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Author: Brian Butler

REVIEW: Hugh Panaro – ‘Man Without a Mask’ at Crazy Coqs

Posted on by Brian Butler

Broadway star Hugh Panaro has an accolade no-one else will achieve for sure: he played the Phantom more than 2,300 times – a staggering achievement.

So this huge voice and matching personality could feel constrained in the intimacy of London’s Crazy Coqs cabaret room. Not a bit of it.

From the moment he walks though the audience singing Something’s Coming – you know that it certainly is.

His anecdotes are interesting, darkly humorous, and bring out the undoubted charm of the man. The little small-town boy who wanted to be a vet was bitten with the theatre bug when aged 12 he was taken to see new musical Annie, starring Andrea McArdle – also from his Pennsylvania home town. “I didn’t wanna be a vet anymore,“ he tells us.

A story about seeing Peter Pan links in to his rendition of Neverland – a rich, luscious voice that soars magnificently to the ceiling and back – mesmerising. He seems to hang on the highest notes like a trapeze artist – and boy are there lots of high notes.

A Sondheim anecdote leads to Ah Miss and Johanna, from Sweeney Todd – brilliantly raw and full of emotion. He played Anthony but always craved Tobias’ song, Not While I’m Around, so we get it, beautiful yes but there’s something scary going on behind the eyes of this mad youth.

Elton John’s Lestat – a vampire musical, in which he appeared – lasted 39 performances, but he gives us a truly gripping song written for him for the show by Elton – a crazy love song, Right Before My Eyes. So the star has had some flops – he was in Martin Guerre when it closed in LA, failing to reach Broadway.

He was joined on the night I saw him by guest star Christina Bianco –  a big voice and personality and certainly in her soaring pure voice his match in All I Ask Of You and A Little Fall Of Rain, and she followed up in Forbidden Broadway style with a montage of impersonations to The Sun’ll Come Out, from Bernadette Peters to Julie Andrews and many more. Captivatingly funny.

Back with Hugh, there’s the story of how Miss Saigon creator Claude-Michel Schonberg asked him to try out a few songs from the show, which he did – but he wasn’t then offered the lead role of Chris. “At 25 my heart was pretty broken,” he half-jokes.

A year later he was asked to audition for the first national tour of the show – and didn’t get it again: “but I’m not bitter”. Then he sings Why God, Why? with drama, gusto and bitterness and I don’t know why he didn’t get it.

And on we go with too many on his song list for me to recount – through Showboat, a show with Streisand; Les Mis, with a stunningly electric Empty Chairs; and inevitably to Music Of The Night – which I truly believe I will never hear better sung.

Accompanied brilliantly throughout by Joseph Thalken on piano and Nick Laughlin on bass, this is truly a night and a performer to remember.

Simply Divine: We speak to Jonny Woo ahead of his new show, ‘Antony and Cleopatra: A Dream Of Passion’

Posted on by Brian Butler

If a film is made of the life of Jonny Woo – and it should be – the only person who could play this dancer, drag artist, poet, actor, writer, DJ and night club owner is: Jonny Woo.

If he is a diamond of a performer, it’s because all the rough edges have been polished away by a life well and badly lived.

Jonny opens on 13 September playing Cleopatra in what promises to be a jaw-dropping all out, gay male version of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra at his own The Divine queer night club in Dalston, east London.

Jonny – real name Jonathan Wooster – trained in London as a dancer, and then decided to improve his hoofing in New York. “I was in my 20s. I needed to give dance a go or I’d regret it,” he told me.

But in New York he caught the performance artist bug, in alternative cabaret and drag. “It was a freaky mish-mash of people,” with the burlesque shows at the Slipper Room at its heart. He fell into a world of mime, dance and spoken word shows that were political, and inevitably a world of sex and drugs.

Typically he might perform in high heels and jockstrap – sometimes even bound up like a mummy, often using the drag name Satanica Pandemonia.

Back in London after 2003 he started at the George and Dragon in Shoreditch as a DJ. “I played my own discs – Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Simon and Garfunkel and Boney M. Not many others were playing ’80s music so I did, often standing on a beer barrel reading beat poems about the war in Iraq, under UV.”

