TDF Stages

Because of her, gender-nonconforming musical theatre performers can dream beyond Angel in Rent

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"What are you going to do, play Angel in Rent for the rest of your life?" With a single seemingly innocuous question, all my dreams of making a life on the stage were dashed.

I started to transition my senior year of college while pursuing a BFA in musical theatre. I was wearing skirts and dabbling in makeup, making the person on the outside match the person within. But the happier and more comfortable I got, the more confused and disheartened my professors became.

In our Business of Theatre class, we had mock interviews with industry professionals. I was selected to speak with a talent manager in Los Angeles who was enamored with me until I told him that I wanted to pursue a theatre career. He said that he didn't see space on stage for someone like me, even though Michaela Jaé Rodriguez had just made history playing Audrey in the 2019 Pasadena Playhouse production of Little Shop of Horrors. To him and my teachers and all the industry professionals I met, she was an anomaly, not the beginning of a new era. They insisted trans artists could not sustain a career on stage, especially in cisgender roles. I was inclined to believe them, so I traded my tap shoes for dramaturgy.

Happily, they were all wrong. Opportunities for gender-nonconforming performers in cisgender roles have expanded significantly since then thanks to trailblazers like Alex Newell, who won a 2023 Tony Award for playing Lulu in Shucked; Angelica Ross, who as Roxie Hart in Chicago became the first openly trans performer to tackle a leading role on Broadway; and Sis Thee Doll who slayed as Ado Annie in the National Broadway Tour of Daniel Fish's revelatory Oklahoma!.

But no other trans artist has taken the stage by storm quite like Jinkx Monsoon.

I've been a fan of Monsoon's since she came to fame on Season 5 of RuPaul's Drag Race in 2013. Her quiet persistence and commitment to remaining calm (chanting her mantra "water off a duck's back") really resonated with me, so I was #TeamJinkx from the start.

After she won, I casually streamed the music she released and kept tabs on her tour schedule. But I started to see her as a role model when she came out as "genderless" in 2015—four years before I embraced my own transness.

When Monsoon earned raves in her Broadway debut as Matron "Mama" Morton in Chicago in 2023, I was ecstatic. I had sung that character's signature number "When You're Good to Mama" in college but assumed I could never actually do the part. Yet here was another trans performer playing this role I didn't think I was allowed to want.

Monsoon went on to portray Audrey in the Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors and she is currently starring as Ruth in Roundabout Theatre Company's jazzy, New Orleans-set Broadway revisal of Pirates! The Penzance Musical. Monsoon's lauded performances in these cisgender roles negates the "helpful advice" I received almost a decade ago. Trans stage performers don't need to be relegated to playing Angel in Rent or Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show or Hedwig. Our list of dream roles has expanded to all the characters in the musical theatre canon.

Admittedly, much as I adore Monsoon, I have mixed feelings about her playing Ruth. My eyes never left her during her first number, as she was swarmed by the men of the ensemble, lounging atop a piano and flitting about the stage. I felt like I was seeing myself in an alternate timeline, one in which I had the courage to carve out a place for myself despite the naysayers. But I did not love how Ruth was treated at other points, essentially as a horny old maid lusting after her 21-year-old ward. Putting a transwoman in a role like this can perpetuate dangerous stereotypes and is a reminder of the potential pitfalls of nontraditional casting.

Still, Ruth is often a phenomenal fit for Monsoon. The comedic styling plays into many of her strengths and she always commands the stage. It was a delight watching her take up space.

Even with my misgivings about the part, Ruth is still a character I would love to play. I believe trans performers should be able to take on diverse roles of all genders, even if they don't always paint us in the best light. In a perfect world, we would be free to portray any role that suits our talents without worrying about semiotic repercussions. I want to live in that world. For Monsoon. For me. For every other trans and gender-nonconforming artist attempting to make a name for themselves on stage and beyond.

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TDF MEMBERS: At press time, discount tickets were available for Pirates! The Penzance Musical. Go here to browse our latest discounts for dance, theatre and concerts.

The show is frequently available at our TKTS Discount Booths.