Jinkx Monsoon Gets ‘Little Shop’ Love from ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ Cast

The cast of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season 9 came together on Tuesday, May 7 to celebrate the Drag Race Hall of Fame’s Queen of Queens!

Angeria Paris VanMicheals, Gottmik, Jorgeous, Nina West, Plastique Tiara, Roxxxy Andrews, Shannel and Vanessa Vanjie gathered together at New York City’s Westside Theater to see two-time Drag Race champ and trans-femme actor Jinkx Monsoon’s celebrated turn in the Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors.

PEOPLE was in the audience, where former Drag Race guest judges Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka were also in attendance with their 13-year-old twins, Harper Grace and Gideon Scott.

All were on their feet as they cheered on Monsoon, who is playing Skid Row sweetheart Audrey, opposite High School Musical alum Corbin Bleu as Seymour and James Carpinello as Orin.

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“I’m so proud of Jinkxy,” Andrews, Monsoon’s former season 5 castmate, tells PEOPLE. “We don’t get to see each other often, so to come to see her in her prime and doing what she loves the most is an honor. She’s just a genius at what she does. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“It’s just nice to be back together,” adds Andrews, noting the two have left the tension that was famously between them on the show well in the past. “That drama is all water off a duck’s back, as Jinkx would say. We love each other so much. Sharing that kind of experience like Drag Race with each other, it bonds you for life. They’ll always be my sister.”

For West, seeing Monsoon on stage had a richer impact. Season 11’s “Miss Congeniality” recently wrapped a two year run playing Edna Turnblad in the hit national tour of Hairspray, so is intimately aware of the challenges of working a grueling eight-show a week schedule.

“This isn’t easy,” says West. “I know how hard it is and I know how stressful it is, especially playing a role that’s so iconic in the history of musical theatre. But Jinkx is a f—— star. They’re able to let that pressure go, focus on the work, and do the job. And to be able to get to watch my friend do that is just incredible.”

“It’s also inspiring because Jinkx is a trailblazer,” says West of Monsoon, who is the first trans actor and drag queen who has been cast to play Audrey in the acclaimed Off-Broadway production. “She’s opening doors up for people like me to continue to push through and do roles that we always dreamt of. No doubt she’s left an indelible mark on the role and the history of this show that will be appreciated for generations to come.”

Monsoon, when asked about that very topic, notes that they’re part of a long legacy.

“I may be the first of my ilk in this productions, but I’m following the lead of the really talented and wonderful drag performers and trans actors who have come before me,” they say. “I feel like there was a road already paved for me. I’m just adding my bricks. It’s exciting to be a part of that.”

The non-binary performer comes to the musical after starring at Mama Morton in Broadway’s Chicago, a role Monsoon will play again this summer after their time in Little Shop comes to an end.

Getting the call for Little Shop floored Monsoon, they tell PEOPLE. “I was convinced my agent got it wrong,” Monsoon says, joking. “I was like, ‘Are you sure you don’t mean Aubrey II, the plant?’ ”

“But I was very, very thrilled,” the reality star adds, praising the role, which was originated by Ellen Greene in the first 1982 production. “She’s kind of a like a daisy grown in a trash heap. Everybody likes the daisy who grows in the gutter.”

Little Shop of Horrors is based on the 1960 movie of the same name. Both tell the story of a down-on-his luck florist named Seymour who helps turn his boss’ plant shop around when he discovers a rare (and voracious) plant. He names the mysterious greenery Audrey II, after his co-worker and longtime crush, Audrey.

The property was adapted for the stage in 1982 by book writer Howard Ashman, who died in March 1991 at the age of 40 from his HIV/AIDS positive diagnosis. He also wrote the lyrics to Alan Menken’s score, which included memorable musical theater tunes like “Suddenly Seymour” and “Somewhere That’s Green.”

A 1986 film adaptation, directed by Frank Oz and starring Rick Moranis and Greene, came amid the musical’s Off-Broadway run. It became a cult classic, and helped fuel the popularity of community theater and high school productions of Little Shop for decades to come.

The current Off-Broadway revival — directed by Tony-winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening) and choreographed by Ellenore Scott (Funny Girl) — has been widely praised, winning top honors in 2020 from the Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards.

Meanwhile, season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars debuts on Paramount+ May 17.

The series is doing something different next season, bringing back eight queens to not only earn a coveted spot in the Drag Race Hall of Fame, but also to compete to win a supersized donation of $200,000 for a charity of their choosing.

That sum will be provided by The Palette Fund, a private foundation that, according to a release, is “dedicated to breaking down barriers and advancing social change in communities that are under-resourced and facing significant challenges.”

“It’s all about giving back,” says Shannel, the very first queen to ever walk into the workroom back in RuPaul’s Drag Race‘s initial season in 2009. “And that’s what the show really has done for all of us; it’s given us this incredible platform to really take our art to the next level. And we’re all just fortunate to be able to use that opportunity to pay it forward to these organizations.”

And Monsoon certainly gets the power of the platform, which has allowed them opportunities like Little Shop.

“This is essentially what I set out to do in drag,” Monsoon says. “It’s been very sweet and emotional to see people posting clips of me talking to RuPaul saying this is what I wanted to do with my career and my life and my being. And I’m doing it. And that’s really exciting because I remember how important it was to me to see representation in my life, and how it inspired me and kept me going. So now that I get to be that for other people, that’s a huge privilege.”

Tickets for Little Shop of Horrors are available now at littleshopnyc.com.