It worked. A whole scene built up around it. Then he started an event called Radio Egypt – spooky when you remember he’s about to play Cleo.

He explains: “after 9/11, which I lived through in New York, people were shut off, isolated from the world, and so then idea of doing an act as a mummy became a thing.”

Ten years of weekly Gay Bingo followed, but with a wild side to it. It turned into a two and a half hour show of energetic improvisation, fuelled by alcohol.

But eventually this crazy lifestyle caught up with him. “In 2006 I went into a coma. E was my drug of choice: some nights I didn’t go home – I went to wherever the last party was.”

And so his body packed in, leaving him for a few seconds technically dead. “I’m here by the grace of God and the diligent generosity of Homerton Hospital’s intensive care staff.”

But eventually drugs and booze sneaked back into Jonny’s life. “I didn’t learn my lesson,” he admits. But in 2014 he stopped drinking and by now he was running The Glory. He describes it as “a gay bar with a space for performance. It grew into its own thing, a cultural part of the East London community, with performers at its centre. A place for people to start out with their shows: give it a go, we said to them.”

But when the building needed to be sold, The Glory was no more, “we didn’t have the money to buy it.”

But hot on its heels, Jonny now runs The Divine, reflecting the Glory’s unique position.

But what of his latest venture? It was while performing queer theatre-maker Alexis Gregory’s play Sex Crime that director Robert Chevara told Jonny he’d make a great Cleopatra and that they should try and do it. Following a successful workshop, it’s now becoming a reality, and he’s playing opposite Alexis again, along with two other out gay actors – Jonathan Blake and William McGeough.

“Our version of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra is set in a night club. Robert has edited the original text down to 70 minutes with music. It focuses on Antony and Cleopatra: I love you/I hate you/don’t leave me.

“It’s a play about ego, narcissism and a heightened state of drug taking – it has its karaoke moments and a bit of techno. We are all gay men of a certain age.”

I asked him how he’ll dress, as he’s playing it as a man and not in drag. “Cis gay men use the pronoun she. I could be in a thong, long boots, a neglige – all are possible right now, but I’m not trying to be a woman. We have masc men, we have femme men and we have trans men now in our queer world.

“I want people who see it to go away having experienced an immersive world, exciting, visceral: a new experience, uplifted by its passions and energy through our artistry.”

Antony and Cleopatra: A Dream Of Passion is at The Divine, London from 13-27 September. Tickets HERE

Queer theatre round-up: From a gender swapping Cleopatra to Chuck Sweeney as Peggy Lee and a tiny queer bar in Canary Wharf

Posted on by Brian Butler

My latest show round up includes a gender swapping Cleopatra, recreations of Barbra, Liza, and Peggy, and a record-breaking Phantom unmasked.

Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss – creators of the phenomenal SIX: The Musical – are sure to make history again with their new musical, Why Am I So Single?, which rarely for the West End, features a main non-binary character.

Toby, who is also non-binary, and Lucy have had worldwide recognition for SIX, so it’s likely this will follow in its global footsteps. The storyline follows two besties as they delve deep into their tragic love lives on dating apps, while they are trying to write their next musical. It has catchy tunes and promises Tik Tok choreography and it’s on now at London’s Garrick Theatre – tickets HERE

Why Am I So Single?

Three female stars of the West End and Broadway – Christina Bianca, Liz Calloway and Laura Pitt-Pulford – will be guesting with a true Broadway legend Hugh Panaro at London’s Crazy Coqs from 7-9 September.

If Hugh’s name isn’t immediately recognisable, let me quickly add that he has performed Lloyd Webber’s Phantom over 2,000 times on Broadway, as well as leading roles like Mary Sunshine, Jesus, Sweeney Todd and Jean Valjean in Les Mis.

Hugh Panaro – Man Without A Mask is at Crazy Coqs from 7-9 September – tickets HERE

Totally Thames – a celebration of the river – is back in September, with events and activities, some celebrating LGBTQ+ culture in the capital. Performed in Theatreship in Canary Wharf, Willy Does presents a climate crisis cabaret, with game show Get Your Ducks In A Row, featuring live performance, comedy, drag and much more.

