‘Trans women can indeed play female roles’: Jinkx Monsoon on Oh, Mary!, sobriety and transitioning (EXCLUSIVE)
The two-time Drag Race winner appears on the latest episode of 'Attitude Presents: Out with Suzi Ruffell', out now
By Dale Fox
Jinkx Monsoon has appeared on the Attitude Presents: Out with Suzi Ruffell podcast, talking about her West End debut in Oh, Mary!, getting sober before transitioning, and the British sitcoms her mother brought home on VHS.
The episode is available now on all major podcast platforms and on the Attitude YouTube channel.
Monsoon plays Mary Todd Lincoln in Cole Escola’s comedy at the Trafalgar Theatre until 26 September, her third stint in the role after two runs on Broadway.
“If it’s rooted in something true, the writing can be wild,” Monsoon said. “And the performer can be wild, but we buy it because it’s all rooted in something real.”
That, she argued, is the one thing the technology currently being sold to the creative industries can’t fake. “AI can’t have lived for a decade as an alcoholic. AI doesn’t have shame and guilt and ego and all of those things that we have to conquer to even start to realise our best self.”
“I’ve always dreamt of someone writing a character like Mary”
Escola’s script gave her a role she’d been waiting years for. “I’ve always dreamt of someone writing a character like Mary so that an actress like me could show you I’m not too big,” she said. “You just need to find the right context.”
Her instinct for physical comedy came from British television. Her mother travelled to the UK before Monsoon was born and again when she was six, returning with tapes of Absolutely Fabulous, Keeping Up Appearances, French and Saunders and Harry Enfield and Friends, which became her childhood viewing.
“What I like about British comedy that I’ve picked up on is it allows the audience to do the math in their head a little bit more,” she said, contrasting it with mainstream American sitcoms that explain themselves to anyone not paying attention. “They’re like, pay attention or don’t pay attention or miss the joke.”
“I got to clean up before the maid can come” – Jinkx Monsoon on getting sober before transitioning
Monsoon also spoke about the order in which the last decade happened, describing sobriety as the thing that made transitioning possible. “I’m not going to have renovations done on a house that’s falling apart. I got to get the bones right first before I can have contractors in here. I got to clean up before the maid can come.”
She came out as non-binary first. “Then I got sober and I was like, I’ve always known. I just kind of found ways to be OK with less along the way. Less than what I knew I actually wanted.”
Monsoon added: “In an alternate universe, she transitioned, she had the puberty blockers and she never became a Broadway star because she didn’t have to overcome the adversity,” she said. “And she didn’t have a vendetta to prove everyone wrong that trans women can indeed play female roles earnestly and honestly and not for laughs.”
After Oh, Mary!, she named Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd as one part she intends to chase, and “I want to be the next Mame on Broadway. However that takes place, however that forms.”
Oh, Mary! runs at the Trafalgar Theatre until 26 September, with the production booking until 2 January 2027.