Last CT drag queen standing, Loosey LaDuca, sashays away on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’

Ansonia native Loosey LaDuca was cut loose Friday on RuPaul’s Drag Race, the last of the three Connecticut drag queens on the show this season to be sent sashaying away.

West Hartford’s Amethyst was let go on the fifth episode, and Robin Fierce lasted only a week longer. Loosey held on much longer, leaving in the 13th episode as one of just five queens remaining from the initial 16. Throughout the season she exhibited the same stamina she demonstrated when battling heavy winds while pretending to ride a motorcycle in the season’s first episode.

She impressed RuPaul and the guest judges with her impersonations of Dolly Parton and Joan Rivers. Her curves, attitude and classic drag style were all praised. For a time, she was considered one of the most formidable queens of the season, a fan favorite and one of the toughest competitors. She was declared the winner of the fourth and 11th episodes.

But recent weeks found more and more attention being paid to Sasha Colby, Anetra and other remaining contestants. The 12th episode found LaDuca at the bottom for the first time in the season, having to take part in the fraught lip-synch showdown which determines which of two contestants must leave the show. She won that lip-synch, but the scenario was repeated on the March 27 episode and was her downfall.

Besides her two episode wins, Loosey also won several of RuPaul’s mini-challenges during the season, including one on the very episode in which she was sacked. To win the challenge LaDuca had to acknowledge that she might not last beyond that episode.

The episode began with a dishy “Spill the T” challenge in which points were gained if an answer was the most popular one. When the contestants were asked “Which queen thinks she’s the smartest?,” four of the five said Loosey, including Loosey herself. The final question of the game was “Which queen is going home next?,” and everyone (again, including Loosey) chose Loosey. “I’m smart. I want to win this challenge. So I chose myself,” LaDuca confessed to the camera. She won the challenge with its prize of $5,000 worth of cosmetics.

The “Spill the T” question was prophetic, but the episode had just begun. The next segment had the queens giving drag-style makeovers to a group of female schoolteachers. As the winner of the first challenge, LaDuca got to pair each of the queens with a teacher that would share their accustomed style. She could have done this in a vindictive way which undermined the others’ chances, but Mistress Isabelle Brooks, who was often portrayed as Loosey’s nemesis on the show, noted that Loosey actually partnered her with “someone who is practically the same person as me almost. Maybe [LaDuca] really is in her congeniality era.” Another rival, Luxx Noir London, was more critical, saying LaDuca had “set me up to fail.”

Despite LaDuca having had the advantage of setting up the makeover teams, she ended up losing that challenge and having to endure the show-closing life-or-death lip-synch competition for the second week in a row, which she lost.

Luxx Noir London and another contestant had both been outspoken about LaDuca in the previous episode, saying she was overdue to leave the show. In the current episode, LaDuce is asked by RuPaul “What did that do to your psyche?”

“I was surprised, but I just took that in stride,” LaDuca replied. “Being angry about it will not help me in any way.”

It seemed only natural that the lip-synch finale in the 13th episode would be between Loosey LaDuca and Luxx Noir London. The song was “For the Girls ” by Hayley Kiyoko.

RuPaul told Luxx she could stay on the show, then said “Loosey. LaDazzling. LaDiva. LaDuca. You’re a star, baby. Now sashay away.”

There are two traditions for those who must “sashay away” from “RuPaul’s Drag Race”: the final statement made on the runway and the message scrawled in lipstick on a mirror in the show “Werk Room.” LaDuca’s parting verbal remark was a quote from the 1988 movie “Elvira: Mistress of the Dark”: “Just make sure to tell them I wasn’t just a great set of boobs. I’m also an incredible set of legs.” Her mirror graffiti was “Love you hookers. Don’t forget to let loose.”

The reaction to Loosey’s dismissal was swift. Her social media accounts are full of messages saying she was “robbed,” a word she used herself in a post-sashay interview with Entertainment Weekly magazine.

This is the first season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” to include any contestants from Connecticut, let alone three. Other Connecticut connections have become known: Jax, who made it through the eighth episode, grew up in Connecticut though now calls New York City home. Marcia Marcia Marcia, eliminated in Episode 11, had a noteworthy non-drag performance in Connecticut, starring in the world premiere reading of the musical “Passing Through” at the Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals in 2018.

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” airs Friday nights on MTV and is also carried by several streaming services.