One In, One Out by Lucy Hayhoe is a playful and intimate installation that invites audiences to experience a mini queer night out in just five minutes! The tiny queer bar in Canary Wharf’s Crossrail Place Roof Garden asks what is the role of a gay bar in London’s future. Tickets HERE

Gay Pride and No Prejudice

Peppered with comedy, Gay Pride and No Prejudice is the story of two men and one woman who struggle for acceptance in an era when the few retained the right to judge the many.

Darcy has loved Bingley since they were boys. But if Darcy declares his love publicly will Bingley and the world cast him out of society?  It’s 1812 and the world has decided that two men should never be together.

Bingley accepts this and so attempts to fall in love with Jane Bennet – but will it work?  It’s a show about pride, prejudice and women’s rights and sounds great fun. It’s at the Union Theatre, London from 8 October – 2 November. Tickets HERE

East London’s latest queer nightspot, The Divine, will be the home for a ground-breaking all-male version of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, with a cast including queer acting royalty of the highest order.

DJ, performance artist, drag star and night club owner Jonny Woo plays the Queen of Egypt as one quarter of a cast of out gay male actors.

Antony and Cleopatra – A Dream of Passion

Antony and Cleopatra – A Dream of Passion is a 70-minute adaptation conceived, edited and directed by the visionary disrupter Robert Chevara. The setting is a club based on Berghain, the Berlin hedonistic techno temple.

The lovers are unable to part, fuelled by love, lust and drugs. It’s a political queer re-telling of Shakespeare’s masterpiece of narcissism, self-destruction and ruined passion. The cast is made up by Alexis Gregory, William McGeough and Jonathan Blake. It runs 13-27 September. Tickets HERE

 

And finally, the Charing Cross Theatre presents two shows with three men as female divas we all worship. Steven Brinberg, who played recently at Brighton’s Ironworks, teams up with Rick Skye to present Barbra and Liza as guess who?

Both men have established world-wide careers presenting the vey essence of their chosen female stars – this is impersonation on an altogether higher plane.

Chuck Sweeney as Peggy Lee

And cheek by jowl with Steven and Rick will be Chuck Sweeney re-incarnating the late great Peggy Lee, as he has done for a number of years from New York to Miami and beyond.

The two shows run almost in parallel from 6 – 17 November – check dates and times at HERE

FUTUREQUEER: Alexis Gregory leads us by way of Donna Summer to a 2070s gay ‘utopia’

Posted on by Brian Butler

Photo by Holly Revell

Theatre maker Alexis Gregory takes us by the hand and joyfully and intelligently leads us by way of Donna Summer to a 2070s gay utopia, that may not be as idyllic as it sounds.

FutureQueer is a heady cocktail of stand-up, Ted talk and monologue that finds the future in our past – specifically Summer’s big gay anthem I Feel Love.

He takes us back 47 years to its futuristically feeling creation and forward 47 years from now to what the world might become.

The show opens with an offstage voice announcing that the whole world has turned queer – instantly via what he cleverly calls a Padamic – but if some of us feel non-gay there is a safe space behind the Soho alleyway wheelie bins where we can meet.

Photo by Holly Revell

It’s a great fun start to 70 mins of rollercoaster information, futuristic adverts, well-researched material, and Alexis delivers it with style, speed and confidence.

This is issues-led entertainment and we take in as much as we want and I certainly chewed on it for a few days afterwards.

Gregory wants us to consider what AI will lead to – and it’s not Artificial Intelligence in this case but Alternative Intelligence.

Suddenly he’s being a queer avatar – our very own queer avatar, whom we never physically meet but who can bring us pleasure, however vicarious.

Photo by Holly Revell

Then it’s on to another gem of a thought – queer embryos created to be given to queer mentors/parents, in a world where we will live on the sea, or beneath it. It’s a world of migrants, and as Alexis says, queers have always been migrants both physically and emotionally – outsiders, mistrusted, treated differently.

He loves to quote futurists like Arthur C Clarke, Alan Turing and others, and show how their predictions more or less came true. From that he projects forwards and it’s a sometimes scary world he wants us to visit.

And he looks at current book bans round the world, the treatment of trans communities and finds reflections of our past that are not welcoming.

