Chappell Roan delivers a thrilling Super Graphic Spectacular benefit show

From start to finish, Chappell Roan‘s Super Graphic Spectacular at the Shrine Auditorium on Thursday, Oct. 22 delivered a powerful night of music and a joyful celebration of community.

The music is self-explanatory. In the two-and-a-half years since Chappell Roan burst onto the scene at Coachella 2024, she’s become one of the biggest stars in the alt-pop universe.

The community formed first around such hits as “Red Wine Supernova, “Hot To Go!” and “Pink Pony Club” before the Midwest Princess Project, a non-profit founded in October 2025, gave Roan a platform from which to raise money and advocate on behalf of trans youth and LGBTQ+ communities.

In its first year, the Midwest Princess Project raised $800,000 for those efforts. In the two nights of Roan’s Super Graphic Spectacular at the Shrine Auditorium, it more than doubled that with $2 million raised on Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 21-22 alone.

Roan looked rightly thrilled all night, thanking the crowd at several points for coming out to the show and the companion Super Graphic Block Party, which took over the parking lot in front of the Shrine.

And fans, well, just looking around the auditorium, you saw smiling faces and voices raised to sing along and cheer not just the songs performed by Roan, MUNA and Caroline Polachek, but also the pro-LGBTQ+ comments they and others occasionally made throughout the night.

Roan opened her night from a landing on the second level with sweeping staircases on both sides that led to the stage floor. A backdrop crafted from pink and purple drapery and four sparkling chandeliers added a romantic style to the room.

“Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” kicked off the 16 songs over 70 minutes she performed, Roan slowly descending the stairs as she sang, the crowd singing back to her loudly as they would all night. Its upbeat tempo slid seamlessly into “Femininomen,” Roan high-kicking as she danced across the stage on the choruses.

In songs and structure, the performance was familiar to her recent performances. Still, with just one studio album, 2023’s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” and a handful of singles since then, you kind of know what she’s going to play.

But there’s nothing about the performance that feels rote or routine, with Roan and the crowds feeding off each other’s energy at the Shrine, at Daisy Chain Fields Festival in August, or any other recent performance we’ve seen.

“Casual” got the huge response it usually does, but then so did “The Subway,” a slower number that followed. Roan occasionally dropped out to let the fans carry favorite bits of the lyrics – the “Casual” chorus we can’t print in full here, the line about moving to Saskatchewan in “The Subway.”

Pinkpantheress popped out midway through the show to sing her song “Tonight” with Roan. Both had been surprise guests for Charli XCX’s concert at the Kia Forum on Saturday, Oct. 17. Later, Lola Young, who’d performed before Roan on Wednesday at the Shrine, came out to join her on “Picture You.”

The second half of the show served the biggest fan favorites. “Hot To Go!” had the crowd doing the dance that spells out the title as always. “My Kink is Karma” started slow and soft before soaring to a finish that saw Roan on her knees, head back as she belted the final notes.

On Wednesday, Roan performed Olivia Rodrigo’s “Expectations” live for the first time, and that number, which Roan sings with Rodrigo on her record, came back again Thursday.

Then with “Pink Pony Club” in its usual spot at the end of the show, one last massive singalong echoed through the auditorium, up to the balcony where she noted during the song her parents were sitting, and probably rang out the stage doors to the sidewalks, too.

Earlier in the night, comedian-actor Caleb Hearon arrived as host of the show, introducing not just Roan but all the performers on the bill.

Aerialist Alisa Mae, who performs under the name Shrimp Shrimply, opened the night when she walked on stage dressed as a giant shrimp, a prawn, if you will. Two ropes lifted her to the rafters and back as she performed acrobatic feats, removing pieces of her crustacean costume – a tail fan here, a carapace there – and then her actual costume. At the end of her shrimp-tease, she walked off in pasties and a G-string.

The drag king/performance artist Sweaty Eddie delivered a wonderfully weird lip-sync to Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman,” his arms growing longer as the song continued. If Sweaty Eddie had shown up in one of David Lynch’s dreams, he’d have been a movie star.

Caroline Polachek sang a pair of songs, “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings” and “Look at Me Now,” which elicited gasps of shocked surprise when Roan walked out halfway through to sing the rest with her.

Drag queen Fantasia Royale Gaga lip-synced and danced to Donna Summer’s cover of “MacArthur Park,” MUNA arrived to do a pair of songs including “I Know a Place” and “Silk Chiffon,” which saw Hearon, who acted in the music video for it, joining on a verse.

Outside before the show, the Super Graphic Block Party invited those going to the show and those who’d not scored tickets to step into Chappell’s world.

Local non-profits such as the Connie Norman Transgender Empowerment Center, Safe Place for Youth, Trans Lifeline, and Somos Familia Valle had booths to talk with fans and share information.

Photo ops including backdrops themed around the Super Graphic Spectacular, “Pink Pony Club,” and “The Subway” attracted lines of fans, as did the merch tent and the adjacent merch customization tent for those who wanted just a bit more glitz and glamour on their T-shirts, hats and hoodies.