Drag Race’s Bosco satirizes media transphobia in ‘The Marvelous Miss Gender’ live show

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I always admire when a creator’s work feels like it exists only in a world of their own creation, like Boots Riley’s surreal dystopias in Sorry to Bother You and I Love Boosters, or Yayoi Kusama’s polka-dotted contemporary creations. Each work seems like it could only be generated from their minds. Walking away from Bosco’s one-woman show as The Marvelous Miss Gender, I placed the RuPaul’s Drag Race icon in similar ranks as a true auteur of her craft.

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I, along with Pitch art director Teddy Rosen, had the pleasure of experiencing Bosco’s villainously punk, campy reality at the Folly Theater. The drag performer and self-proclaimed “transsexual stripper and professional woman,” Bosco, also known as Blair Constantino, hails from Seattle. You may have seen her win third place on both season 14 of Drag Race and season 10 of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.

Before Miss Gender graced the stage, lighting turned from Bosco’s punk-influenced black, white, and red all over to an otherworldly green for opener Irene the Alien, Bosco’s Seattle sister and castmate on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 10. Irene came out to “DANCE…” by Missouri’s own Slayyyter, slowly stripping layers off of her sequined, golden gown to reveal tassels and panties—and an extraterrestrial-esque purple bodysuit, of course. Irene’s following comedy set put us in the audience at ease, alluding to her infamous elimination on the first episode of Drag Race season 15.

Then began the story of Bosco’s supervillain alter ego.

After falling into a vat of radioactive estrogen, she transformed into the lip-syncing, crime-fighting, and often mostly naked Miss Gender. Through song, dance, and hilarious cut scenes with plenty of Ru Girl cameos, we learn that in Miss Gender’s dystopian world, transgender people are discriminated against through bathroom legislation, headlined by the ‘Cisgender Seven’—made up of Erika Kirk, male podcasters, and (ironically) Caitlyn Jenner, among others.

Miss Gender has made it her life mission to make the entire world trans, so that nobody can use a public bathroom ever again.

The production of Bosco’s one-woman show features extensive world-building. Miss Gender’s lair can be found under the Lady Boy Bar and Grille, where she receives incoming trans-missions. In the second act, she travels to TERF Island, where transphobia can be tracked down by following the scent of Butterbeer.

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A standout lip-sync number had Bosco’s backup dancers—deemed the Henchthems—bring her comically bigger and bigger glasses of wine throughout her performance, until bringing out a glass large enough for her to climb inside and splash the audience. In another, Bosco uses a single piece of fabric, twisting and tucking it to create endless different looks and subsequent striptease reveals.

Miss Gender serves up simultaneous high camp and high fashion, while also taking conservative stories of the nonexistent trans takeover and weaponizing it into her satiric dystopian society.

Bosco knows her world and her brand to a tee, bringing her signature Hollywood glamour and dirty humor to the stage. Her signature eyebrow shape, with a cartoonish upward hook, has been part of her image since she started performing drag. I noticed the dramatic shape could be found all over the performance, on her costumes, on setpieces, and more, like a trans hidden Mickey.

The drag race alums transported us into a world where transphobia can be defeated by the power of fabulous dance numbers, a rare oasis in a red state and terrifying time for queer folk. The production was more Bosco than Bosco herself, and I felt so lucky to have witnessed her crazed genius.