By Staff Reporter |
The city of Mesa will honor the birth of Jesus Christ with a drag queen show at its multimillion-dollar arts center.
“A Drag Queen Christmas” is the longest-running drag tour in America per the event organizers, Murray & Peter Present. This year, the group will perform at more than 40 locations across the country, including the Mesa Arts Center.
Those listed as performing at Mesa this year are drag performers under the stage names Crystal Methyd, Darlene Mitchell, Discord Addams, Juicy Love Dion, Myki Meeks, Nini Coco, and Silky Ganache. All Drag Queen Christmas performers were either contestants or winners in “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” a reality competition television series.
The event will take place in the Tom and Janet Ikeda Theater, which has more than 1,500 seats.
Publicly available video footage from past Drag Queen Christmas performances showcased some of the performers anticipated to take the stage in Mesa incorporating typical drag race elements in their performances: costumes and dance numbers peppered with sexually suggestive gestures and themes.
Performers incorporated air-humping, gyrating, and other sexual pantomimes; pulled out sex toy props; and made references to their genitalia or sexual desires.
Tickets for the Drag Race Christmas in Mesa cost between $43 to $151 for seating, and an additional $134 for a meet and greet. Based on seat pricing, a sold-out show could bring in around $130,000 in ticket sales.
The show is limited to people aged 18 and older, though in Arizona it’s not illegal for children to attend these shows.
Republican lawmakers initially attempted to prohibit the exposure of minors to drag shows, as well as ban public funds for them, but Gov. Katie Hobbs swiftly squashed that effort when she vetoed a group of those bills upon taking office in 2023.
The city of Mesa has more than $18 million listed as projected expenditures this year for the Mesa Arts Center, more than $5 million of which was reported for live performances. The city’s budget reported more than $9 million allocated to the arts center.
The city has also listed more than $8 million for operations, nearly $2 million for fund development, more than $1 million for adult and youth studio classes, nearly $900,000 for education and engagement, and more than $89,000 for volunteer recruitment and management.
The Fox Tucson Theatre in Tucson will also be hosting A Drag Queen Christmas performance this year.
The tour came through Arizona last year as well, hitting the Phoenix Theater in Phoenix and the University of Arizona main campus in Tucson.
Mesa is represented in the Arizona legislature by a supporter of drag shows.
State Rep. Lorena Austin (LD9), a Democrat representing Mesa, partnered with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona to host a Drag Story hour in the Arizona Legislature’s basement in 2024.
House leadership accused Austin of misleading them when reserving the space for an event, and her actions resulted in Democrats temporarily losing access to House meeting rooms.
Austin rejected the accusation in a response published by Arizona House Democrats.
Austin would then go on that summer to host a drag show fundraiser open to all ages.
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