Trevor Ashley has a loud gravelly laugh that is totally infectious from the second you talk to him. “My mother didn’t know what to do with me. I was so different. No-one in my family had been in the entertainment business. I desperately wanted to be,” he told me.
So at four years of age he was enrolled in the Johnny Young Talent School, followed by the Shopfront Theatre company in Sydney, Australia, where he played parts from age six to 16.
Fast forward a little and at age 20 he took himself off round the world to appear at the prestigious cabaret venue Don’t Tell Mama, in New York. He admits: “what was I thinking?” But he boldly invited all the reviewers and as he says: “It was amazing, but it’s stuff I wouldn’t do now. I was learning to be myself and how to handle an audience.” It was another couple of years before it occurred to the young Trevor to try out drag.
Back in New York City, aged 21, he decided he would move there and “have an incredible life.” Then 9/11 happened and that was the end of that dream. Returning to Sydney he quickly realised there was no full-time employment to be had in cabaret. “Drag star Portia Turbo came to my show and she suggested drag. I would be the only one who could sing, and not just lip sync.” So his drag persona was born in a Sydney pub on Oxford Street, leading to shows six nights a week. He did it for five years.
“When I started my agent told me that I couldn’t be out, couldn’t be gay, but I just had to be – there was no point in hiding it.”
A big break came when Priscilla: Queen of the Desert film director Stephan Elliott saw Trevor’s show and asked him to sing the theme song for his 2008 movie Easy Virtue. “It was just before Priscilla the musical was staged. Stephan asked me to do a studio vocal session. I sang about 10 songs in different styles and Let’s Misbehave stuck, and became the theme song to the movie. The characters play a record and that’s me singing – I never met the cast (Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas).” And then he landed a role on stage in Priscilla as cabaret act Miss Understanding – written specially for him and which he played in the original Australian production for two years.
Skipping forward again in his glittering career, I wondered why he had settled on Shirley Bassey as a performer he wanted to pay tribute to. “I’m obsessed with her. I love how she performs. I saw Jane Horrocks in the film of Little Voice and heard Big Spender for the first time. I bought the soundtrack and it had Shirley Bassey tracks on it. I then found all her music. I’d seen her show as a teenager. She knows I play her. I was told she thought the show title Diamonds Are For Trevor was one of the greatest titles. She’s seen little clips of me doing it. And she hasn’t stopped me doing it, so it must be ok.”
If you’ve got Paramount Plus you may have seen Trevor recently on the talent show Queen Of The Universe, hosted by Graham Norton. It’s an international group of drag queens who compete by singing. I asked how it differed from Drag Race. Trevor was quick fire in his reply: “We have talent- it’’s all live singing. It was a great experience to work with Graham and Michelle Visage. It was fantastic.” And Trevor was the runner-up.
I asked if he had a coming out story. We got the big raucous laughter again. “My parents came out to me. After New York I went home and told my mother that my ex-girlfriend was getting married. And my mother replied: ‘so now you’re into boys – Trevor it’s all fine.’
“When I started my agent told me that I couldn’t be out, couldn’t be gay, but I just had to be – there was no point in hiding it. It’s still really hard in the profession – tough; you only get to play particular things.”
Actually he has consciously created a career where he plays male and female roles, and it’s been highly successful. “Cameron Mackintosh saw me as panto dame and offered me the part of innkeeper Thenadier (who sings Master Of The House ) in Les Mis.” He’s also played Herod and Pharaoh (Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph and His Technicolour Dreamcoat) and Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. “I go on parallel roads. I love it, because it allows me to do different things.”
And so for one night only he finds himself in his new show Queen Of The Moment at London’s Lyric Theatre on October 9. It lifts the lid on Queen Of The Universe, with an eight-piece band and lots of Liza and Bassey songs – he’s done two Minnelli-themed shows before. I asked him about his concerns that drag is being banned in parts of the USA, about which he has been vocal: “It’s a right-wing group of conservatives repealing ’70s laws. I find that terrifying. It gives permission for other countries to do it too. America influences the rest of the world.”
So what’s next for him? “I want to leave Australia. I’m moving to the UK in early 2024 – I’ve got residence here. I’d love to do a TV series here – I’ve done some before.”
I’m betting we will see him on our TV screens before very long.
You can catch Queen Of The Universe on Paramount Plus or Amazon Prime Video. Tickets for Trevor’s October 9 show HERE
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