So it’s a show as much about dystopia as utopia – but I’ll stick with Donna in the school of optimism. I’m sure Alexis will refine, edit, expand the material here which has only had a few try-outs on stage. There’s a move to bring the show to Brighton – maybe for Fringe 2025 – that would be some gig.

FutureQueer was at the Crazy Coqs, London for one night only.

“Like most little gay boys, making people laugh was an escape.” Danny Beard to bring ‘Straight Expectations’ to Brighton Komedia in September

Posted on by Brian Butler

Drag performer Danny Beard can trace their stage persona back to the outrageous, flamboyant Leigh Bowery, friend of Boy George, who delighted and shocked audiences in Soho and New York in the 1980s.

And now they’re bringing their UK touring show Straight Expectations to Brighton’s Komedia in September.

In an exclusive interview Danny told me: “I was 10 or 11 when I played Joseph in the school musical: my first ever stage performance and the bug had bitten, I always knew I would be a performer – I was always drawn to showing off. As a child I put shows on for my parents’ friends. Like most little gay boys, making people laugh was an escape for me. And now it’s an escape for both me and the audience.”

After two years as the target of school bullies, Danny’s mother moved them to another secondary school. ”We moved to the Wirral: it was a real fresh start. My mum said that I could be anything I wanted to be.”

“I’m not a female impersonator, I’m a creature, a living piece of art – it felt like a superpower.”

Lots of stage roles followed, including Danny in Grease and John Proctor in The Crucible. Then followed studying contemporary theatre practice at Salford University, and the beginnings of their love of the alternative drag of Leigh Bowery: “It felt like a first, even though it wasn’t, but in 2010 no-one looked like I did.”

Danny says their distinctive look – stark white mask of face make-up and glittery beard – is a drag clown, harking back to Bowery and Club Kids of ‘90s New York. “I’m not a female impersonator, I’m a creature, a living piece of art – it felt like a superpower.”

Danny is perhaps best known for three things: Britain’s Got Talent in 2016, where they reached the semi-finals; Drag Race in 2022, which they won; and being a guest DJ on BBC Radio One for 4 months this year.

But they also appeared in soap opera Hollyoaks, the Traitors: Uncloaked, Channel 4’s Comedy Roast, to name a few. “TV was a platform which took me to a whole different level, and now I have my own theatre tour. It says to the world: this is what I can do, and I get messages from around the world because of the TV appearances.

“My mum said that I could be anything I wanted to be.”

“I’m so lucky as a queer artist to be living in that space. I’m pursuing two careers – Lily Savage/Paul O’Grady was a great inspiration to me that I can be in and out of drag and have a career.”

Their new show – Straight Expectations – is very traditional camp drag cabaret but for today’s audience. “We have a band, some anecdotes but it’s also an interactive experience – like the Royal Vauxhall Tavern – and there are songs I love, put in for me as well as pleasing the audience. It’s a good night out.”

And their favourite song in the show? “It’s a mash-up of Simply the Best, but Danny Beard’s version. Big camp songs are a must, and it goes into three-part harmony.”

So, what next for this multi-skilled performer? “I want to present my own cabaret TV show interviewing guests.” With the independent production company Mirador behind them, what could stop Danny – as their mother told them years ago: they can be anything they want to be.

Straight Expectations is at Komedia, Brighton on 19 September – tickets HERE

REVIEW: Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus shine with show to celebrate 10 years of same-sex marriage

Posted on by Brian Butler

Talk about overcoming adversity – Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus (BGMC) not only had to cope with no stage lights at their first outing for their two summer concerts – but also no sound system.

As the sun set and the choir started to disappear into the gloom before the high altar at St George’s Kemptown, the cavalry arrived in the form of electricians and a percentage of power was restored for Act Two.

So, it was a concert of two halves – with the bright coloured lights and some sound support lifting the chorus’ performance in Act Two.

But they showed their resilience for the first 45 minutes and pulled off some musical successes that made the setbacks seem irrelevant in the end.

It was a programme with many items I didn’t know, but the breadth and depth of music director Tim Nail’s arrangements and his skillful accompaniment made them a joy to listen to.

