How much drag can I see in 24 hours?
That’s the screwball mission I embarked on in early March. I had options galore: An ax-throwing class. A party bus. John Cameron Mitchell in “Oh, Mary!” A 25-person drag dinner for $800.
I could also choose by punniest name: Hanukah Lewinsky at Hardware (Hell’s Kitchen), Beau Dega at Club Cumming (East Village), Chaka Khanvict at Pieces (West Village), Freeda Kulo at Kween (Astoria), Bertha Vanayshun at Sandy Jack’s (South Slope).
Some longtimers told me the city is in a drag glut that’s overdue for a correction, as “Drag Race”-generation clones continue to elbow out the kinds of singular queens who had “big personalities and were not afraid to poke the bear,” as Jim Silvestri, the creator of the queer nightlife guide Thotyssey, explained.
Still, he added: “New York does it best.”
I barely scratched the surface, but on a recent Saturday into Sunday, I discovered that like a killer diner, the city is serving drag hot, fresh and (almost) around the clock, for the uninitiated and die-hards alike.
3:15 p.m.
Drag Bingo Brunch
Soundtrack: Katy Perry, “Ladies Who Lunch”
Good For: Small groups, gay dates, straight tourists
New York has two established drag hubs: Hell’s Kitchen, where your co-workers and chill grandma will feel at ease, and North(ish) Brooklyn, where the queens at Metropolitan (Williamsburg), C’mon Everybody (Bed-Stuy) and other venues are more likely to offend bachelorette sensibilities than appease them.
Drag brunch is baked into the scene. I started my day at the Hell’s Kitchen bar The Dickens, where the chatty Jacklynn Hyde lip synced to Taylor Swift’s “Welcome to New York,” flirted with a blushing young man and sent shots to a tiara-topped birthday girl. (There wasn’t much bingo.)
Diana Arias, who was there with a group to celebrate a friend’s birthday, told Hyde she had never seen a drag show. “Sheer homophobia,” Hyde deadpanned, before downing a shot and power spinning the bingo hamper.
Afterward, Arias was all smiles. “It was a lot,” she giggled, still cradling a margarita.
6:40 p.m.
‘Starfleet Academy’ Viewing Party
Soundtrack: Dapper Dan Midas, Madonna
Good For: Science-fiction geeks, queer introverts
New York has been a drag capital since at least the turn of the 20th century and “has long held drag in high esteem,” according to Elyssa Maxx Goodman, the author of “Glitter and Concrete,” a history of New York drag.
But the elders might never have dreamed that one day a queen named Godiva Romance would lip sync to the dance floor anthem “If You Could Read My Mind” dressed as Lieutenant Uhura at a happy hour devoted to a new “Star Trek” series.
Led by Heather Wood at Industry, a Hell’s Kitchen gay club, the free event featured “Star Trek” trivia and raised money for To Proudly Go, a group for queer science-fiction fans.
Much as the Dueling Bankheads — a pair of Tallulah Bankhead drag queens — did in the 1990s, the show was a neat reminder of how easily drag adapts to any pop-culture obsession, no matter how esoteric.
9:20 p.m.
‘Fabulous Drag Night Out’
Good For: Drag virgins
Hell’s Kitchen has long supported drag hangouts. In the 1970s, your night might have started at the Gilded Grape, and in the ’80s it would have been at Sally’s Hideaway. Tonight, I only had a few minutes to pop in at the Ritz, a gay bar, to catch the start of this weekly drag crawl through the neighborhood.
“I’m always down for something new,” said a smiling Shannon Mallazzo of Long Island.
10:13 p.m.
Drag Dinner
Soundtrack: Abba, Gwen Stefani
Good For: Ladies’-night-out packs, party people
I high-tailed it to Midtown East to see one of New York’s longest-running drag nights at Lips, the “Drag Queen Show Palace” that turns 30 in October. The neighborhood has its own drag past at places like the Roundtable, a gay club where the duo the La Fleurs did a 1:15 a.m. show in the early 1970s.
At Lips, the show vibe was “Magic Mike” meets “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”: We’re talking death drops, duck walks, precision quick changes, downpours of dollar bills.
“The more you drink, the prettier” you’ll be, the diva hostess Morgan Royel, adding an explicit sentence enhancer, roared to the crowd.
Royel spent 20 minutes welcoming birthday celebrants and brides-to-be to the stage for an assembly line of selfies. Laura Clynes Gilmore, visiting from Galway, Ireland, looked entranced.
“It’s just brilliant,” she gushed of her first drag show. “The way the world is at the moment, it’s just nice to see such love and support.”
1:08 a.m.
‘Made in Asia’
Soundtrack: Rosé, Olivia Dean
Good For: Queer mavericks, neo-art vampires
Was New York still like the 1950s, when Club 82 put on a female impersonator show at 2:30 a.m. and Harlem drag balls went hard until the sun came up?
I got a glimpse of that past at 3 Dollar Bill, a club in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Shia Ho and Untitled Queen were hosting the festival “Made in Asia,” the latest addition to New York’s heritage of Asian drag, from the restaurant Lucky Cheng’s to the queer dance party Bubble_T.
It was a universe away from Hell’s Kitchen. The crowd was heavily Gen Z; it was the only show I saw with queens and a king.
Among the highlights was a high-energy dance number to the Katseye song “Gnarly” from the queer K-pop performance collective Klique Bait. At the club’s outside lounge, I met the drag queen Sativa Sunset — tonight in boy drag — who told me that Brooklyn’s scene has for years distinguished itself as having “more intention” than in Manhattan.
“The audience in Hell’s Kitchen is very, like, people want to see stunts and dancing,” Sunset said. “Brooklyn can be more narrative based and niche.”
Political, too: When Untitled Queen thundered “Free Palestine!” from the stage, the crowd roared back.
3:15 a.m.
Queens Gotta Eat, Right?
I took the train back to Hell’s Kitchen hoping I’d find sweaty post-show queens at the 24-hour Empanada Mama’s, much as it was in the early 1990s at Stingy Lulu’s, an around-the-clock diner with drag queen servers. I didn’t, at least not still in drag.
As I waited for my arepas, I longed for a time machine set to 1977 when, as Goodman told me, the drag queen Ruby Rims developed a following for her 5:30 a.m. act at the Anvil, a gay club in the Meatpacking District. By 5:30 a.m., I was out cold.
Noon
‘Chismosas With Mimosas’
Soundtrack: Zara Larsson, Beyoncé
Good For: Thick-skinned brunchistas
After just a few hours of sleep, I headed to Astoria, Queens, to end my weekend exploring an under-heralded corner of New York drag.
My first stop was Fresco’s Grand Cantina, a Mexican fusion restaurant where Hibiscus and Catrina LoveLace have hosted a raucous drag brunch for five years. (“Chismosas” is Spanish for “gossipers.”)
The hostesses peppered the audience with impertinent questions (“Anthony, are you a top or bottom?” screamed Hibiscus) and wisecracked about abortion and pronouns. The show was potty-mouthed and smart, the funniest event of my not-quite all-nighter.
4:30 p.m.
‘Bingo, She Wrote’
Soundtrack: Judy Garland, Adele
Good For: Theater queens, everyday gays
After nearly 24 hours of this stuff, I was exhausted. But I quickly got a second wind the moment I stepped into Albatross, a bar that bills itself as “the ‘Cheers’ of Astoria.”
Inside, an intergenerational mix of about 50 men and women, daubers in hand, listened intently as Angela Mansberry ran a tight game of bingo. Almost everyone knew that when Mansberry called out B4, it was their cue to belt lyrics from “Hello Dolly!” and “Ragtime.”
Among them was Alan Reiff, who said it wasn’t just bingo he came for.
“I have a sense of belonging,” he said.
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