The year was 2020. Zepp DiverCity was packed with screaming fans. Larger-than-life drag queens from hit TV franchise “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” magnified by an LED video wall behind them, had everyone in the live music venue singing and dancing along with them. Confetti cannons showered the crowd with glitter. It seemed like the sky was the limit.
Tom Hall could not have been prouder. The British-born founder of Dragmania, a public viewing party in Tokyo for “Drag Race,” Hall is deeply invested in the city’s drag scene and holding as many big, attention-grabbing events as possible. Coaxing Voss Events to bring its “Drag Race”-related Werq the World tour with its coterie of queens to Japan during its Asia leg in 2020 was his crowning achievement.
“It was all up and up,” says Hall, who occasionally performs in drag as Gyoza Tonin-Anang. “We had plans to bring even more big name drag queens from overseas. And then, boom! The pandemic hit.”