By Michael Barbieri****If you liked Ginger Minj on TV, you’re gonna LOVE her on roller skates! (But I’ll get to that later.) In the meantime, I’ll tell you that Ginger’s show, Happy New Queer, at the Laurie Beechman Theater, was a fun, fluffy bit of drag-tastic magic!
Ginger Minj is the creation of Joshua Allan Eads, a singer, actor and gorgeous drag queen from Lake County, Florida. Although Ginger may be best known for her appearances on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” (Season 7, Drag Race: All Stars-Season 2), she’s been making a huge splash lately, voicing the character of Lemon Chiffon in the Netflix original series “Super Drags,” and starring in the musical comedy film Dumplin’. To my mind, Ginger is the complete package: glamorous, talented and above all, very, very funny. Her show at the Beechman proved all that and more!
Making shrewd use of the room’s projection system, the show began with a series of video clips. The promo for “Super Drags” and the trailer for Dumplin’ got tremendous reactions from the crowd. The biggest response, however was for the final clip – a music video that starred Ginger and other “Drag Race” alumnae, lip syncing to Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” which featured prominently in Dumplin’!
After that tasty amuse-bouche, Ginger made her entrance and served us the delicious main course! And when I say “served,” I mean she SUURVED it, Honey! Looking fabulous in a gauzy, flowy, light blue gown and HUGE hair, she breezed through the audience and promptly lost a shoe on her way up to the stage! Not fazed a bit, she proved herself a trouper, kicked off the other heel and just kept going. Hey! If it gets a laugh…right?! 
Jokingly calling herself an “overweight, asthmatic, chain-smoking crossdresser who sings live,” she gave us a very appropriate opening number, “Keep It Gay,” from Mel Brooks’ musical, The Producers.
The first thing that jumped out at me was the excellent quality of her singing. I had only really known her work on “Drag Race,” where the focus tends to be on lip syncing, but as it turned out, she has a powerful, controlled, high baritone, which suited all of her material splendidly.
Ginger’s song choices were right on the mark. Her next number, “Poor Unfortunate Souls” (A. Menken, H. Ashman), from Disney’s animated film of The Little Mermaid, was pitch-perfect! I had heard of an online campaign to convince Disney to cast Ginger as Ursula the Sea Witch in the live action film of The Little Mermaid, and knowing how Ursula’s look was inspired by drag performer, Divine, it seemed right that they might cast a drag queen in the film. Well, Ginger’s wonderfully sinister rendition of Ursula’s big song proved that she was born to play the part! And while most fans of the animated film are familiar with Pat Carroll’s original vocal, Ginger took the number and made it entirely her own, with her signature moves, growls and devastating low notes.
A lovely “rainbow medley” showcased
various other aspects of Ginger’s vocal abilities. We heard a lovely, sensitive take on Cyndi Lauper’s hit “True Colors” (B. Steinberg, T.Kelly), a strong belt on Evita’s “Rainbow High” (T. Rice, A. Lloyd Webber) and a fabulous interpretation of “Over the Rainbow” (H. Arlen, Y. Harburg). On this latter song, Ginger mimicked Judy Garland’s iconic phrasing quite deftly, as she sat at the edge of the stage a-la Judy, in the famous “Born in a Trunk” number from A Star is Born, which ended the medley on a sweet, albeit wonderfully campy note.
Throughout the evening, the musical numbers were separated by “The Big Gay Dance-Off.” Four audience members joined Ginger onstage and competed for prizes of Ginger Minj merchandise, and while the contest seemed like a gimmick to pad the show’s running time, it was still a ton of fun!
And then there were the roller skates! Yes, our Diva strapped on a pair of roller skates—real ones, mind you, not some newfangled blades—and paid tribute to the cinematic genius of Xanadu. This 1980 film starred Olivia Newton-John as a roller skating muse come to earth, and not only did Ginger wheel around the stage and through the audience, but she sang the film’s title song “Xanadu” (Jeff Lynne) while doing it! My favorite moment in the number was when she nearly rolled off the edge of the stage, saved only by the fact that she yelled “STOP ME!” to one of the onstage dance contestants! A true moment of cabaret hilarity!
I met Ginger Minj very briefly last year at RuPaul’s DragCon NYC, and promised I’d come see her the next time she appeared at The Beechman. I have to say, I’m awfully glad I did! Happy New Queer opened my eyes to an entirely new side of Ginger’s talent of which I had been unaware. She’s already made her mark on television, in film and on club stages the world over, but her tremendous vocal talent, displayed beautifully with her closing number, Jerry Herman’s “I Am What I Am,” from the musical La Cage aux Folles, made me feel we could even see her on Broadway at some point. Until then, I look forward to Ginger’s spicy return to the New York cabaret scene!
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