In a post yesterday, I suggested that the direct political engagement with which we still associate Brecht, Weill and Weimar cabaret in general is harder to find on the current cabaret scene, even though we live in a world of war, division, oppression, inequality and exploitation scarcely less outrageous than that of the interwar period. […]
I didn’t know much about Andrew Logan and his Alternative Miss World pageant – except that the current title-holder was that awesome powerhouse of alt burlesque and more, Fancy Chance – until I saw the documentary The British Guide to Showing Off last year. I was pretty awestruck by the sensibility, scale, longevity and accumulated […]
Well, it’s all fun and games until someone loses an internal organ… It’s been a slightly unusual Fringe. I had a week of great shows, lots of work and a little bit of play (less than I’d have liked thanks to those pesky London deadlines that I always promise myself will be cleared before the Fringe […]
One of the joys of doing a blog is that you get to celebrate the things you like just cos you like them. Since Not Television launched at the end of 2013, I’ve had the chance to do a bit of that in real life too, programming some of the acts I admire at Come […]
Today, July 18 2014, sees the UK release of I Am Divine, a documentary by Jeffrey Schwarz about the mother of all alt-drag icons. This is a piece I wrote about Divine for the Curzon cinemas magazine. No one likes to be constantly identified with past glories and by the end of his life, […]
Gushing reportage of the nuptials between glamorous, trailblazing artist and performer David Hoyle and Christeene Vale, the elegant debutante who has taken Texan high society by storm
I wrote a piece for the Guardian last week setting out a few of the ideas about recent LGBT cinema that I’ve been thinking about since BFI Flare earlier in the year – namely the idea of a ‘backward turn’ in which three types of film are increasingly prevalent: features with period settings; documentaries about […]
I’ve been a fan of Nathan Evans for ages – he’s a bit of a renaissance man whose interests intersect with many of my own, notably queer cabaret and film work. As a producer and performer, he’s worked on projects ranging from the RVT’s pioneering Vauxhallville variety night to making shows with David Hoyle, Fancy […]
Today is Pride in London and I did a round-up of events in the capital for yesterday’s Evening Standard. I like how open the Standard is these days to LGBT and even occasionally queer content. For this round-up (which also includes a few entries written by the features desk and included under my byline), I […]
I love a bit of Christeene. I flagged up her bravura flying visit to London in my round-up of cabaret highlights of 2013, and now she’s back in a big way, hitting Soho Theatre and Duckie’s Gay Shame ahead of a full Edinburgh run. This Q&A for Run-Riot is probably my favourite email interview that […]