Aztec Camera’s Somewhere In My Heart gave us high octane energy and multiple harmonies, and Jason Brown’s solo I Get To Love You, though unplugged, was simple and heartfelt and much applauded.

Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now brought out the full range of this group’s choral virtuosity, and their wide range in the octaves – BGMC I think are lucky to have so many quality voices in the lower registers, and it shows.

John McPherson was one of two outstanding soloists for me, and his gender-swapping rendition of Bill, from Showboat,  commanded everyone’s attention  and created an emotional storyline that was oh so memorable.

Cher’s I Found Someone gave us low dark tones of moodiness and high points of pure bitchery and there was much needed comic relief with a joyful Boom Bang-a-bang to end Part One.

Restored to light, it was time for some fun. The concert celebrated the 10th anniversary of same-sex marriage and so we got some brides in their frocks scattered among the chorus. And scary brides they were too.

Chorus director Joe Paxton, in tight frock, killer heels and tiara really powered the chorus through the rest of the evening. The Luckiest, sung by Joe Christopherson, was simple, gentle, and honestly portrayed to great emotional effect.

In keeping with the concert’s theme, we got a male duet of West Side Story’s One Hand One Heart, beautifully and touchingly rendered by John McPherson and Rod Edmunds – soaring, gentle, powerful and full of emotional control.

The musical numbers were interspersed with video clips of chorus members relating their life stories and their experiences of same-sex marriage – they were powerful testimonies.

Having delivered a sardonic and witty diatribe against gay marriage, Graeme Clark Dempster then admitted he was a newly-wed of four weeks ago, and delivered a double whammy, with husband in audience, by tearing through the vicious ode to divorce in Sondheim’s Could I Leave You?. It was delicious, dramatic and brilliantly put across – a real showstopper.

Sparks’ idiosyncratic and plainly weird The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte was Music Director Tim Nail’s greatest piece of arrangement for the evening – as I say, it was weird but brilliantly sung.

Closing with a boisterous I Just Can’t Get Enough – a musical sentiment we all shared – the Chorus proved yet again why their concerts are always a delight to hear.

FILM REVIEW: QUEEN TUT gets under the skin of the world of queer performers and gay activism

Posted on by Brian Butler

Reem Morsi’s marvellous film Queen Tut has at its heart two struggles, which intermingle to give the movie its dramatic and emotional journey.

Drag performer and activist Malibu, played impeccably by trans actress Alexandra Billings, is fighting to save a Toronto LGBTQ+ historic bar and club – Mandy’s.

Troubled Egyptian teenage boy Nabil (Ryan Ali) is struggling with his growing awareness of gayness. He’s been forced to return to Canada after the death of his idolised mother, and finds himself in the repressive Coptic church community of which his divorced father is a pillar.

A chance meeting in the street with Malibu sparks something in the boy and a genuine if unlikely bond between the two develops. Nabil has one treasure from his mother – her notebook detailing a “dream dress” she wanted to make. And as we all know drag queens can sew.

A further complication is that Nabil’s father is a senior manager soon to become partner in the ruthless property developers who want to tear down Mandy’s.

Hanging out with Mandy’s drag kings and queens rather than praying at church, Nabil is conflicted to say the least. When he asks the priest to pray for his dead mother and meets a refusal, the die is cast.

We’re on a delightful journey as Malibu gently nurtures her sewing apprentice and his dream – and that of his late mother –  look like being realised. And there’s a great moment when dragged up, Nabil proudly shows off the frock. But the demolition gang are waiting in the wings and can the queer community fight back?

Morsi gets under the skin of the world of queer performers and gay activism and shows the historical context of a modern-day fight.

Ryan Ali as the gentle, struggling, mixed-up teen is convincingly real and certainly he creates a loveable and warm character. Alexandra Billings, whose back story in real life concerned these very struggles, is stunning as the darkly humorous, worldly-wise and motherly Malibu, with a sharp tongue and a heart of gold. Her cabaret song I Won’t Break is the pivotal moment.

There are winners and losers in the end but the prevailing message is that the struggle for rights and for people to be who they wish to be must always prevail. And it does.

Queen Tut is available now on Amazon Prime and soon on Apple TV.

