We asked Jonny Ward a Queerguru Contributing Editor based in the UK to select his top picks of London’s Queer Culture in 2018. If you click on each of the links it will give you Jonny’s full review too. We also asked him to add what events he was looking forward to covering for Queerguru in 2019.
BEST QUEER THEATRE
“The Inheritance is a towering achievement, a colossal feat of playwriting that will endure for many years to come“.
“Not all the characters leave San Domino alive – this evocative production weaves the themes of love, loss, betrayal and reconciliation and is a fitting testimony to their courage”.
Riot Act“The apocryphal story goes it was the death of Judy Garland that sparked the Stonewall riots (widely regarded as the birth of the gay rights movement). Michael-Anthony, however, lays out a whole different set of circumstances but like a Big Gay Grassy Knoll we may never know. Either way; Judy dies and on the night of her funeral, “a bar which had 30 people in it most nights was rammed with 300 people” and the rest, as they say, is history”.
BEST QUEER CONCERT/CABARET/LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
“An impressively varied and thoughtful set list is seamlessly woven around bitter sweet anecdotes – the show really does resonate emotionally and leaves you wrung through”.
A Lad In Soho Pantomime“When it comes to Panto, Lady Abanazer has the golden touch of Joan Rivers with Tourette’s in a south London lorry park. London will certainly be keen to give this Aladdin a warm hand on his entrance”.
Effigies of Wickedness! (Songs banned by the Nazis)
Gateau’s years of cabaret experience means he dominates every moment he is on stage – at one point (during The Ballad of Marie Sanders 1939) he has one foot on the table and the audience in the palm of his hand – it’s electric.
BEST QUEER DANCE
“Fallen (choreographed by Russell Maliphant) comes with the most gorgeous music (by Armand Amar) providing the spine tingling goose bump moment we have come to expect from BalletBoyz”.
BEST QUEER ART
Drag : Self Portraits & Body Politics
“In general, the show is more intriguing than entertaining, educational rather than shocking, stimulating of intellect not genitalia”.
LOOKING FORWARD TO A QUEER 2019
THEATRE
Kompromat at The Vaults Festival. February.
Inspired by the 2010 murder of spy-in-the-sports bag GCHQ agent Gareth Williams, two men play out the deadly final hours as espionage, sex and politics collide with loneliness and desire.
All About Eve at the Noel Coward Theatre. February
Gillian Anderson and Lily James. W.O.W!
ART
Keith Haring Tate Liverpool. November
A major exhibition of the late US artist and features 85 of Haring’s works, most of which have never been seen in the UK before.
Cindy Sherman at the National Portrait Gallery. September
Cindy Sherman is a provocateur and inserts herself into the frame in multiple guises and dozens of roles.
POP
Cher Here we go again tour The 02. October.
Her first visit to London since 2005. Gypsy’s, tramps & thieves and ALL the gays will be there to welcome the legend back.
COMEDY
Bianca del Rio Wembley Arena. September.
Her ‘Not Today Satan’ four hour gig at the Troxy in 2016 is the stuff of folklore. Shock and hilarity in equal measure.
FILM
Rudolf Nureyev prepares to defect in the 1960’s. Written by David Hare, Directed By Ralph Fiennes.
