In her inventive, surprisingly openhearted lip-synced show “Smoke & Mirrors,” which is now touring the U.S., Velour places the Garland classic “Come Rain or Come Shine” on a pop-cultural continuum that also includes Annie Lennox’s “Precious” and Le Tigre’s “Deceptacon.”

“I don’t produce the voice because I cannot out-sing Judy Garland,” said Velour, who doesn’t do an impersonation so much as Expressionist performance-art illustration, complete with a cotton candy-like teal wig, “but I can give it a different interpretation with my face, my body, my storytelling .”

Velour’s 21st-century take on drag performance does not mean old-fashioned realness is gone — it’s still on full display in “Judy: Behind the Rainbow,” a biographical one-man production performed by Peter Mac in full Garland regalia at the Producers Club in Hell’s Kitchen.

Just as Velour finds a direct link with previous generations of Garland admirers, Mac — a self-described “tribute artist” — looks up to a long tradition of impersonators such as Charles Pierce (who called himself a male actress), Jim Bailey and Craig Russell. You could say that in a way, Judy drag predated cosplay.