New play to launch a prize in honour of drag star and community champion, Jason Sutton (Miss Jason)

Posted on by Brian Butler

Pic by Chris Jepson Photography

Latest TV’s Andrew Kay has created a new play, John and Thomas, to launch a prize in honour of drag star Jason Sutton aka Miss Jason, whose untimely death shocked the Brighton and London gay scene.

Andrew wrote a previous play, Morning Glory, specifically for Jason and it had great success both in Edinburgh and Brighton. It was directed by Allan Cardew.

Coincidentally actor and drag star Dave Lynn had asked Andrew to write something for him. Andrew told me: “I’d seen Dave Lynn act and knew he had the talent, so after some thinking I set about writing a new play for him and Jason together.

“That was just before lockdown, and everything went on hold. It was only this year that I went back to that script, prompted by the sad and untimely death of Jason.”

And so Allan Cardew came on board to play opposite Dave, with direction from West End director/choreographer Carole Todd.

Andrew said: “It struck me that the money raised from its performance could be used to create an annual LGBTQ+ drama prize in Jason Sutton’s name.”

And Chris Gull at the Brighton Rainbow Fund has come on board to help administer the prize.

John and Thomas, which will launch the prize at a rehearsed reading on October 8 on Brighton Pier as part of PierFest, is billed as a romance: the love story of two older men approaching retirement. One is ready to face a queer future and the other unready to give up a life on the stage, and in heels. The cast is completed by Nathan Croft, and the evening will be narrated by BBC Radio Sussex’s Allison Ferns.

There will also be screening of footage of Jason from Latest TV’s archives.

Andrew said: “I really hope the people of Brighton & Hove and beyond will get behind this project and help us create something lasting in Jason Sutton’s name.”

Tickets HERE

Queer Theatre: A round-up of the hottest LGBTQ+ theatre

Posted on by Brian Butler

My latest round-up of shows with queer themes or queer performers runs the gamut from Donna Summer to a drag queen becoming the evil child catcher.

Mark Farrelly has a wonderful series of shows, many of them depicting some great gay icons – Derek Jarman and Frankie Howerd to name just two, and he’s bringing his incarnation of writer/performer Quentin Crisp to Eastbourne this weekend.

Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope is a marvellous recreation of the quirky but brilliant writer, and you can catch it at the Grove Theatre on 20 July. As Crisp said: “Ask yourself this: if there were no praise or blame, who would I be?” Tickets HERE

The Sensible Shoes Comedy Tour comes to Brighton’s Komedia on 31 July. It features solo spots and queer collaborations from four legendary lesbian comedians – Lara A King, Clare Summerskill, Hannah Brackenbury and Julie Jepson. Tickets HERE

I’ve found another super bunch of queer shows due on stage at Edinburgh Fringe from the end of July. Bi-Curious George: Queer Planet features dolphin orgies, intersex snails and gay giraffes, all in the mind of drag king Bi-Curious George, as they romp through the animal kingdom. They’re at the Pleasance Dome (10 Dome) from 31 July-26 August. 

Crying Shame

Crying Shame is a cabaret-cum-wellness journey about loneliness from the queer collective Sweet Beef. We’re in Club Fragilite, where you’ll see washed-up cabaret acts, filthy lipsync and a joyous celebration of queer culture form a bunch of queer clowns. It’s at Pleasance Dome (King Dome) from 31 July-25 August.

Ginger Johnson Blows Off at Pleasance Courtyard (Beyond) from 31 July-24 August gives us the reigning queen of Drag Race UK. They’ve got big hair, a big heart and big laughs, and there are original songs too by Bourgeois & Maurice.

Love’s A Beach is a modern take on celebrity post-reality TV. It follows the first gay winners of television’s biggest reality show and it’s narrated by a chorus of bloggers. It’s on various dates 31 July to 26 August at the Pleasance Courtyard.

Titswingers

Titswingers at Pleasance Courtyard (Beyond) from 31 July-26 August tells the true story of polyamorous queer pirates Anne Bonney and Mary Read, who were the hellcats of the Southern Seas. This new gig musical combines punk rock, stand-up, drag cabaret, sea shanties and bar brawls.

