Strap on your roller skates! The Tony-nominated musical Xanadu will head on a brand-new national tour this fall. RuPaul's Drag Race faves Ginger Minj and Jinkx Monsoon will play sisters of leading lady Kira; the roles were originated on Broadway by Oklahoma! Tony nominee Mary Testa and current Fiddler on the Roof player Jackie Hoffman. Fans will be able to catch the production in Cincinnati, Syracuse, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Indianapolis, Buffalo, Cleveland, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, Charlotte, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Additional casting and cities as well as dates for the tour will be announced at a later time.
Joshua Allan Eads aka Ginger Minj was runner-up on season seven of RuPaul's Drag Race and went on to season two of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars. Jerick Hoffer aka Jinkx Monsoon won the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race. His previous theater roles include Moritz in Spring Awakening (Balagan Theatre), Angel in Rent (5th Avenue Theatre) and Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Balagan Theatre and Seattle Theatre Group).
Based on the 1980 cult film starring Olivia Newton-John, Xanadu follows the beautiful Greek muse Kira as she journeys from the heavens of Mount Olympus to Venice Beach, circa 1980, on a quest to inspire scrappy artist-on-the-rise Sonny, to achieve the greatest artistic creation of all time: the first roller disco! But when Kira stumbles into forbidden love with mere mortal Sonny, her salty sisters take matters into their own hands.
Xanadu bowed on Broadway in 2007, garnering Tony nominations for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical for Douglas Carter Beane, Best Actress in s Musical for current Beetlejuice funny gal Kerry Butler and Best Choreography for Dan Knechtges.