I am so excited to be catching up with RuPaul's Drag Race & All Stars favorite Alexis Michelle.

At the time of our last interview together, Alexis was getting ready to sing the songs of Judy Garland.

Now, after a sold-out show in April 2025, Alexis is returning to Joe's Pub in NYC with her show 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover (based upon the Paul Simon song)

In this NEW interview, Alexis once again answered my call, but this time around she shares:

• Why she centered this show around the music of the 1960s & 1970s
• The reason she feels audiences should come see her in concert
• How she knows she is in love with someone
• What's her least favorite way to be broken up with
• Why she wanted to return to the Drag Race universe and be on RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars
• So much more

Connect with Alexis: Website, Instagram, Facebook

In 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, go all the way downtown with Alexis Michelle as she strolls through love, sex and relationships with a kaleidoscopic lens of 60s and 70s tunes. A little bit cabaret, a little bit musical memoir and most definitely a lot of Alexis. Musical Direction by Brandon James Gwinn. Directed by Scout Davis. James Will McBride produces the evening.

50 Ways To Leave Your Lover returns to Joe's Pub in NYC for ONE NIGHT ONLY, Sunday, June 8, 2025. Click here for tickets!

Alexis Michelle performing at Joe's Pub, April 2025
Photo Courtesy of Alexis Michelle's Social Media

1. After a sold-out show this April, you are returning to Joe's Pub in June with your show 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. What are you looking forward to most about coming back to Joe's Pub with this show? The show was extremely rewarding and cathartic. I’ve never done a whole show based on love and relationships….it's always in there, but my longtime collaborator Brandon James Gwinn and new director Scout Davis really encouraged it. So I’m looking forward to polishing what was an awesome debut of the new show and getting to revisit it.

2. How do you feel April's show will inform the way you perform in June? Do you think you will make any adjustments? We actually didn’t know how long it would run because it’s a lot of music and discovered in real time that we can actually add a teeny bit of material so there will be some surprises!

3. With so many shows playing in NYC, what is one reason you would tell someone to buy a ticket to come see you? Well, for those who keep coming back, they know I put on a great one. For those who haven’t yet, I’d say I keep amazing folks around me and I try to just keep being authentic and I can say I’m an authority on that…for me.

Which I think can speak to anyone…so it’s relatable and not self indulgent. Plus, I’m the best I’ve ever been right now, in this moment, because I’m staying really present.

Alexis Michelle
Photo Credit Privilege Clavel

4. What made you want to title this show 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover? Honestly, it was discovering Paul Simon’s song and instantly feeling it was the launching pad of an entire show. A theme, a moral, a genre to stay in. It was truly a decision made in a moment.

5. Press notes state in this show you "stroll through love, sex, and relationships." What do you feel is the most vulnerable story you share? Well you must come see ;-) but while there are no names mentioned…I also don’t hold back.

I think what’s vulnerable is being able to look back with perspective to understand my part in things. There were experiences that didn’t just happen to me, I co-signed for them.

6. You take the audience on this journey using music from the 60s and 70s. Why did you want to focus on this time in music as opposed to another decade? I’ve always had a nostalgic taste in music, but of all the eras, and I have listened to them all…this is my favorite.

Music hadn’t been like this before, and hasn’t been like it since. It makes for an amazing soundtrack to all of our lives.

Alexis Michelle Backstage at Joe's Pub, April 2025
Photo Courtesy of Alexis Michelle's Social Media

7. What was the first song you knew had to be in this show & why does that song mean so much to you? The title song absolutely was the first one. When I heard it, I could tell there was a seductive nature very present in the lyrics, but I heard two other less obvious things in the chorus. I heard someone needing to leave a dangerous situation whether imposed by someone else or by themselves and going to any means necessary to get out.

8. Playing off of 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover: 

• How do you leave a lover or tell someone you don't want to date them anymore? As uncomfortable as it is, I let the person know, either in person or phone or by text (if it’s appropriate to the length and nature of the connection). I don’t ghost. For whatever discomfort arises for either of you, you’re doing them a huge favor by communicating and not letting them wait and wonder. 
• What has been your least favorite way that someone left you? Sometimes in that discomfort, things get blurted out. I remember once I was trying to rationalize or soften the blow for myself and the guy wasn’t able to let me do that in the moment and was just like “no I don’t want to date you anymore” haha! It hurt a lot then, but I have much better tools now thank goodness.

9. Using the themes of the show:

• How do you know you are in love with someone? I can fall fast, but I’m learning the difference between lust, infatuation, and loving the idea of someone vs. the actual person.
• What is the most unusual place you've ever had sex? Again you must come to hear it ;-) but additionally I guess there have been some semi public spaces that ultimately aren’t that unusual in queer culture. Always around consenting adults of course!
•  What do you feel is the secret to a lasting relationship? Communication, which is an ongoing thing, daily. Not something done once and then checked off a list.

Alexis Michelle performing at Joe's Pub, April 2025
Photo Courtesy of Alexis Michelle's Social Media

10. You originally competed on Season 9 of RuPaul's Drag Race. Then you returned to the Drag Race universe when you competed on Season 8 of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars. What made you want to return to Drag Race for All Stars? I just wanted to look like a million bucks. And better represent the kind of queen I was aesthetically.

11. What did you learn from being on RuPaul's Drag Race that better prepared you for RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars? Apparently not enough to avoid gaslighting, manipulation and traps based on my own insecurities and emotions and traumas :-)

12. What is something we didn't get to talk about in this interview that you would like my audience to know about you? I love to cook, plant things and my dog George, and I am trying to figure out how to best serve the world that feels so messed up right now.

More Alexis Michelle Interviews:

2019 (Read Here): From Drag To Judy (Garland)

Alexis Michelle
Photo Credit: YellowBelly

More on Alexis Michelle: 

Theatre: Albin in LA CAGE AUX FOLLES at Barrington Stage Company (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical; Berkshire Theatre Critics Association) 4 years touring internationally as Mary Sanderson alongside Tina Burner and Scarlet Envy in WITCH PERFECT.

TV: RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 8 (Paramount) finishing in the top 4! BROADWAY’S LEADING MEN (PBS) TRUE COLORS (PBS) ONE VOICE: BROADWAY (PBS) all with The American Pops orchestra. BLUE BLOODS (CBS) DRAGNIFICENT! and DRAG ME DOWN THE AISLE (TLC). RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE season 9 (VH1), and after triumphant turns as Kris Jenner and Liza Minelli, finished Top 5!

In addition to performing her cabarets at Joe’s Pub, 54 Below and Club Cumming in NYC, you can find Alexis singing, and dancing all over the world.

Training: LaGuardia H.S. for the performing arts, Interlochen center for the arts and B.F.A. University of Michigan in Musical Theatre.