Interview: Drag Stars Ruby Powers & Julia Van Cartier Bring DINGBATS at Pangea

On Friday October 31, 2025, catch The Dingbats at Pangea for a night of electrifying drag featuring the dynamic Ruby Powers and Julia Van Cartier. Called “NYC’s drag darling” by Time Out NY, Ruby Powers returns to Pangea fresh from a sold-out run at The Moore with Andy Starling. She debuted her hit show “At The Baths,” celebrating the spirit of the Continental Baths, at Pangea in 2017. She is also known for launching Queenly NFT, a pioneering cryptogallery for queer artists. Julia Van Cartier has been performing on stage in heels for 24 years. She is an accomplished producer known for sold-out spectacles with a true sense of family.  Nite Life Exchange says “With sky-high wigs and fabulous looks, captivating stories and killer vocals, Julia Van Cartier is a supremely well-rounded drag artist.”

Read a conversation with Powers and Van Cartier below.

How does it feel to be doing this residency at Pangea?

Ruby Powers: I feel like the mayor of New York City cabaret. I feel like I’m a cultural attaché. And I feel like we’re putting on a damn good show every time. This is my tenth year as a professional drag artist and I’ve just recently come to understand that although I’m a drag artist, my art form is and always has been cabaret.

Dingbats is really affirming for me artistically because my first shows were at Bar Thalia at Symphony Space. I had never done Drag, but I wanted to wear a wig, and I wanted to sing and tell jokes. Oh, and I wanted to actually get paid. By the venue. 

I pitched “The Ruby Powers Show” (which I now realize was literally just a classic cabaret act with guests.) I debuted on Halloween in 2015 singing live and telling jokes and featuring a few friends at each show. I’d alternate pianists, usually with Bradford Proctor or Yasuhiko Fukuoka. Yes, THAT Yasuhiko Fukuoka. He has been having to play medleys from my self-transcribed chord charts at my breakneck tempos for a decade! 

It really is an honor to have Yaz as the MD of dingbats all these years later and to elevate the show in every possible way. We also love the addition of Mitch Bowers, our scrumptious drummer.

Pangea is a total jewel box. It’s classy without being fussy. It’s alt but it’s also timeless. I’m so grateful to Stephen and to the amazing artists that have inspired us from this venue, like Joey Arias, Vivian Bond, Salty Brine, Tammy Fae Starlite, even Charles Busch!!! When Julia and I decided to put together a double act for 2025, our potential venue list was a list of one!

Julia Van Cartier: For me, Pangea feels like the cabaret version of Studio 54 — if Studio 54 served dinner and let you actually sit down. It’s intimate, glamorous, and full of ghosts of fabulous performers past. Sharing this space with Ruby is wild, because she’s basically the town crier of cabaret and I’m the troublemaker in the back row. Together, we get to make magic in the room.

How do you feel like your first shows there have gone so far?

RP: Julia and I are very fortunate to have a vibrant, diverse, loyal, and generous audience. You can feel everyone rooting for you. And you also know that when we come together, we’re all out to have a good time and to make the evening special.

I don’t know how to put this, but if you come to see Dingbats, you are getting a quintessential Ruby Powers and Julia Van Cartier experience. I feel like my artistic vision—which is to show people that there is glamour and beauty and joy in being imperfect—is on full display.

My favorite part of the show is the opening number which Julia and I perform together. We sing “Dingbats” to the tune of “Dreamgirls” and when we get to the line “all you have to do is dream…” Julia had the genius and unhinged idea for us both to secretly have finger symbols in our hands, and instead of singing “dream,” we ding!

JVC: Honestly? [It feels] like a fever dream — in the best way. I look out and see people leaning forward, laughing, cheering, sometimes crying. We’re not just putting on a show, we’re creating a little cult meeting where sequins are mandatory. And when Ruby and I hit that finger cymbal gag in the opening? That’s the moment I know we’ve got them.

Have you been changing up the show at all for each new month?

RP: Yes, the show changes every month. We’ve got new stories, new songs, and new bits. If you came in June, you were lucky to witness the first ever Miss Pangea Pride pageant, hosted by Julia Van Cartier and featuring one contestant: Ruby Powers.

My mind! How do I come up with this stuff? Cole Escola could never. 

JVC: Oh, completely. Ruby is incapable of doing the same thing twice — and I mean that as both a compliment and a cry for help. Every month feels like we’ve snuck into your living room and re-decorated it while you were out. One month it’s a pageant, another month it’s a séance, and somehow it all works.

Who do you think should come see your show at Pangea?

JVC: Anyone who thinks cabaret is “just an old-fashioned thing.” We are living proof that it’s alive, it’s messy, and it’s gorgeous. Also, anyone who’s ever been told they’re “too much” or “not enough” — because Dingbats is a place where being exactly as you are is the whole point. 

RP: I used to wish that my parents would come and seen me perform. They have actually never seen me perform professionally, and that’s been an ache that more than a few queer artists have experienced— but now I don’t fixate on that so much. Chosen family is so real and so important, and I think I chose my family really well with Julia and this special artistic family we have. 

Who I really want to come and see Dingbats is the young generation of weirdos and misfits and queers who consume most of their art digitally these days. I think that cabaret is an essential art form because it is so earnest and it is so human. I think shows like Dingbats are an antidote to the automation and depersonalization of entertainment.

Aside from this residency, what have you been filling your time with lately?

RP: I’ve been pretty consistent with my Botox regimen this year. And of course, I have a few other writing projects up my sleeve, including 1 million unfinished plays. If there are any writers or directors out there that are looking to test out collaboration relationships, hit me up!

Do you have anything else coming up that you'd like to share?

RP: Well, of course I am going to be appearing in Julia‘s annual Christmas spectacular this year!

JVC: I’m in the middle of planning my annual Christmas spectacular, which is basically Radio City on a diet of vodka martinis and glitter. I also do a lot of karaoke “research,” which means I’m out singing until 3 am with drag queens and investment bankers. (Don’t ask.)

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

JVC: The Christmas show is my baby, and Ruby’s going to be in it this year — which is terrifying for both of us. But mostly for her.

RP: The tone of this is going to come across so pompous, but I actually have some advice to artists out there. Dingbats has been kind of a breeze to work on for me and I figured out why. It’s because I know my values and I know how I want the audience to feel!

So when it’s time for me to make an artistic choice like what to do or how to word a joke, I know that if I lead with my resourcefulness, my chutzpah, and my Miss Piggy-esque dignity in the face of adversity, I really can’t go wrong.

And I always try to stick to my cardinal rule: don’t punish the audience! 

JVC: Cabaret is a handshake, not a broadcast. You can’t just sit back — you have to lean in. So my advice to anyone reading this is: come lean in with us. Bring your best laugh, your best story, and your best fake eyelashes. The rest, we’ve got covered.

Follow Ruby Powers on Instagram @rubypowersxo. Follow Julia Powers on Instagram @juliavancartier