On April 23, Drag Queen BenDeLaCreme performed her one-woman show “Ready to Be Committed” at the Academy of Music. Although DeLa is perhaps best known for her appearances on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and its spin-off series, “RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars,” she is a seasoned live performer; this is her fourth touring solo show.
“We are gathered here today,” DeLa said, “to celebrate the sacred bond between a drag queen and her audience.” So kicked off the night’s performance, in which she attempted to both secure a groom and to plan their wedding within a one-hour runtime. Explaining the choice of subject matter, DeLa told the audience, “I like to take topics that are smart and make them just a little bit stupid.”
The show vacillated between the two: at some points surprisingly incisive and at others careening into territory so stupid as to be amazing. (I am thinking specifically of the dream ballet about choking to death on a Dorito.)
DeLa showed off her range over a series of segments that included comedy, singing, dance, rap and puppetry. Several times throughout the show, she acted against projected recordings of herself playing various characters, demonstrating an impressive comedic timing. All of this only slightly undercut the joke when DeLa emerged on stage in a glittery wedding dress and said, “You can never applaud too hard when a drag queen changes her clothes. It’s 75% of our skill set.”
After the show ended, a friend and I discovered that we had both spent part of the performance, like true Smith College students, attempting to untangle the show’s politics. “Ready to Be Committed” has a feminist bent, devoting a surprising amount of time to unpacking the misogynistic origins of marriage.
Even so, the show shied away from coming to any strong conclusion; DeLa openly admitted to having been unable to uncover a deep truth about love or relationships in an hour. Eventually, my friend and I accepted that politics wasn’t really the point of the show — a penis-shaped bachelorette party water bottle identifying as a lesbian and spouting off puns like “Gloryhole Steinem” is neither transphobic nor a particular win for trans rights — and allowed ourselves to enjoy the show for the engaging spectacle that it was.
The afternoon after DeLa’s performance, I found myself back in The Academy of Music. I was there for The Silver Chord Bowl, “the oldest and most respected collegiate a cappella showcase in the region” according to The Academy’s website. This year, the show was hosted by Smith College Professor of Music Steve Waksman and Northampton Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra.
As I watched Northampton High School’s Northamptones perform a lovely and earnest rendition of Sam Smith’s “Diamonds,” it was hard not to reflect on the contrast between that event and DeLa’s crude series of Grindr jokes. (“If there are any heterosexuals in the audience, that bit wasn’t for you. But then, not everything can be.”)
That contrast, however, was not reflective that DeLa was out of place at The Academy — in fact, DeLa’s crowd was probably the most enthusiastic that I personally have ever seen there, clearly full of fans. Rather, DeLa’s performance was an indication both that drag has become mainstream enough to appear at storied venues like The Academy of Music and that it belongs there. “Ready to Be Committed” was a work of genuine performance art, and it couldn’t have existed in any other medium.
I, for one, am excited by the prospect of drag becoming a more widely respected and performed artform. I attended “Ready to Be Committed” with three friends, all of whom were celebrating their 21st birthdays. Although we are all queer, none of us had ever been to a drag show before. In part, the pandemic has decreased opportunities to participate in in-person queer culture; although Northampton is a noted lesbian capital of the United States, 2022 marks the third year in a row without a Northampton Pride Parade. I was excited, then, to be able to spend an evening with my friends, in a room of stoked “Drag Race” fans, experiencing professional queer art five minutes from campus — even if I didn’t learn anything about relationships.
