Interview: Bosco, God’s Favorite Transsexual, on The Marvelous Miss Gender

Fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race will remember Bosco from season 14 of the regular show, as well as season 10 of All Stars, where she battled her way to the finale serving body, looks, and laughs (her improv challenge is one of my favorite Drag Race moments of all time).

Now she’s taking her act on the road with The Marvelous Miss Gender, a subversive lip sync musical that combines burlesque with comic book noir for a deep dive into the mind of Bosco.

The nationwide tour kicks on at Detroit’s Royal Oak Music Theatre on July 8, with stops planned in Cleveland, Boston, Atlanta, and New York City (click here for a complete list of the 33 cities Bosco will hit this summer).

Bosco spoke with TheaterMania about the upcoming tour, her love of Diana Ross, and her villainous side.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Who is Miss Gender?
She’s my super villain alter ego. By day, you know me as Bosco, God’s favorite transsexual; but by night, we’re Miss Gender. And she is trying to take over the world by spreading her gender agenda and turning everybody trans. The conservatives are right and if they can stop trans people, they should definitely try now because we’re going to take over everything.

Your act is premised on affirming the worst fears of anti-trans bigots. Do you worry that people aren’t gonna get the joke?
No. We’re drawing from the Joel Schumacher Batmans, Kill Bill, and Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. The concept is, like, a little bit cerebral, but the way that we’re executing it is not. It’s high camp; it’s drag buffoonery; it’s very, very gay. I don’t think that the people that are coming to the show would be confused by any sort of nuance in this. If you are somebody who is already spewing anti-trans rhetoric, I don’t know why you’d be at my show. And if you do come, I hope I’m able to change your mind through the power of storytelling and striptease.

Have you had any criticism from trans people that you are misrepresenting them?
No, I have not. I feel like trans people have a pretty shared experience: Every single day we wake up to a new news article blaming us for the problems of the world. And I think all of us have collectively felt enough melancholy. It’s OK for us to laugh a little bit. I believe in the emotional capacity of trans people to understand irony.

The name “Miss Gender” is a homophone for the verb “misgender,” which is when you refer to someone by the incorrect gender. Does that ever happen to you, and how do you respond to it?
I take it a lot less personally than I used to, probably because I navigate things without being misgendered regularly. So now when it happens, I just kind of take it as a humbling experience that unites all trans people. No matter how far you come along in your medical transition, there’s going to be something that comes along and shuts you down a little bit. Being able to feel that still gives me a level of camaraderie with all of my trans siblings. I wouldn’t recommend it, though. It’s not very fun.

You’re essentially doing a super villain origin story, but with musical numbers, correct?
In a way. I have been noted for not having a very beautiful singing voice, which is shocking to me. But because I am a drag queen, I do participate in the art form of lip syncing. So I’m going be doing lip-sync numbers where I am dancing and stripping. I have a bunch of really silly talents, including balancing on chairs, fan dancing, just a bunch of different things that I can do instead of singing.

Can you share some of the numbers that are going to be in the show?
I have a very special place in my heart for ’80s Diana Ross. This is Diana Ross when she is heavily produced by Michael Jackson, and she is doing some of my favorite music of all time. “Eaten Alive” and “Swept Away” are going to be featured. There’s some Sade in there. Teena Marie’s ultimate B-side “Alibi” is going to be in there. Oh, also Eartha Kitt in the ’80s when she was in Europe doing the campiest shit possible. I have a range of songs stretching from like ’83 through ’92. It’s a very specific pocket of music that’s been referenced and utilized by drag performers.

You are going to play the Town Hall in New York, just steps from Broadway. Several Drag Race alums have gone on to Broadway careers, including Peppermint, Jinx Monsoon, and Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. Do you have any aspiration to join their ranks?
I don’t think so. As stated before, I’m not much of a singer. So I don’t really know what opportunity would come from Broadway for me, but I’m not going to shoot anything down. If I were to pick an alum as a role model, it would be BenDeLaCreme, where she’s able to write and star in her own material. I think that’s more my style.

What is it about Seattle that produces such excellent drag performers?
We have very demanding yet supportive audiences. They expect us to be able to do a lot, and they’re not always easy to impress; but they’re always willing to follow us where we want to go. It’s a very generous give and take that I think builds a lot of really good entertainers. I also give a lot of credit to the generation that came before. I remember seeing DeLa and Jinkx on TV and they were part of the reason why I wanted to move to Seattle. That was the kind of drag I wanted to do. Irene the Alien moved around 2016. I believe Jane Don’t moved to town around 2015. Their star power drew a lot of us in.