Nina West Is The Very Queen
Nina West has had an incredible year. After initially winning our hearts as Miss Congeniality of season 11 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, she returned to our TV screens this year competing in RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars. It was a non-elimination season that benefitted charity and Nina was playing for The Trevor Project, a cause near and dear to us. She ultimately placed fourth after a stellar showing that included her winning the ‘Double Diamond’ badge booster as voted on by her competitors.
Immediately after the finale she released her new EP The Very Queen which features “It’s Giving (Drag is for Everyone)” as performed on the Drag Race finale and simultaneously released a music video for the title track. In the video Nina recites the name of every Drag Race competitor in the style of Gilbert & Sullivans “Modern Major General” to hilarious results.
On the heels of that (pun intended), her new show Nina West is The Very Queen was announced. After premiering the show in Provincetown at the end of August, Nina will be returning there for additional performances later this month before moving onto Poughkeepsie, New York City and her hometown of Columbus, Ohio. From there she will go on to host the massively popular A Drag Queen Christmas tour this holiday season. And if all that’s not enough she has been announced as part of the cast of Queens of the Dead – a new horror comedy zombie flick, to be released in 2025, from Tina Romero which will star the likes of Margaret Cho, Cheyenne Jackson and Dominique Jackson.
We managed to squeeze in a chat with the super talented and ever-reigning Queen of Kindness to get the tea on these exciting projects.
John Hernandez (JH): Hi Nina! So good to see you and thank you so much for joining me. Tell us, what can attendees expect from Nina West is The Very Queen?
Nina West (NW): Well, first of all, I’m really excited to do this show! I’ve got Matt Lenz directing it. He was the associate director for Hairspray on Broadway and also directed me on the national tour of Hairspray. Lon Hoyt will be my music director, and he was also the musical director for Hairspray on Broadway; so it’s a family affair!
This show is going to be a little bit of a comedic camp personal revelry. I think people coming into the show are going to hopefully be entertained and be inspired by my musical prowess and my storytelling! (Laughs) The goal is to have people come in and get the experience I think they’re expecting, which is coming in with a smile and leaving with an even bigger smile! But I also want to surprise them with some anecdotal, ridiculous humor and some heart.
JH: Humor with heart, a Nina West trademark. I assume you are going to incorporate tracks from The Very Queen EP into the show?
NW: We’re for sure going to do the title track, “The Very Queen”, which will be impressive in and of itself if I can pull it off! But the show is not the EP. It all comes from the same inspiration; the EP is definitely informing the show. There might be another song from the EP like “You are the Dream” or the song I did on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, “It’s Giving (Drag Is For Everyone)”. I want people to know that the show is going to be a lot more involved than just those five songs. It’ll be a celebration of some of the pieces that are on that EP but its also gonna feature some Broadway songs, parody, and some surprises.
What is “the very queen”? The idea of that phrase and what it means. The show is a celebration of that. The things that made me. Who I am, the women who informed me, the queens who informed me and who they were – they are “the very Queens”. I am a version of that very queen. The idea and concept that you yourself can be the very queen. You’re the one who’s delivering your life every single day on your terms. You are what you are. That is queen behavior. And that’s what the show is about.
JH: I love that. I can’t wait to see it when it comes to NYC. I’m especially excited to see you perform “The Very Queen” live now that I know its happening (Laughs). Tell us about writing the song.
NW: Mark Byers and I have been working together since season 11. We’re going on our sixth year of collaborating. He’s a fellow Ohio boy, he’s from Cincinnati, but he lives out here in LA. He’s an incredible, prolific songwriter. He’s worked with everybody and he’s my number one, my go-to. The way we work is oftentimes, I will have this idea or brainstorm. Like with “The Very Queen”, that came to me when I was watching Only Murders in the Building and Steve Martin was doing the “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It” song that Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman wrote. That made me think, well, what if there was a song that listed every single Drag Race queen who’s ever walked into the workroom? That’s crazy! That could never happen! And then I thought about Gilbert and Sullivan’s” Modern Major General”. That song is really long and it’s wordy and the cadence could really fit in 11 to 15 girls a season, if we can make it work. So, I took the idea to Mark. He is brilliant and he helped me establish and set up the meter with which the words would work and how it all would be put together. He is a genius.
JH: It’s very entertaining to listen to—and to watch! I was getting Bugs Bunny vibes watching the video – did he do something like that?
