- They say drag is a contact sport,
and they are so right about that.
Hi, Women's Health.
This is Gigi Goode from season
12 of "RuPaul's Drag Race,"
and I'm going to be breaking down
"Madonna: The Unauthorized Rusical"
in a "RuPaul's Drag Race"
version of "Performance Review."
(upbeat music)
- My next album went platinum fast,
and so did I.
♪ Critics don't know what to make of me ♪
♪ And my real art of publicity ♪
- Nearly every season
of "RuPaul's Drag Race,"
or at least lately,
there has been a Rusical,
and our Rusical is "Madonna:
The Unauthorized Rusical."
- Each of you will portray Madonna
from a different iconic
moment in her epic career.
I had originally wanted Cone Bra Madonna,
Jean Paul Gaultier's
iconic bra with a ponytail.
- [Contestant] Cone Bra Madonna?
- I want that so bad.
Needless to say, as soon as
I saw Brita in that ponytail,
I was like, "Thank God I
did not get this outfit,
"because that hair would just
have looked terrible on me."
- Would you be willing to
do Unapologetic Madonna?
- I ended up settling
for Unapologetic Madonna,
and I only say settling
because in the moment,
I really was, like, okay, well,
I don't really know anything
about Unapologetic Madonna.
This is such a plastic-jar thing to say,
but Madonna actually didn't
really get introduced to me
as someone I really started to study
until two years ago.
(air whooshes)
So this era
was inspired by the "Papa Don't Preach"
music video and song.
♪ Papa don't preach ♪
- As soon as I saw the video,
I was like, "Oh, my God."
The simplest, most streamlined outfit
is the only thing you could ask for
when you're doing a Rusical, because
you don't want to be
swallowed up by the look.
You want to be able to wear the look
and not have it wear you.
So my first thought, I
was like, "Okay, great.
"I'm gonna be able to be Madonna.
"Madonna is not going to take over me."
- I'm Jamal Sims, I'll be
your choreographer today.
- The next thing we had
to check off our list
was choreography with Jamal Sims,
who I am completely infatuated with,
and I'm in love with him,
and he doesn't know it.
Actually, he probably does know it.
I DM him every single day.
(air whooshes)
But the hardest part
of the performance was
definitely the choreography,
because choreography is never
a part of my drag performance.
It's hard, learning
choreography is really hard,
and it was intimidating for me.
- You look terrified.
- [Gigi] I am very terrified,
- Relax, just do that part.
- Okay.
But I have never met someone who was able
to just take all their knowledge
and just force it into you.
Somehow he is able to take something
that you don't think you're able to do,
and then suddenly, you are able to do it,
and it was a blast.
Anybody got that tooth paint?
Get our gap tooth on?
- I already got my gap ready.
Keep up, lady.
Team Gap, ting!
(bell dings)
- [Gigi] Obviously Madonna
has her iconic tooth gap,
so we all shared one little bottle
of black tooth paint that I
think probably Crystal brought.
That's a very Crystal thing to have.
The hair was all provided
by Wigs and Grace,
so we all got that.
Now, here's the thing about the hair.
They're beautiful wigs, obviously,
but they were all meant for
drag queens who are tall,
big men, and being of a smaller frame,
they were very largely
styled, so I was like,
"All right, well, this isn't exactly
"her 'True Blue' hair, but
we're gonna work it either way."
- Presenting our very own "Girlie Show."
It's the world premiere of "Madonna:
"The Unauthorized Rusical."
(typewriter types)
(typewriter dings)
- I had the mindset
that I was like, "I am
just going to have fun,
"and this is a fun challenge.
"When else are we gonna be able
"to do this type of thing
with this kind of budget,
"these kinds of lights, HD cameras?
"I'm just going to have
so much fun with it,
"and as long as the camera knows
"that I'm having fun with
it, I'm fine, I'm soaring."
♪ Making art isn't easy ♪
♪ But that's why I do it ♪
The lift that I did with the boys
is something that I
have never done before.
Never on stage, never
in heels, never in drag.
I had a lot of trust in these boys.
They have lots of biceps and
other muscles that I don't.
I was like, "Listen, I weigh 115 pounds.
"I want you boys to
throw me up into the air
"as high as you can."
(RuPaul laughs)
The most iconic move from
the "Papa Don't Preach" video
that we were able to
incorporate was the chug move.
I knew that that was such
an iconic part of the video,
And that was the part
that I was most anxious
about getting right,
because this was the one
that I knew the judges
would be looking out for.
(RuPaul laughs)
They were like,
"Do you wanna wear a jazz flat, 'cause
"that's what she wore in the video?"
And I was like,
"Nope, gimme a heel.
(buzzer buzzes)
"I can do a back flip in it."
(judges applaud)
- Wow!
- The back flip
was definitely not the
most challenging part
of the performance.
It's something that I've been able to do
for a long time and it's
kind of muscle memory,
But it's definitely the
choreography, because again,
I'm not a choreography queen.
My feelings going through this performance
was just more pride than nerves
or anticipation or anxiety.
It was more like, "Oh my
God, bitch, I did that,
"and they can do with it what they will."
And that is the mentality that I kept
strongest the whole time.
♪ You can get into it ♪
(RuPaul laughs)
At the end of the number,
we had our group number together,
which included the fan-ography.
They say drag is a contact sport,
and they are so right about that.
Being in drag is working out.
You're constantly in heels.
Your legs hurt.
Your waist is cinched.
You have to be standing up
straight the entire time.
There's a heavy wig on
your head, heavy costumes.
It's like the exhaustion
paired with the pure adrenaline
of being on "RuPaul's
Drag Race" that you know
is about to be aired all over the world,
there's a lot of adrenaline there
that it almost cancels out the exhaustion.
(judges applaud and cheer)
- [Carson] Wow!
- As soon as the challenge ended
and we had finished doing
the number, I was like,
"Oh my gosh, I feel good.
"I'm safe for another week.
"Congratulations, Jan,
you deserve to win."
Then when they announced
that Jan was safe--
- Jan, you are safe.
(air whooshes dramatically)
- My neck almost broke how quick
I looked over in Jan's direction,
because I was like, "Oh my
gosh, she's gonna kill me!"
- Gigi Goode, condragulations,
you are the winner of
this week's challenge.
- Being told I am the
winner of the challenge
is just kind of like, "Oh
my gosh, all this work
"that I just built up for
the past however many days
"is just, ah, finally worth it,
"and there's something to show for it."
I never feel like I'm the one that needs
to have my drag validated by anybody else,
but to have somebody like RuPaul,
who is literally the
spearhead for drag right now
and for the art form that I'm doing,
it's very rewarding and
it's very validating.
- If you can't love yourself,
how in the hell are you
gonna love somebody else?
Can I get an amen up in here?
- It has been so nice
to watch these episodes,
especially the Madonna Rusical,
with my roommates, who are Madonna freaks.
That was the episode we
were the most excited for,
and it was just very special
to see their eyes light up
while they're watching the screen.
The response online has been crazy.
One of the first reactions I got from it
was from Ariana Grande,
I believe she said,
"Dar."
(bell dings)
I got a text from Jeremy
Scott saying how proud he was
of me for embodying
Madonna the way that I did.
It's just reward after
reward after reward.
And it's like, what did
I do to deserve this?
It just feels so special.
- Is that my new competition
in the modeling world?
(Gigi laughs)
- Thank y'all so much for
watching "Performance Review,"
and don't forget to
subscribe to Women's Health.
My name is Gigi Goode, and
thank y'all for watching.
(upbeat music)
