At one point of “All Star Variety Show,” the latest episode of All Stars 3, a queen compares the season to Game of Thrones – and she’s not wrong. This particular incarnation of Drag Race is all about forming alliances and strategizing for the crown, and this week’s episode was particularly shocking. While this review won’t spoil which queen went home (don’t worry, it was the right choice), there’s a lot to unpack here about how the rest of the competition will turn out.
This week’s episode was all about the great divas of show business, and found the nine remaining queens tasked with putting on a variety show as famous singers. Some of the choices made sense, like Mariah Carey and Diana Ross – those are gay icons who are practically synonymous with the word “diva.” But other queens had bigger challenges, namely Thorgy Thor, who was tasked with playing the part of Stevie Nicks. Vanessa Williams presided as the guest judge for the week, while Todrick Hall helped choreograph the show.
To be honest, this variety show was kind of a dud. Despite impersonating these famous pop stars, the queens had to cover RuPaul’s original songs, making for an odd combination of aesthetics. As we established in last week’s recap, the queens need to avoid covering their own songs – this rule unfortunately expands to Mama Ru’s repertoire. Of the bunch, the only two to really make an impression during these segments include Bebe (playing Diana Ross) and Shangela (doing a hilarious riff of Mariah Carey’s iconic NYE performance). On the other side of the spectrum, many of the queens dropped the ball during the group song.
Thorgy Thor’s imitation of Steve Nicks was fine, but lacked fun. It’s always annoying to hear contestants complain about the judge’s feedback, but Thorgy Thor made a good point while talking back to the judges: the wonderful singer she was playing was an odd choice for a campy show like this. Milk and BenDeLaCreme’s imitations of Celine Dion and Julie Andrews also fell flat, while Aja’s Amy Winehouse was in decidedly poor taste.
The show really picked up the pace, however, once Ru made her deliberations and decided which of the queens were up for elimination. As established last week, the top two queens would be forced to “lip sync for their legacy,” with the winner of the sync choosing whom from the bottom two will go home. And, well, things got dramatic. Without revealing the names of the winners/losers, this new elimination format makes for great reality television. There were funny moments, fairly surprising alliances, and while the overall elimination made sense, there was still legitimate suspense before the loser was announced.
From a personal standpoint: the queens to beat right now are Shangela and Bebe. Both ladies brought their A-games to the stage tonight and at the very least, Shangela seems to have her head in the game when it comes to strategizing. Hopefully, as the competition thins out, the actual challenges will become a bit more effective, and truly challenge all the queens.
Overall rating: 8 out of 10.
