Posted in: TV | Tagged: drag race, rupaul

RuPaul's Drag Race Season 18 Episode 9: It's a Hard Knock Rusical!

MTV's RuPaul's Drag Race (and musical theater fans) rejoice! The Season 18 "Rusical" arrived! But was it worth the wait? Let's take a look...

MTV's RuPaul's Drag Race (and musical theater fans) rejoice, the season 18 Rusical episode is finally here! The queens present "Fannie: The Hard Knock Ball" for the judges and guest judges Benny Blanco and Jamal Sims. Now, before we get too far into the rusical (good) and the runway (bad), just know there are hella spoilers. But wait! Just watch the Rusical first!

The runway theme is "beige against the machine," and I hate it, thanks. Yes, yes, beige – very clever. But it's so incredibly boring in one or several aspects. But I'll try my best to judge fairly here, even though this runway theme makes me want to take a nap. But the Rusical was great! It was cute, nice nod to ballroom culture, and they brought in voguing expert Carlos Basquiat to advise and choreograph.

For starters, the lead of Fannie (Myki Meeks) and her dog Brandy (Darlene Mitchell) were both brilliant. Miss Myki has a fantastic set of pipes (and a juicy, totally natural ass), and Darlene as the dog a la Scooby Doo was hilarious and perfect. Beige runways, I didn't mind either of theirs – they were fun and chic.

Kenya Pleaser actually knew the words this time and brought ballroom, and it was great! Is she finally coming into her own in this competition? Her partner in the Rusical is Juicy Love Dion, and girl, the judges complained she gave us nothing, and she kind of gave "sleepwalking through an early gig" energy. In a performance full of HUGE personalities making ridiculous character choices, she just did not stand out.

Oh, Athena Dion. You may have the name of a goddess, but you have the taste of like…Joella. Burlap and a house plant, really? Her fashions and general challenge choices have not been great this season, and I had such high hopes in the beginning, seeing she's an established queen and mother of a notable house. Her Rusical performance rightly landed her squarely at the bottom. It was the only thing that made me yawn more than the runway theme.

Discord Addams and Nini Coco (after much fighting for the lead) were fine as the scrappy "early ball-era" queens "mopping" looks. They had a more punk/rock style number and it was not my favorite, but fine enough I guess. Discord departed from her usual runway looks and actually served something resembling glamour. Wow!

And last but certainly best is Jane Don't. She played "Miss Shenanigans," who was the "Not-Miss-Hannigan" part, and any character informed by Carol Burnett playing a drunk floozy is bound to be a winner, and it was great. Not the most groundbreaking, but it's a Rusical, as long as you make RuPaul laugh, you're doing great.

Jane Don't wins the week, which is unsurprising, but I was still rooting for Myki. This week's lip sync is emotionally charged and shockingly gutting, given it's between Athena and her drag granddaughter Juicy. They both took it really hard, but in the end, Juicy continued on, and Athena was left to sweep up – I mean, sashay away. It was about her time, but she's still fabulous, and you best believe she's going to capitalize on this RuPaul's Drag Race stint from here to Mykonos.

RuPaul's Drag Race season 18 airs on MTV in the Americas and is streaming on WOW Presents Plus in all other markets.

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