Alan Finnegan recaps the newest all singing, all dancing episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

After last week’s elimination of Vivacious, the girls were holding tight onto their pearls as they awaited what RuPaul had in store for them. They had reason to be worried because the workload was heavy!

First off, the girls had to take part in their weekly mini challenge. Unlike the last episode, the mini challenge this week was done individually. The queens had to guess whether a photograph they were shown was of a woman or a drag queen. The photos zoomed in on  body parts, so it made for a difficult choice. Adore won the mini challenge for the second time, along with Ben de la Creme. The two, as always, were awarded power in the main challenge.

The main challenge this week was a first of its kind. The queens had to take part in the live production of ‘Shade: The Rusical’. The girls were  split into two groups, as chosen by mini challenge winners Ben de la Creme and Adore, and asked to individually perform songs from the musical in front of the judges.

The teams were:  Team Adore (Milk, Laganja, Joselyn and April) and Team Ben de la Creme (Gia, Darienne, Courtney, Trinity and Bianca).

Adore was taking centre stage on her team, while Courtney was the lead character in Ben’s team. Both girls sounded good, but would Adore be able to keep it together onstage enough to not fluff her lines as she did in last week’s acting debacle?

Work began on who would do what in the groups, and trouble reared its ugly head immediately.

Trinity was just plain not into the challenge, which irritated the hell out of her teammate Bianca. Both girls had to work closely as the pageant queens in the musical. It was probably the worst coupling because Bianca couldn’t stand Trinity’s attitude towards the challenge. They both argued about moves and positioning. These girls will never get along!

How work was being done with Laganja around was a mystery to me!

She is dialled up to 100 all the time. I do appreciate her sharing her story about her parents’ feelings towards drag in Untucked. However, I didn’t appreciate her need for the conversation to solely be about her.

Gia didn’t have to put much effort into annoying the other contestants. She suffers from AVS (Annoying Voice Syndrome). Though her condition is worsened when her voice is matched with her bitchy comments.

It was time for the queens to hit the stage, and Courtney stole the spotlight in Act 1. Considering the girls only had a couple of days to learn the script, they did a really good job. Courtney was a professional. She didn’t stumble and pushed herself to hit some high notes to impress the judges. Team leader Ben de la Creme may not have chosen to be the lead character, but she picked her character perfectly. She played the shady queen and had everyone in stitches. Bianca and Trinity were supposed to be singing in sync, and thankfully Bianca had her loud deep voice to hand because Trinity was hard to understand beside her.

The same went for Gia and Darienne. Gia was stronger on speaking and staying with the pacing than Darienne.

For the second act, Adore sounded a little wobbly. I don’t know whether it was part of her act as a fish oil-gushing diva drag queen, or if she was just nervous.

The trio of Laganja, Joselyn and April may have looked the part, but unfortunately they didn’t sound it. Their timing was way off and they weren’t in sync for the majority of their parts. Milk appeared at the end, looking like bag lady but at least sounding good.

As the curtain dropped it was time to sissy that walk onto the runway.

My favourites were April and Laganja (minus the bird on her head). April looked like she was off to her own wedding and Laganja looked like she was attending a funeral. Darienne was on the bottom outfit-wise for me this week. Her looks was so boring and simple compared to the other girls.

The bottom two turned out to be April and Trinity. April had struggled with the timing of her singing and Trinity was inaudible when it came to her parts. Plus, I think having a bad attitude onstage didn’t help.

Both girls turned it out during their lipsync performance. Trinity, however, took over the stage, the runway and even the steps leading up to the runway. The judges couldn’t help but look to see what she would do next. She owned every bit of that song and deserved to stay despite her piss-poor attitude throughout the episode. Poor April shashayed away.

April was a fierce competitor and may have lasted longer in a previous season. The competition this season is very strong, and nobody is fading into the background.

Next week comes the challenge we all look forward to. It’s Snatch Game time!

Which celebrities will the girls impersonate?