As a South Florida performer, Suzie Toot came into “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 17 with equal parts talent and tenacity, so much so, she rose to the Top 5 of the entire season.
While she did not get to the much sought-after finale, Toot has the bright lights of Broadway and beyond ahead of her. I sat down with one of Fort Lauderdale’s favorite dolls to speak about her “Drag Race” journey, the Broadway roles she would love to inhabit, and how working in the South Florida scene has influenced her career, on and off the “Drag Race” main stage.
Everyone in South Florida and beyond is beyond proud of you and your achievements this year on “RuPaul's Drag Race” Season 17! What was the experience like for you?
It’s been crazy. You can only compare it to Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and getting the Golden Ticket.
So many fans have been asking this question all season long: so many of your Season 17 competitors were very intimidated by you, but track record wise, Onya Nurve had definitely moved ahead of you. Why do you think they were finding themselves so shook by you?
I am a very confident person, as you can see on the show. Jewels [Sparkles] explained to me once that I had never had a moment of being flapped. I had never been below safe, and it is a sucky thing to get bad critiques. You look at the girl who is just smiling and excited about every single challenge, and you probably think that there are reasons that she could get knocked by the judges. I think that’s sort of where that feeling lived in, but I was asking the same thing (laughs)! In the roast, I felt like I was put on so much of a pedestal, that no matter what I said I wasn’t going to be good enough for what they thought I was going to do. I felt it was a hindrance in the second half.
What do you think your rose and thorn are of your entire “Drag Race” experience?
The rose was frankly working on television. I loved the backstage of it, getting to know the PA’s, figuring out how to work with cameras. As a nerd for acting, theater and television, that was the coolest part of the experience for me. I love working in television.
The thorn was just the gravity of it. It was so exhausting, it is the hardest thing that anyone can do, running the full marathon on “Drag Race.” Making it to every single episode. As soon as we wrapped that last day, just the weight. … everything catches up to you mentally and physically, it was so tiring, but I would do it again in a second.
In your final episode, Michelle Visage stated that she had no doubt that we would see you on Broadway in the future. Let’s manifest: what show would you want to be in or what role would you want to inhabit?
For shows that are on Broadway right now, I am obsessed with Cabaret, I always have been. The MC would be fabulous, but really by dream is Sally [Bowles]. The way she’s dressed in this production is so Suzie Toot. Those songs, I sing “Cabaret” and “Maybe This Time” those are my go-to’s, I sing her whole songbook. Roles in general though, not on Broadway, Suzie Toot as Charity Valentine in Sweet Charity. … I am a huge Fosse nerd, I have so much love and reverence for that character. It fits so much in the world of Suzie, I would love to make that happen one day.
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