Tickets for all Edinburgh Fringe shows HERE 

Alexis Gregory’s stunning solo show FutureQueer re-appears for one night only at the West End’s Crazy Coqs cabaret room on 13 August. It’s a medley of theatre, stand-up, and TEDtalk. It’s 2071 and the whole world is LGBTQ+, but the memories of Donna Summer’s classic gay anthem I Feel Love sound out across the decades with great significance. Tickets HERE

Mad Gay King

At London’s King’s Head you can catch The Mad Gay King. It’s a queer re-telling of the life and love of one of history’s most scandalous kings. When Richard Hornig, a stable master with a secret arrives at the court of King Ludwig II, the young monarch’s most decadent obsessions are ignited, placing the future of his kingdom, his legacy and his sanity on the edge of a precipice. It runs 3-18 October.

The Little Death – In Search Of My Orgasm, is about what it says on the tin. She’s tried everything and it still hasn’t happened for her. Loneliness lies under the inability of being able to orgasm with a partner. Will she overcome her trauma? It’s a string of stories based on true events. On stage 26-31 August. Tickets for both shows HERE

The Vivienne, actor/singer/comedian and first winner of Drag Race UK in 2019, takes on the iconically evil role of The Childcatcher in the Sherman Brothers magical musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which stops off on its UK tour at Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre from 19-24 November. The Vivienne most recently played the Wicked Witch Of The West in the tour of The Wizard Of Oz. Catch their chilling performance – it’s sure to be memorable. Tickets HERE

Though it seems far off, tickets for the Royal Shakespeare Company sell out months in advance, so get booking now for what will be a stunning production of Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II.

The king is dead; long live the king – and his boyfriend.

Daniel Evans

When Edward insists on ruling with the man he loves by his side, the Palace refuses and the Establishment conspires to restore the “natural order”, plunging the country into civil war. But better a dead king than a gay king. The play achieved notoriety when a television version in 1970 starring Ian McKellen created TV’s first gay kiss.

This time it’s the turn of double Olivier-winner Daniel Evans, currently co-artistic director at the RSC, to assume the queer crown. Daniel featured in Scene when he was artistic director at Chichester, and I hope to chat to him again soon about playing a gay king. Tickets HERE

“A cinematic marvel.” Trans activist Paul B Preciado’s ‘Orlando – A Political Biography’ is a bold and joyous celebration of trans and non-binary identity, told through the lens of Virginia Woolf’s iconic novel

Posted on by Brian Butler

Trans activist Paul B Preciado has taken Virginia Woolf’s 1928 gender-fluid classic novel Orlando and made a powerful film essay that combines the life stories of over 20 trans and divergent people with many elements and direct quotes from the novel.

The effect is a stunning cinematic marvel, as the 20 characters assume the role of Orlando but giving their own modern edge to the tale of a young nobleman who while asleep suddenly transitions to be a woman.

Preciado blurs all the distinctions and preconceptions, as well as prejudices we might have about sexual identity and gender- and of course it couldn’t be more topical and controversial if it tried. 

Here we get a wonderful array of trans men and women telling of their struggles with society, family, unhelpful psychiatric interventions and the law. 

Not being hugely well-versed with the original, it was tricky for me to differentiate Woolf’s words from Preciado’s or those of his cast. 

But there are some brilliantly apposite and poignant one-liners in the dialogue. The voice of writer/director says to Virginia, in a letter to the dead writer: “I came out of your fiction,” while another character talks of “the charm of feeling forever alone”.

Orlando, in the original, crosses centuries by sleeping – and sometimes being taken for dead. It’s a powerful image re-enacted on the film set. Psychiatrists get a hard time here with their lack of understanding and sympathy, but being the all-powerful gateway to gender changes and hormone treatment. 

There’s even an upbeat and loud musical interlude where the rock singers tell us that the freeing aspect of hormone treatment should be called “pharmacoliberation”.

What the characters bring across to us is their energy, determination to be who they truly believe themselves to be and their refusal to be pigeonholed or marginalised.  

Finally Preciado tells us: “the world to come belongs to the new Orlandos”. 

Orlando – My Political Biography is in cinemas now.

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