Feature: The Days Of Cabaret Gratitude - Day Seven - The Glamour Girl

The Days Of Cabaret Gratitude

Day Seven: The Glamour Girl - Alexis Michelle

We all watched as Alexis Michelle started up the ladder to fame on a little TV show called RuPaul’s Drag Race.  On the show, with her glamourous looks and university trained talent (not to mention a little Liza Minnelli during the Snatch Game), she gathered to her padded bosom all of the fans, like bouquets of flowers thrown on the stage after a performance.  Alexis Michelle was a star.   She was not THE Drag Superstar at the end of the race, but she was a star.  And when Alexis Michelle left reality television, she went back to work.

A lot of the ladies from RuPaul’s Drag Race left the show and took their brush with fame in different directions.  Some focused on social media, some on parties and events, some on their acting careers.  Some of the ladies left the public eye altogether, some transitioned to new lifestyles, and some became openly outspoken about their Drag Race experience in somewhat unflattering ways.  Alexis Michelle has always been grateful for her time on television, even going back for another round in 2023 (full transparency: Miss Michelle has had some respectful opinions about certain aspects of the production, notably, sisters having to vote off sisters).  However, when Alexis Michelle is not actively working as a part of the RuPaul business model, she is a working actress.  Sometimes she even takes off her wig and lipstick and appears as Alex Michaels, as was the case on the long-running television show BLUE BLOODS.  But most of the time, the artist standing in the center spot is Alexis Michelle, a touring, working actress who just wants to build her brand and make her art.  And Alexis Michelle keeps coming back to cabaret, bringing with her her signature style, her overwhelming beauty, her powerful glamour, and that musical theater training. 

Alexis Michelle has played 54 Below in a hit solo show for Pride.  She has returned to the same club to do guest appearances in her friends’ shows.  She played Alan Cumming’s Lower East Side club (appropriately called Club Cumming) with a night of Judy Garland music.  She has played The Green Room 42 with sisters Tina Burner and Scarlet Envy in a Hocus Pocus sendup called Witch Perfect (which also tours).  And this year Alexis Michelle saw a dream come true when she played her debut show at the prestigious Joe’s Pub.  A number of RuPaul queens have turned their back on cabaret, have stopped playing our small rooms, have moved on to other places, other venues, other forms of entertainment.  But not Alexis Michelle.  She keeps coming back to the cabaret rooms, she keeps packing those rooms with the fans, and for that we are grateful.  She brings with her the drag art form and, spiritually, the drag community.  But she also brings with her a wicked sense of humor, an open and honest rhetoric, and a Broadway belt to die for.  In fact, with Jinkx Monsoon breaking the drag ceiling by performing as Matron Mama Morton in Chicago on Broadway, there is no reason to think that Alexis Michelle might not be using her pointy-toed stilettos to kick down a stage door or two in the future.  She certainly has what it takes.

Alexis Michelle is a working actress but she is also a lady and a star - who else could talk so profanely about her sex life in a sold-out house that included her mother, then pop a bevel and belt out some Della Reese?  An Actress.  A Lady.  A Star.  A Drag Superstar.  And we, the cabaret industry have her for, clearly, the long haul.  Everyone wins.

Read a Broadway World Cabaret review of Alexis Michelle HERE

Alexis Michelle has a lot of streamable music.  Find her on Spotify HERE.

Alexis’s pronouns are she/her/hers/they/them/their.

Alexis Michelle can be found online at the following links:

LinkTree:  HERE 

Instagram:  HERE 

Facebook:  HERE  

Twitter:  HERE  

TikTok:  HERE  

YouTube:  HERE

Photos by Stephen Mosher

Alexis Michelle was photographed backstage, preparing for her Joe's Pub debut, with the kind permission of the fine folks at Joe's Pub.

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