Jonny Woo’s Un-Royal Variety Review

Hackney Empire, London – 19 & 20 October

Reviewed by Antonia Hebbert

4****

A festive crowd made this feel like party night for London’s LGBT+ community (and ‘allies’, as any straights in the audience were kindly called). I say London, because Jonny Woo’s casual timekeeping doesn’t cater for anyone boring enough to need to catch the last train home, and the show was still going strong at 11pm. It’s ‘nu-variety’, which is quite like old variety but cooked up in a raucous gay club, with queer burlesque, raunchy comedy, dancers, singers, cabaret and experimental theatre. That means lots of wigs, super-high heels, frills, weird eyes, glitter, buttocks (sometimes both at once), improbably perfect waxed bodies and a lot of no-holes-barred banter.

‘We are entertainers and teachers,’ says Jonny Woo, who has created this third Un-Royal Variety with composer Richard Thomas (co-writer of Jerry Springer the Opera). The serious aim is to get new identities recognised and celebrated, rather than to produce perfectly polished acts. Some of the turns were brilliant, others were less secure, but a sense of things teetering on the edge is maybe part of the attraction. Garry Starr’s ‘anything but Shakespeare’ performances were good fun and got the audience engaged. Christeene and Lucy McCormick were gruesome, gory and hilarious. Carla Lippis kicked off the second half with a cracking performance. Mawaan Rizwan’s comedy routine and dancing were fabulous; Rhys’s Pieces eerie dancing was utterly wonderful, and a hard act to follow for Jayde Adams – but she swiftly won us over with girl-next-door charm, then belted out a fine Barcelona duet with Jonny Woo. The Theresa May choir – formerly the Kate Middleton Choir, now a whole choir of Theresa May-alikes – didn’t come across as strongly as it should have done – perhaps that will be sorted out on the second night. An excellent house band and dancers (choreography by Lottie Croucher) kept things going nicely.