The Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining Men” and Whitney Houston’s “I’m Every Woman” played inside Bovard Auditorium on Saturday night as the room filled quickly with students and faculty buzzing in anticipation. The energy felt unmistakable: a mix of excitement, curiosity and community

Hosted by Saneel Sharma, a senior majoring in design as well as performing as Rae Oblivion, and Willow Yeaman, a junior majoring in acting and also performing as Willconique, the USC Queer and Ally Student Assembly’s 16th Annual Drag Show unfolded like a playlist with intention. 

Performers included Odalisque, Miranda Rights, Calvin Fine, Caryotype, Jackson Height, Gigi L’Rue, Farrah Hysteria and Miss Covina, representing drag artists who showed that drag means more than one thing through their performances. The night opened with around a dozen fabulous performers strutting down the runway before they each rocked solo performances and closed with three fierce lip-sync battles.  

Before the show, Kole Bavoso, who performed as Kolypso and co-directed the drag show, said in an interview with the Daily Trojan that the lineup was intentionally diverse. 

 “There’s a lot of high-energy numbers, a lot of conceptual numbers and a lot of incredible looks,” said Kolypso, a sophomore majoring in East Asian languages and cultures.

Kolypso said that every time they do drag, they feel the weight of the history behind it, even things as simple as gluing on eyebrows have been passed along from generation to generation. 

“Every time we get in drag, what we call kiki — getting ready with your friends and talking — there’s always some sense that what you’re doing is historical,” Kolypso said. 

Kolypso said they first discovered drag while watching “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and later performed in their high school’s production of “Cinderella” as the stepmother. The first time they did drag was as part of the USC Drag Show.

The range of performances on stage was apparent immediately. Willconique delivered a Britney Spears mix with two backup dancers, briefly turning Bovard into a pop concert while Farrah Hysteria followed with high-energy choreography to Lady Gaga’s “The Fame” that kept the audience engaged from the first beat.

Caryotype followed, bringing punk-rock energy to the stage and pulling an audience member onstage for a kiss that landed as both mischievous and tender before Kolypso took the stage with a set that paired Michael Bublé’s “Feeling Good” and Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman.”

Keira Osborne, a senior majoring in musical theatre and the show’s choreographer for a third year, said drag feels especially urgent in the current political climate. 

“There’s so much turmoil in politics about gender and gender expression,” Osborne said. “This show is the perfect way to blow [up] all the expectations about gender and make [people] question why a binary exists at all.”

Osborne also highlighted efforts to broaden representation onstage through different performances and diverse identities. 

“We’re getting better and better every year about including all aspects of drag and not just the most popular form, which usually tends to be drag queens,” Obsorne said. “We’ve done a pretty good job of having drag kings, drag queens and nonbinary performers.”

Access and experimentation emerged as recurring themes throughout the night. Eppie Nephrine, a sophomore studying biomedical engineering and co-director of the drag show, described the event as a gateway for students exploring drag for the first time. 

“A lot of people talk about wanting to do drag but don’t feel like they have access to it,” Nephrine said. “The show kind of brings them that access.”

Duck Brown, a sophomore majoring in theatrical design, performed as Miranda Rights and delivered a dance number set to “In the Navy” by the Village People while wearing a silver Navy uniform-inspired jumpsuit and heels, infusing the show with sharp political comedy. Brown said that their performance satirized the military-industrial complex and the United States’ foreign involvement through exaggerated character and humor.

“Drag, for me … is a way to explore comedy and politics,” Brown said. “Miranda Rights is a super political queen, but also a comedy queen.” 

As the show reached its final act, the audience remained supportive throughout, cheering for every performer. A chant of “Protect the dolls!” — a phrase that specifically refers to trans women — echoed through the auditorium, underscoring the sense of collective care that filled the room.

Oblivion punctuated the last song with multiple death drops, drawing roaring applause. The night concluded with lip-sync battles and strong crowd reactions, particularly for Miss Covina and Jackson Height. Brown said this annual show offers a safe space to perform, welcome and educate all at the same time. 

“On our beautiful, fairly liberal campus in Southern California, a lot of queer students have found a community, me included,” Brown said. “But there are a lot of people who come from smaller towns, from redder states, who have never experienced being able to see queerness live to its full potential … It’s really important to be visibly incredibly gay and incredibly happy and incredibly safe in front of people.”