Comedian and singer Randy Rainbow stops at the Dominion Energy Center on March 28 during his Randy Rainbow for President tour. (Photo courtesy ASM Global)
You don’t need to know Randy Rainbow’s real name. Watch any one of his online musical mockeries, his kaleidoscopes of gender, politics and Broadway, and he’s Randy Rainbow. I bet his parents call him that. The colorfully monikered comedian is bringing his Randy Rainbow for President tour to the Dominion Energy Center’s Carpenter Theatre on March 28 at 7:30 p.m.
I’m a fanboy for Rainbow. I wait eagerly for his lampooning videos, wondering whom he’ll skewer next. Most of the time it’s former President Donald Trump, but it’s always right-wing conservatives (Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, et al.). He holds back nothing, and his wit is fast, deft, effortless. Rainbow uses his fab queerness as a rapier; he conducts fake, devilishly edited interviews with a “Gurl, I understand” empathy, then rejiggers Broadway and popular tunes into satirical, piercing showpieces. Rainbow performs every role, sings every part in costume and chorus. His videos are extravaganzas. And he has mad talent.
I watch his videos because sometimes I need to laugh at the political news. When another shocking, dangerous-to-democracy headline appears, events I can barely believe, Rainbow makes them ridiculous. Once in a while, a sentence just needs to be said in French, you know? Sometimes Washington, D.C., just needs to be bathed in the rainbow.
For those who agree with him, Randy Rainbow is galvanizing. Taylor has her Swifties. I officially coin a phrase here: I am a Fandy.
Rainbow’s topical lampoons have garnered four Emmy and Grammy nominations. He’s a singer and comedian with a New York Times bestselling memoir, “Playing With Myself.” The national stage tour of his Randy Rainbow for President musical revue tends to sell out every venue. He collaborates with such heavyweights as Marc Shaiman (“Hairspray,” “Mary Poppins Returns”) and Alan Menken (“Little Shop of Horrors,” “Beauty and the Beast”). I can hear him whisper to himself, “You go, gurl.”
However, Rainbow claims not to be a political parodist. In his memoir, he states, “Believe it or not, my work is not at all politically motivated and neither am I. I've never been a political junkie by nature and I’m not a pundit. My shtick as a topical comedian and satirist has always been to cover whatever you, the audience, are talking about. It just so happened that, around 2016, y’all started talking about nothing but politics, and I followed suit.”
Also, despite internet trolling otherwise, he is not an operative of the left: “While some of my spoofs may contain a heavier dose of my genuine opinion than others, my work is rarely a personal testimony, and never a political endorsement or even condemnation. It’s merely a colorful snapshot of a moment in time as I see it, a funhouse mirror reflection of all sides.”
Frankly, I think he’s going easy on himself. Watch Rainbow sing “Don’t Arraign on His Parade” (snatched out of the mouth of Barbra Streisand from “Funny Girl”) to an annoyed Donald Trump, or croon to the once-and-maybe-future president “Donald in the John With Boxes” (a Beatles-esque sendup of where Trump stored classified documents at Mar-a-Lago), and you’ll know pretty quickly where Rainbow plants his prismatic flag.
And guess what? His parents do call him that. His real name is Randy Stewart Rainbow.
Randy Rainbow for President stops at the Dominion Energy Center’s Carpenter Theatre March 28 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $39.50.
David L. Robbins is a New York Times bestselling author; advanced creative writing instructor at VCUarts; founder of James River Writers, Pedestal Fund, Frontline Writers and Mighty Pen Project; and co-founder of Podium RVA. As a dedicated Fandy, he appreciates Randy Rainbow’s musically inclined political satire.
