A grassroots Indianapolis drag troupe is turning the halls of East High into a rhinestone-covered stage this week, with a parody musical that mashes up High School Musical, Glee and RuPaul's Drag Race running through Sunday at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre downtown. Night School: A Drag Parody Musical follows two students from opposite social circles competing for the lead roles in their school musical, and it puts Indy Drag Theater's scrappy, do-it-yourself production style on full display for a fifth major show in less than two years.
Night School is running August 21 through August 30 at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre, located at 705 N. Illinois St. in downtown Indianapolis, with tickets available through phoenixtheatre.org, according to IndyStar. The show is an adaptation of the 2006 Disney Channel hit High School Musical layered with references to Glee and Drag Race, and it carries a PG-13 rating for language and innuendo, according to Destination Indy. VIP ticket holders are entered into a raffle for a chance to join the cast on stage during the run, per the same listing.
A Scheming Sharpay Takes the Spotlight
April Rosé, the company's co-founder and creative director, plays Sharpay Evans in the new production, a role built around a character who schemes to sabotage newcomers so she can preserve her streak of starring roles in school productions. Rosé, a 28-year-old Indianapolis-based drag performer, told IndyStar that Sharpay wanted the best for her show and theater department, framing the villain's motives with some sympathy even as the character works against her castmates.
Rosé has worked as creative director and choreographer across the troupe's productions, and the report notes that everyone in the cast helps out regardless of their billed role. Performers rhinestone their own costumes, collect props and build sets themselves, taking on behind-the-scenes work in addition to performing, all while assembling productions within short windows. Rosé said she is grateful to be part of Indy Drag Theater, per the same account.
From a Mass Ave Tapas Restaurant to a Downtown Stage
Indy Drag Theater was founded in 2021 by Blair St. Clair, a RuPaul's Drag Race alum, according to IndyStar. St. Clair and Rosé met at a drag pageant and launched the company with monthly showcases at Almost Famous, a Mass Ave tapas restaurant, in 2022, and that first showcase reportedly sold out every seat within two hours, as reported by Mirror Indy. St. Clair was crowned Miss Gay Indiana in 2016 and became the first Indiana contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race in 1918, later finishing fourth on All Stars Season 5 in 2020, per Mirror Indy's account of the company's founders.
The productions rely on performers in full drag lip-syncing to custom-mixed audio tracks that blend film dialogue with Broadway cast recordings; for Legally Blonde(r) in May 2025, the mix pulled from both the 2001 film and the original Broadway soundtrack, Mirror Indy reported. The company casts performers regardless of gender identity, a deliberate choice meant to subvert traditional theatrical norms and let actors play roles they normally wouldn't be considered for, according to the outlet. That approach marks a shift from the troupe's early days, when the co-founders originally matched masculine actors to masculine roles before breaking down those gender barriers.
Indy Drag Theater operates as a largely grassroots organization that has reimagined Wicked, Six, Into the Woods and Legally Blonde, blending drag and theater directly rather than treating them as separate acts, IndyStar reported. The company's recent schedule has moved quickly: Sweeney Todd: A Drag Parody Musical in early 2025, Legally Blonde(r) in May 2025, Clue: A Drag Parody in August 2025 and Frozen: A Drag Parody Musical in November 2025, according to Mirror Indy, with tickets for the troupe's seasonal shows frequently selling out.
Housed in a Hub for Indianapolis Theater
The Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre, where Night School is staged, opened its 20,000-square-foot downtown facility in May 2018 and includes the 144-seat Steve and Livia Russell Theatre alongside the flexible 90-seat Frank and Katrina Basile Theatre, according to Wikipedia. The center serves as a collaborative home to seven resident theater organizations, placing Indy Drag Theater's parody productions inside an established pillar of the city's arts scene.
The troupe's home turf on Mass Ave has long served as a cultural hub for queer nightlife and performance in downtown Indianapolis, housing venues like Almost Famous alongside established drag spaces such as Gregs, according to a discussion on Reddit. That concentration of venues has helped fuel demand for the kind of grassroots showcases that eventually grew into Indy Drag Theater's full-stage productions.
A Political Backdrop for Drag in Indiana
The troupe's rapid growth has unfolded against a tense legislative backdrop in Indiana. In March 2025, state lawmakers added language to Senate Bill 326 aiming to ban state or local government funding and hosting of what the bill called obscene performances, part of an ongoing statewide debate over public drag events, according to Indiana Public Radio. The bill's author reportedly conceded he could not cite specific local examples of obscenity tied to public funding, per that report.
Nationally, more than 800 anti-trans and LGBTQ-related bills have been introduced across 43 states in 2026, even as federal courts have consistently ruled that drag performances constitute protected speech under the First Amendment, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker. Multiple federal court rulings in 2023 and 2024 struck down state restrictions on drag, that tracker notes, underscoring the legal tension surrounding shows like Night School even as they continue selling seats in downtown Indianapolis.
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