HOT GAY TIME MACHINE ☆☆☆
Hot Gay Time Machine is an hilarious cabaret from two hyperactive homos in leopard print bodysuits. Even before the show starts and accompanied by banging party pop (Womanizer by Britney and Bang Bang by Jessie, Ariane, and Nicki – because you wanted to know didn’t you!) audience members are encouraged to freak out on stage and there is no shortage of willing sinners.
Our hostesses for the night are Toby Marlow and Zak Ghazi-Torbati and after some insane dance routines they dig out an old Casio piano – despite there already being a grand piano on stage – but of course, this suits the piece perfectly as they employ its Bontempo drum facility to the max.
Using their personal experiences as a narrative hook for the show, they proceed from primary school and through acutely observational and scatological humor, to school, and finally university.
Songs such as Cant get It Up take us back to our first fumblings with the opposite sex and eye wateringly honest details of how that scenario was never going to work!
Zack and Toby each give us, in turn, their very different takes on the horror/thrills of the school locker room experience. Referencing pop music and show tunes “We love to look at cock in the locker room!” is an absolute corker – though sadly NSFW….. or broadcast media of any kind….
There is a coming out song sung with real emotion to the Diana Ross classic…..’Mum says she has always known’…. the audience is putty in the boys’ hands at this point.
Toby Marlow is clearly a gifted pianist whilst Zack has extraordinary vocal and mimicry skills – both have a strong technical ability that underpins a superficially anarchic presentation put to glorious effect.
For a show that eschews politics, the section with the most depth is where they examine the view of gay men by their straight counterparts and is possibly the funniest segment of the show as the gay boys play ‘straight’. Enlightened but still straight! An ally for the queers! Gays have stolen the rainbows from straight men! “Can I get an amen for all the gay men“. It’s funny but it is also a rarely discussed perspective.
We are also told that gays grabbing friends breasts is not acceptable. When Toby says “I can get away with it because I’m gay” Zack comes back with the line “The social capital of man” and this is a dive into gender politics that is as deep and complex as any cabaret show around despite these boys being ironic about the role of satire in light entertainment.
The pace and energy drops off a cliff during the final sequence about sexual experiences at University and do gay men sleep with all their friends. The last song, however, Pride – be who you want to be! which references all the previous themes has everyone back on their feet dancing and wraps the gig up nicely.
These boys know how to give a banging good night out and the moment where Beyonce crowd surfs will linger in the memory for a very long time!
REVIEW: JONNY WARDJonny Ward, Queerguru London Correspondent is a drama graduate but has worked backstage for many years at venues such as The Royal Albert Hall, The 02, Southbank Centre and is currently at The National Theatre. He lives in Hoxton, London and is delighted to check out the latest, the hottest and the downright dodgy in queer culture for Queerguru. (P.S. He is currently single)
Labels: 2018, culture, Jonny Ward, London Theatre, review
