Watch Sasha Velour lead drag revolution in NightGowns Quibi series teaser
Drag superstar Sasha Velour is lifting the veil on her NightGowns.
EW has the exclusive reveal of the teaser trailer for the performance artist and RuPaul’s Drag Race champion’s upcoming Quibi series, which follows Velour across eight episodes as she mounts the show’s titular monthly revue into a full-blown stage act after first launching the production in 2015 as a showcase for queer underground performers in New York City.
Produced by Velour and the Oscar-nominated team behind The Documentary Group (Cartel Land), NightGowns plays as both a performance documentary and a portrait of the artists participating in the live show, including Untitled Queen, Vander Von Odd, Neon Calypso, Sasha Colby, K.James, and Miss Malice.
Veteran Beyoncé and Gwen Stefani music video helmer Sophie Muller directs each of the series’ episodes, which focus on Velour as she works with each member of the ensemble to craft their unique lip-sync performances. The episodes also highlight the cast’s lives out of drag, their creative process, and their personal story — all of which contribute to their finished product on stage.
“We’re transforming the system that doesn’t work for us. I’ve always had a vision for what NightGowns could be, where each number feels like a completely different universe,” Velour says in the clip between shots of her sketching concepts and coaching the cast. “We aren’t interested in the world as it is, we are interested in the world as it could be. Nothing feels more alive than NightGowns.”
In addition to landing the series on Jeffrey Katzenberg’s short-format streaming service (alongside other platform creators like Tyra Banks, Jennifer Lopez, Chrissy Teigen, Steven Spielberg, and Guillermo del Toro, among others), Velour has taken her popular one-woman show Smoke & Mirrors around the world (tickets for new European dates are on sale now), landed guest-starring roles on The Bold Type and Broad City, and published a hardcover edition of her art publication Velour: The Drag Magazine.
“NightGowns is growing, and I hope we can travel even further,” Velour told EW during an exclusive 2018 interview. “There are so many options and my goal is just to stay true to the very first spirit that got me interested in drag, which is this idea that being queer can mean uniting a whole community together, and through that conversation that you get when you bring people together and bring everyone toward a place of change and progress. Drag has always inspired people to come together to be joyous and fight for what matters. If we can do it through beauty and positivity and lip-syncing our favorite pop songs, then let’s do it.”
Quibi is expected to launch in April 2020, with NightGowns following shortly after, though an exact date has yet to be announced. Watch EW’s exclusive teaser trailer above.
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