By Jason Reid
Pride in London is done and dusted for another year (wasn’t it a corker?!) and venue bookers and QX staff are finally catching their breath for the first time in over a month, BUT there’s still a wealth of brilliant summer cabarets and shows to experience throughout July and August. This week I’ve decided to highlight my pick of the Summer crop.
Starting at Halfway II Heaven (23rd July) you can see drag all-rounder Poppycock do her thing; she sings, dances, has the gift of the gab and turns out some stunning looks. I do think PoppyCock’s style is most definitely the future of ‘trad’ drag.
Another of my favourite venues in the West End for LGBTQ+ cabaret right now is the Phoenix Arts Club, which is somewhere I’ve been frequenting for the best part of two decades but over the last few years they’ve made some considered changes that have put this once exclusive hideaway firmly on the cabaret map.
In between filming for the new Everybody’s Talking About Jamie movie and preparing for a month of Edinburgh Fringe shows,Myra DuBois has kindly decided to preview her Edinburgh Fringe show (ain’t she a sweetheart?!) at the Phoenix (24th July). DEAD FUNNY is a rip-roaring comedy about Myra’s inevitable death and the theatre of grief in general. The Phoenix also has a show at Underbelly Festival on the Southbank (9th Aug) celebrating 30 years of the soho institution with an all-star lineup.
The Apple Tree London is a gorgeous and welcoming queer pub in Clerkenwell that’s probably not on as many peoples’ radar as it should be. So spread the word! Every last Wednesday of the month (31st July/28th Aug) United Shapes of Drag – comprising of Carrot, L’amour Le Monde, Orla Nothin’and more – put on a show like few others. Expect everything from burlesque to stand-up, and A LOT of colour and surrealism.
Don’t miss House of Burlesque and The Cocoa Butter Club which is also at the Underbelly Festival (22nd Aug). These two awe-inspiring houses bring together bold bodies of colour with those who refuse to be defined – for one-night night only in the spiegeltent.
Every Monday at the RVT, hirsute icon of drag bingo, Timberlina hosts The Big Bingo Show, accompanied by Neil Prince. Surfing atop the tsunami of bingo brunches and bottomless Prosecco events in the city that have started to cash in on the bingo and drag buzz, you’ll find Timberlina and their bingo night. Still the longest running weekly drag bingo night in London – over a decade – run by queer people and for queer people and their allies. And it’s only a quid to play and free entry all night! What’s not to love? Save them shekels, you’ll probably need them when Boris unleashes his no deal.
Also at the RVT, and one for the diary, is TTime (24th July) – a charity fundraiser in aid of Gendered Intelligence, starring transgender cabaret artists and speakers including Jacqui Gavin, Asifa Lahore, Mark Anthony, Benjamin Butch and more.
Over at East London’s finest messy queer palace of debauchery, The Glory, there’s Holestar (3rd Aug) – who I LOVE and think is wildly under-appreciated on the scene, so BOOK HER – and the brilliant Crayola’s Madhouse (5th Aug).
Finally, Disabled Queer and Here are throwing an autumn ball at the Two Brewers (11 Aug) for LGBTQ disabled people and their friends. The venue is fully accessible and there’ll be a whole evening of cabaret and performance.
