Oasis Is Back — and the Renovated SF Drag Club Is Better Than the One That Almost Disappeared

Here's the thing about Oasis: it should have been gone by now. For most of late 2025, it was gone — shuttered, staring down a permanent closure that felt sadly inevitable for a South of Market drag institution that had outlasted so much of what once surrounded it. Then a regular patron named Sky Stevens mentioned the situation to his parents. His mom and dad, philanthropists Mark and Mary Stevens, wrote a $3.5 million check, and suddenly the question shifted from will Oasis survive to what can it become?

On July 17, the answer arrived on the sidewalk outside 298 11th Street, where a ribbon-cutting drew a crowd thick enough to spill into the street. Artistic Director D'Arcy Drollinger was joined by newly minted Drag Laureate Persia, who set the tone immediately. "This is what queer joy looks like," Persia declared, "and God, do we need some of that right now."

Hard to argue with that framing.

What They Built

The renovation wasn't just a fresh coat of paint. Oasis Arts — the nonprofit that runs the venue — now owns the building outright, which changes the entire calculus for what the organization can plan and invest in. They've brought on Madeline Howard as the first dedicated director of development and expanded the board to eleven members. This is an institution putting down roots.

Inside, designer Evan Favela (who also performs as Evian) transformed the space with the kind of deliberate camp glamour the venue deserves. The front room is now christened "D'arcy's Champagne Room," a nod to Drollinger's beloved stage alter ego Lady Champagne. The VIP section got a mirrored ceiling. Seven artists — Serge Gay Jr., Maya Fuji, Blake Cedric, Jae, Stevie Hues, Patrick Stevenson, and Favela — created a suite of bathroom murals so fully realized that the project, called "Club Toilet," has its own Instagram account. Diego Gomez's rooftop mural brings the same energy up top.

Mary Stevens, for her part, noted that she'd actually been to the old Oasis back in the 1980s — when the space had a swimming pool under the dance floor, which is frankly the most San Francisco sentence imaginable. Whatever she found then is still there, just rebuilt and better resourced.

The Show That Proved the Point

The night's performances weren't a victory lap — they were a full-throated argument for why this room matters. Cohosts Drollinger and Michael Phyllis, whose track record of dead-on drag parodies and original shows is practically its own SoMa institution, kept three separate sets rolling. Tila Pia hatched from a golden egg and shed her wings to reveal a scaled creature who punctuated the reveal with somersaults and deathdrops. The SF Baloney crew staged a Hanky Code send-up set to a reworded Stephen Schwartz melody — the kind of bit that only works if the room already knows what it's laughing at, and this room absolutely did.

But the moment everyone will be telling people about? Performer Jax arrived onstage on a scooter, one foot locked in a rhinestone-covered cast, and then — operating entirely on one good leg — proceeded to jump rope using her own wig braids as the rope. It was absurd and precise and completely committed, which is basically the Oasis brand in three seconds.

Sky Stevens, watching the fruits of a conversation with his parents, said it simply at the ribbon-cutting: "For me, Oasis is the first step in making the world full of more color and more love."

Drollinger, who has shepherded this place through a near-death experience and out the other side, told the Bay Area Reporter: "Now we get to grow, and I'm curious and excited to see what we're going to grow into."

Coming up at Oasis: Princess, plus Jackie Beat and Matthew Martin hitting the stage in the weeks ahead. Check the San Francisco events calendar — the room is open, it's owned, and it's not going anywhere.