Monsoon shares the Pirates! marquee with a pair of Broadway icons: David Hyde Pierce and Ramin Karimloo, with whom she shares a close friend, Drag Race host Michelle Visage, his co-star in a West End concert staging of The Addams Family. She says, “Ramin, on day one, walked up to me and was like, ‘I’m Ramin, Michelle loves you, so I love you.’ And that was that. Plus, the three of us are Virgos, one right after the other; September 18, 19, 20.”

Ahead of her opening night, Monsoon told Vogue about her path to this off-beat operetta, what she’s learned from reviews throughout her career, and how, months after deciding to begin transitioning, she finds her peace between the onstage Jinkx and the at-home Hera.

Vogue: What was your relationship to Gilbert and Sullivan before signing on to do Pirates?

Jinkx Monsoon: I’m not a devotee, but as a person in musical theater and in showbusiness, I know plenty of Gilbert and Sullivan and [about] their contributions to this world of performance. I would have never guessed that I’d be in a Gilbert and Sullivan show. I definitely would have never said no—I would always have been happy to take on the challenge. But I’m so excited that, in this iteration, we’re doing blues and jazz with a Creole, Louisiana influence. It’s allowing me to really work with this incredible material in a format that I think suits my capabilities really well. It’s this wonderful blend of reverence and revamp—nothing is done carelessly or hastily.

Their work has a very distinct sensibility. How has it been, working your way into that?

I think one of the things—and this isn’t me trying to humble brag, this is what I’ve seen people say about me—is that I have found ways to take those iconic and anachronistic performance styles and revitalize them in a modern, contemporary context. If you look at the shows I’ve done—Mama Morton in Chicago, that’s a very vaudeville-esque show; Little Shop of Horrors, not really a vaudeville show, but Audrey is a rare ingenue in that she is like a character actress-y ingenue—I feel like I’ve found ways to take everything I love about past eras and weave them into what I do as a contemporary performer. Those who know the references can see it, and those who don’t sometimes go look it up and realize, Oh, wow, she was referencing something from a hundred years ago. That bitch is deep.