s thanks to people like Peppermint, Angelica Ross, Laverne Cox, Varla Jean Merman — all of these people who have been playing roles that weren’t expected for them to play, and doing it well and showing everyone we’re just actors.”
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“Drag gave a place for my femininity to live, and for a long time it was good enough,” Monsoon continued. “When I came out as nonbinary, it was because I realized I didn’t want to keep performing maleness. But being nonbinary I was still setting these rules on myself, like I was adamant about androgyny, about not being too masculine and too feminine. I’ve always been visibly queer and I was scared that taking it a step further was just going to make my life miserable.”
Monsoon added that she took her attitude as Audrey from the stage into her real life. “Getting cast as Audrey was kind of like, ‘Oh, I’m an actress.’ I started wearing dresses. I started walking my walk every day — there is something in my mind like, ‘This is the walk Audrey would do,’” she explained. “It was slurs being yelled at me and sometimes it was catcalls, sometimes it was lecherous looks. But it wasn’t any different from before I transitioned. Like, whatever, I’ve been called slurs my whole life. But I am now this person I imagined in my head my whole life, that I thought was inaccessible to me. And I just [expletive] love every second of it.”
You can catch Monsoon on Broadway in Pirates! The Penzance Musical through July 27. Tickets are available here.
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