NW: Do you remember the Animaniacs? They did a version of “Modern Major General”; they did nations of the world. It’s the idea of the pattern song, it’s all tripping on itself. Animaniacs was known for doing it, I think they did three or four of them.
JH: That’s it! Animaniacs!! Yessss! (Laughs) Tell us about the video.
NW: In terms of making the video, I leaned heavily into the idea of “the dolls” which became really popular on All Stars 9 with Roxxxy (Andrews) saying “you can’t read the doll”; and the video is a celebration of all the Ru-dolls. Everything shown is a cut out of the queens in their promo looks from their seasons, so everyone looks like a paper doll. We were playing with dimension and storytelling; it was all part of the concept.
JH: It looks fantastic. And now it’s time to take the show on the road. You premiered The Very Queen stage show in Provincetown during Carnival, and you are slated to bring it back to Ptown from September 11-13. And that’s after we saw you there for Bear Week. What is it about Provincetown that keeps you coming back?
NW: I think anyone who’s been there who is an out queer person can probably speak to it. There’s a magic in Provincetown that exists that I’ve never felt anywhere else, and I’ve been all over the world. When I got to the Cape, I couldn’t put it into words at first, but it felt like I belonged there, and there’s a lot of different reasons why. It’s so queer and queer affirming. You have the art, you have the incredible restaurants you have the celebration of identity, it’s sex positive. It’s body positive. There’s just a lot of things that make Provincetown magical.
The reason that I keep going to Provincetown is its supportive. It feels like I can go and I can make some big choices and have an audience that’s gonna say, yeah, I loved it, or it didn’t work. I can get feedback, surrounded by some of the best entertainers in the world- Varla Jean Merman, Miss Richfield, Dina Martina. If I want my work to be the best it can be I have to be near, around and inspired by the best. That’s what I’m trying to do with this specific show. Those are “the very Queens” to me.
JH: Legends one and all for sure.
Now, since we are Bear World Magazine, I have to ask -do you identify as a bear?
NW: I definitely identify as a bear, as a member of this community. I’ve always been a guy never knowing where I fit in. Prior to understanding who I was and understanding that there was a whole community for us, I just never knew where I fit, because I wasn’t receiving that positive affirmation of the lustful eye when I was in my early 20s. People weren’t giving me the idea of “I find you attractive.” The gay male gaze eluded me, at least in my mind.
The places that I felt the most comfortable were bars in Columbus, Ohio (which is my hometown), that no longer exist, which were heavily frequented by the bear population. It was the Eagle in Columbus and Tradewinds. Now there’s AWOL, which really does an incredible job of servicing people who are of all types – all body sizes, all shapes, all fur levels, and all ages.
Another thing that makes me a proud member of this community is that we are a community that embraces everyone, at all stages of our lives from young people figuring out who they are all the way to trailblazers who’ve cleared the path for us to be ourselves. That to me is profoundly impactful and powerful and I love the bear community for that.
JH: Well said, and I agree completely.
So, after you finish this leg of The Very Queen tour you’ll need to pause since you are going to be the host of Murray & Peter’s A Drag Queen Christmas Tour. Are you a fan of the holidays? What are you most looking forward to?
NW: I love Christmas. Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I love the magic of the season. I love these ideas that we come back to annually. We remind ourselves about giving to one another, about having hope and celebrating joy and celebrating the season. Whether or not you’re secular or religious, however you choose to celebrate, there’s still that magic in the air that I think asks us to think of other people. I think that is really special. To be able to go on the road for two months and tour with some of the best who’ve ever done it, I’m pretty honored. I’m very excited about it. You get to go across the country and you get to see how people celebrate the season.
What I love about this show, specifically, is that it really does pull out a lot of people who may not necessarily be going out to clubs or bars or have that opportunity to. It’s a show that makes everyone feel welcome and great. It’s massively attended by the bears and their admirers. It’s really exciting that I get to host this show. I’m kind of leading the charge and woofing my way across the country! Merry Christmas! (Laughs)
JH: And a Ho Ho Ho to you too! Booked and blessed Nina- we love to see it! Congratulations on all your recent successes. Thanks again for joining me and I’ll see you on the road!
NW: Thank you so much!
For more information and to get your tickets for Nina West is The Very Queen or A Drag Queen Christmas CLICK HERE.
