“Sashay or Saute,” a Disney-inspired drag show, took place on Thursday, March 20, at Millersville’s own Phantom Power. This show is centered specifically around Pixar’s Ratatouille, with Miss Phantom Power, Derriere, being the head chef. The show featured five queens who performed two sets each, with a surprise set from Derriere during the second half.
Phantom Power rotates between Ashley Jack’s and Haus of Hell to host their monthly drag shows. This month it was Ashley Jack’s turn to host the show.
A Phantom Power frequenter, Ate Decollete, opened the show. Decollete truly embodied the French theme, dressing in a sparkly red and white striped shirt, a green leather skirt, and a red barrette, with a French baguette as a prop. Decollete opened her first set with a French sound bite, which transitioned into “Juno” by Sabrina Carpenter, where the baguette was heavily utilized. This performance set the tone for the other queens to come.
The proceeding performance was by a queen who made their Phantom Power debut, Nick-O’teen. O’teen stunned the stage in a pair of sparkly shorts, with a chain belt, that featured old vapes dangling on them due to the performer’s name sounding like nicotine. O’teen also used a different set of chains as a necklace that wrapped around the front of them, and stunned a baseball cap that said “swag dad.” This set featured three different songs, most notably played the longest was “All The Time” by Jeremiah.
Another Phantom Power debut is Pryzm, someone who has been performing with the head chef Derriere since Derriere began doing drag. She stunned an all-white lingerie set with a white fluffy coat and embodied the French theme to the fullest, featuring the song “La Gataajo Baja La Lluvia” by Rocío Dúrcal, a French tune that means “The Cat Under the Rain,” was an interesting and subtle allude to the next queen’s set.
A queen known for her jaw-dropping performances was the next queen, Diane Decay. Another fellow Phantom Power frequenter presented a “Nosferatu” style performance, dressing as Count Orlock, and opening her set with the opening movie sound bite featuring Lily-Rose Depp’s character saying “Come to me” to Orlock. Decay then bit off a faux rat head after she came on stage and had blood oozing from her chest with rock music for her dance number to prepare the scene. Decay also did her signature number of stapling money herself that people gave to her throughout her performance.
The final set of act one was by Soda Pop, who stunned a black fluffy short jacket, with a gorgeous sparkly black mini-dress underneath that featured colorful butterflies on it. She also had fishnets with stars on them, that truly pulled the whole outfit together. She also broke off her heel at one point during her set, which was so cool to witness how she continued her set with a missing heel.
At the halfway point through the show, Ashley Jack’s announced the theme for their May show, which is going to be a Goth Prom theme, which the crowd received very well.
“I wasn’t sure about a rat theme, but the crowd turnout did all the talking,” Head Chef Derriere said during the intermission while reflecting on the show so far. Right before the second act started, Derriere sang happy birthday to a fan in the crowd to get the venue hyped for the second and last round of performances.
Pryzm re-introduced the second round, with a performance of “Abracadabra” by Lady Gaga in an all-red bodysuit. Nic-O’teen then strutted an all-white button-down and pants with a purple silk jacket and tie, with a performance of “Strawberries and Cigarettes” by Troye Sivan. However, the jacket came off, and a sparkly corset top was featured underneath, with a more upbeat track to truly add to the performance.
Diane Decay then performed a second sickening set that featured green light strobe sticks, where she stunned a tiny bodysuit with a suit jacket overtop. Her song of choice for this set was “Rats” by Motionless In White. Decay then brought out her small circular belt sander and metal arm plate to send sparks flying throughout the club.
Soda Pop then did a number featuring “Viper” by Salicvia serving as her song. She stunned in a denim dress with a corset denim top. It was then rumored that the rat featured in Decay’s set ate Derriere’s earring. Derriere then did a surprise set where she performed “Killah” by Lady Gaga, with just one earring, wearing a red dress with red spots and a red and white blouse underneath.
The show ended the same way it started, with Ate Decollete, however, this time she was wearing a black and white striped t-shirt and black sparkly skirt with black suspenders, with “Shut Up” by Christina Aguilera as her song of choice.
Typically, the shows end off with a voting round for the queens for who did the best, but due to a low number of queens at this show, there wasn’t a podium this time around. However, my favorite performance of the night was definitely Diane Decay, as she always delivers a sicking performance every show I’ve seen her perform.
