Sasha Velour’s “Nightgowns” will change the way you see drag
After eight years and many international tours, Sasha Velour’s NYC show is “where you come to see the good drag.” Words by Mikelle Street Photography by Alexey Kim The audience at Le Poisson Rouge was completely silent for four and a half minutes.
They watched with rapt attention, practically frozen, with just a few phones held up. At the center of the stage before them was Julie J, her body caked in black paint, slowly and almost painstakingly rising to her feet, then lowering again as the haunting falsetto of Moses Sumney’s “Doomed” seeped through the sound system. “I’m looking forward to taking more risks in 2024,” J told GAY TIMES later on that night, this emotive performance having been one of those.
It was January and we were at NightGowns, Sasha Velour’s famed drag showcase now in its eighth year, for the first night in a six-month residency.
Much like J’s, a NightGowns performance is often difficult to completely capture in either words or images: this one in particular was at once mesmerizing, agonizing and supremely sublime.
