Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (left) and Winnie Harlow (right) served as guest judges.

"Madonna: The Unauthorized Rusical" is the seventh episode of the twelfth season of the American reality competition television series RuPaul's Drag Race, which aired on VH1 on April 10, 2020. The episode has contestants perform a musical about Madonna for the main challenge. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Winnie Harlow serve as guest judges, alongside regular panelists RuPaul, Michelle Visage, and Carson Kressley.

During the challenge, contestants are required to record their own vocals to Madonna-inspired songs, then dance and lip-sync on the main stage as they embody Madonna at different points in her career. Visage assisted with the vocal recording process alongside producers Erik Paparozzi and David Benjamin Steinberg; choreography was provided by Jamal Sims.^[1]

The runway theme was "Night of 1,000 Michelle Visages".^[2] RuPaul named Gigi Goode the winner. Brita and Heidi N Closet placed in the bottom two. After lip-syncing to Madonna's "Burning Up", Brita was eliminated from the competition.

Production

The episode originally aired on April 10, 2020.

Sims has appeared on the show several times. He was a guest judge and choreographer on the eighth season's "Bitch Perfect" (2016), the twelfth season's "Viva Drag Vegas" (2020), and the thirteenth season's "Condragulations" and "Social Media: The Unverified Rusical" (2021). Additionally, he was solely guest choreographer on the seventh season's "Glamazonian Airways" (2015) and the thirteenth season's "Gettin' Lucky" (2021). On the sixth season (2021) of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, Sims was a guest judge and choreographer on "Halftime Headliners" and solely a guest choreographer on the finale "This Is Our Country".

Results

Lip sync

  The contestant was eliminated after their third time in the bottom.

Reception

Paul McCallion of Vulture.com rated the episode 4 out of 5 stars.^[2] Bustle's Kayla Blanton wrote, "If next season gets a Rusical, this one will be hard to top."^[3] Out's Mikelle Street published a review of the episode called "Drag Race's Madonna Rusical Was One of the Best in Herstory".^[4]