“We’re going to cause chaos”: RuPaul’s Drag Race queens Ella Vaday and Kitty Scott-Claus coming to Lancashire

A touch of glamour is heading to Lancashire this winter, with two of the country’s most prominent drag queens bringing their Christmas tour to the North West.
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Famed for their stunning appearances in the season three final of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Ella Vaday and Kitty Scott-Claus will be at Blackpool’s Funny Girls on December 18th as part of Kitty and Ella's Christmas Cracker Tour. And it’s no exaggeration to say that the pair, both of whom are accomplished West End performers, have taken the world of drag by storm.

“I’ve watched drag ever since my friend came back from working in America in 2008 and said ‘you need to watch Drag Race, it’s so fun’,” says Ella, whose real name is Nick Collier. “Never in a million years did I think I’d do it, let alone as a career. But, flash-forward to 2017, and I was working on the Book of Mormon. They had a drag charity night, so I got involved and started doing it more.

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“When lockdown hit, I went from rehearsing for Hairspray on the West End to stacking shelves in Morrisons, so drag became my artistic outlet and a way of chatting to people on Instagram Live,” she adds. “From there, it all escalated very quickly and I ended up on Drag Race. It’s just nice to put a bit of slap on, a wig, a corset, and look fantastic!”

Ella Vaday and Kitty Scott-ClausElla Vaday and Kitty Scott-Claus
Ella Vaday and Kitty Scott-Claus

“I got into drag because I wanted attention!” says Kitty, whose real name is Louis Woodward. “My best friend was a drag queen and I saw him get free entry and drinks on nights out; he was treated like a star, so I thought ‘that’s a bit of me’. I knew I had to take the opportunity when it arose and there was this Girls Aloud tribute night whose Kimberley Walsh dropped out, so I filled in and never looked back.

“I loved it, being in drag for the first time was like everything fell into place,” she adds. “I’d trained in musical theatre, but all my parts would be ugly sisters or effeminate camp men. Even at drama school when I said my dream West End role would be characters like Roxy Heart in Chicago, they’d say ‘you can’t do that’ or ‘you’ll never get work being effeminate.’

“I had a teacher at college who, during an audition where I sang a girls’ song, pulled me aside and was like ‘you cannot do that, you’ll be seen as a joke and that’s not what we do here’. To then go on Drag Race and land a West End show was like ‘okay, man-up might work for some people, but honey it didn’t work for me!’ And here I am, thriving!”

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“Drag Race was nuts,” says Ella, who this year landed her first major film appearance in comedy Sumotherhood alongside Ed Sheeran and Jennifer Saunders. “We found out just before Christmas in 2020, so that was one of the best-slash-most stressful pressies you can get because I had to get all these drag looks together in the middle of a pandemic. I had such a good time.

“Kitty and I can’t wait for Blackpool,” she adds. “We’re going to cause chaos, so it’ll be a proper camp, gorgeous, naughty show.”