Local Queens Break Guinness World Record For “Largest Drag Queen Stage Show”

Get a compelling long read and must-have lifestyle tips in your inbox every Sunday morning — great with coffee!

Eighty-two drag performers in enough wigs, lashes and fake boobs to circle the planet eight times gathered at the Trocadero last night to break the Guinness World Record for Largest Drag Queen Show. And they did it! The current record stands at 55, which was achieved this July at Axis Nightclub in Columbus, Ohio. But our gals blew that one out of the water.

Organizer Brittany Lynn says getting that many drag queens together was no easy feat. She started with over 100, but that number whittled down throughout the rehearsal process. “I got some of the craziest excuses,” she tells me. “Two queens called the night of the show to say they were in South Philly and couldn’t make it because it would take them two hours to walk to the Troc.”

In the end, though, 82 was more than enough—especially considering the Trocadero only has three tiny dressing rooms. Lynn says backstage looked like a drag apocalypse, with sequins and hair and make-up scattered in every direction. If you were out in the audience, though, you’d never know that chaos existed. Lynn says the performances went off without a hitch. “The ladies who showed up really turned it out. It was one of the best shows I ever did.”

Among the queens who showed up were RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Phi Phi O’Hara, Icon Ebony-Fierce, Navaya Shay, Satine Harlow, and a gaggle of amateur queens from this past year’s Beauty Ball at Woody’s. The Bearded Ladies founder John Jarboe showed up, too, wearing stilts and dressed as his Scarlett O’Hara-esque character Dixie from his stage show “Wide Awake: A Civil War Cabaret.”

Several queens performed solo numbers. The Goddess Isis did a song from Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Bev did a show-stopping Real Housewives of Philadelphia routine, and all 82 girls clamored on stage to lip-sync the final song: “The Body Electric” from the musical Fame.

The next step is to get folks at Guinness the information to get these drag queens in the books. Lynn says Tabu owner and attorney Jeff Sotland is on top of that. According to her, he’s contacted Guinness, and they will be sending a video that’s being processed as I type. “They’ve been aware of the event from the start date,” she says.

Check out video of the final number below: