Drag icon Sasha Velour’s live show is coming to town in August, Steppenwolf Theatre announced Tuesday.
The 90-minute theatrical showcase, written by Sasha Velour, features the California-born, gender-fluid drag queen, author and artist in a solo show. Best known for performing on the reality TV competition show “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and hosting HBO’s reality series “We’re Here,” Velour’s story comes to life in a new way with a few shows at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre to give audiences a taste of her amusing and honest performance style.
The stage show tour is inspired by her best-selling 2023 book, “The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag,” which tells the immense and often untold history of drag, woven with her own life experiences. Her subsequent performance tour has sold out in the United States and Europe.
But “The Big Reveal” is unlike anything Velour’s ever done before. As a superstar known for her big, dramatic reveals, this showcase is meant to educate and entertain all at once.
Velour promises elaborate costumes, wigs and makeup, musical numbers and emotionally moving monologues, according to Steppenwolf. Viewers can expect to see lip-syncing performances, video footage from Velour’s childhood, video art and more, the theater said. The soundtrack for the show will feature hits from Stevie Wonder, Britney Spears, Stephen Sondheim and Deep Purple.
Copies of the autobiography that inspired Velour’s show will be on sale at each show, too. Fans will have the opportunity to have their books signed by her after the performance.
Velour first emerged on the theater scene in 1995 in New Haven, Connecticut, at age 8 in a Yale School of Drama production of Len Jenkin’s “Pilgrims of the Night.” She is also the host of “Night Gowns,” a made-for-TV series from 2020 that features other drag queens like Sasha Colby, Antonio Yee and Untitled Queen. Velour appeared on and won Season Nine of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in 2017.
Tickets go on sale at noon on Wednesday.
