Fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and everyone else with a taste for fabulous dressed-up, made-up, wigged-out fun, will love DRAG: The Musical, making its Off-Broadway debut at New World Stages. The original musical comedy, with book, music, and lyrics by Justin Andrew Honard (aka Alaska Thunderfuck, who also stars as Kitty Galloway, through January 11, 2025) and long-time musical collaborators Tomas Costanza and Ashley Gordon, follows the over-the-top rivalry between two estranged ex-lover queens, who open competing clubs and vie for the supremacy of their houses. What ensues is a high-camp laugh-out-loud tale of bitterness and spite, chosen family and forgiveness, filled with powerhouse performances, pop culture references, witty nods to Shakespeare, and important messages about self-expression triumphing over oppression and community overcoming disharmony. Nick Adams and Alaska Thunderfuck. Photo by Matthew Murphy. Directed and choreographed by Spencer Liff, the non-stop high-energy show offers an immersive experience, with the front section of the theater transformed into cabaret table seating on both sides of a runway stage, the cast walking through the audience and the aisles, and the company encouraging us to clap along. No encouragement was needed for the explosive laughter and thunderous applause that followed each of the countless changes of spectacular costumes (by Marco Marco) and wigs (by Domino Couture) – with a musical reminder that “Drag Is Expensive” –  hilarious snarky reads (including a running joke about the eyebrows of Puss Puss DuBois, played by Nick Laughlin, with make-up by Aurora Sexton), and twenty segments of spectacular song, dance, and sashaying by a sensational company of sixteen, backed by a live five-piece rock band (conductor Andrew Orbison on keyboards, Ariel Bellvalaire and Tyler Connaghan on guitar, Jasmine Guevara on drums, and Costanza on bass), seen through a roll-up metal door stage left and joining members of the cast center stage for some of the numbers. Jujubee, Jan Sport, Alaska Thunderfuck, and Nick Laughlin. Photo by Matthew Murphy. It all takes place on an extra-embellished set (by Jason Sherwood) of walls plastered with papers and photos and flyers, stairways on both sides leading up to doors on a second level, a balcony hung with golden tinsel, a dance pole, rolling make-up tables and clothes racks, a hanging silver disco ball, and a central opening surrounded by an archway in the shape of a wig, enhanced with projections (by Aaron Rhyne) and colorful lighting (by Adam Honoré) of every conceivable type – spotlights, flashlights, string lights, neon, fluorescent, vanity mirror and marquee lights – that transport us to the world of Kitty’s Cat House and the Fish Tank of her nemesis Alexis Gillmore (the equally terrific, and extremely muscular, Nick Adams – which doesn’t go unnoticed by Kitty as a strange quality for a drag queen!), both with their own neon signs on opposite sides of the stage and both also commanding the center stage for their alternating scenes. Nick Adams. Photo by Matthew Murphy. In addition to the main conflict between Kitty and Alexis and the others of their opposing Drag Houses (Laughlin as Puss Puss, Jan Sport as Savannah St. James, Jujubee as The Tigress, Lagoona Bloo as Tuna Turner, Luxx Noir London as Popcorn, and Liisi LaFontaine as Dixie Coxworth, who, though AFAB, chooses to perform as a drag queen, responds with one of the funniest lines in the show when questioned about it, and identifies as “One of the Boys”) is the inter-related sub-plot of their financial struggles with the clubs, exacerbated by the IRS and planned gentrification of the Cat House (with J. Elaine Marcos in the dual roles of antagonists Gloria Schmidt and Rita LaRitz). Each brings dramatic flair, a distinctive personality, and top-notch vocals to the characters (in the case of Kitty and Alexis, in both a higher and lower register) – with no lip-synching! (though there are some surprise voiceovers, with sound by Drew Levy). Joey McIntyre with Tomas Costanza and Tyler Connaghan. Photo by Matthew Murphy. And there’s the backstory of Alexis’s brother Tom Hutchinson, a “Straight Man” (well played by Joey McIntyre, an original member of the boy band New Kids on the Block, appearing in the show through November 24), who taunted Alex as a child but comes through to help balance the Fish Tank’s books and becomes more accepting when he finds himself attracted to Dixie and observes that his ten-year-old son Brendan (the talented young Remi Tuckman on the date I attended, who alternates in the role with Yair Keydar, singing the affecting “It’s So Pretty” and “I’m Just Brendan”) bonds with Alexis, loves wearing his late mother’s sunglasses and trying on drag in the dressing room, and takes the stage in the club (with the company joining him in “Brendan Is His Name”). Nick Adams, Eddie Korbich, and Alaska Thunderfuck. Photo by Matthew Murphy. Rounding out the wildly entertaining denizens of the clubs are Kitty and Alexis’s older ever-imbibing mutual friend Drunk Jerry (the riotous Eddie Korbich in ridiculously mismatched clothing), who’s “Gay as Hell” and provides a surprise ending that you won’t see coming, and the animated ensemble of back-up singers and dancers (Nicholas Kraft, Christine Shepard, Teddy Wilson Jr., and dance captain Kodiak Thompson). If you like your musicals flashy, boisterous, and thoroughly engaging, with a vibrant rock score, blockbuster performances, an eye-popping design, fluid direction, incessant laughs, and a heartening theme, DRAG: The Musical is “all that” – so don’t miss it, “bitches.” Running Time: Approximately one hour and 40 minutes, without intermission. DRAG: The Musical plays through Sunday, March 30, 2025, at New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, NYC. For tickets (priced at $57-184, including fees), go online.