Whilst DRAG QUEEN STORY HOURS have become the latest target for the rampant homophobes who have just helped elect a convicted felon to run the US, some of us in the UK in particular are wondering why it has taken them four Centuries to start to protest. These events are not that far removed from PANTOMIMES which were started in 1600’s and developed from commedia dell’arte tradition of Italy and english Music Halls. In modern days they became THE Christmas entertainment for kids. And also now for the LGBTQ@+ community.
Often based on a fairy tale like Jack and The Beanstalk, modern pantomime includes songs, gags, slapstick comedy and dancing. It always includes a Dame played by man/drag queen and a Principal Boy played by a very pretty young woman. The audience is encouraged and expected to sing along with certain parts of the music and shout out phrases to the performers, and frankly the whole affair turns into one big camp hoot. Our English Editor saw a Panto every single Christmas when he was growing up and assures us that they didn’t make him gay, and at the time he didn’t even think anything odd about the gender swaps!
We are so happy that this is one art form that ‘the gays’ have adopted as their own and naturally added some glamour and far more questionable innuendoes. This year London’s Phoenix Theatre’s production Tuck Shop’s fourth annual all-drag pantomime ‘Peter Pan‘ which they have told Queerguru is NOT one for children!
Rude, crude and not for prudes, this is the very adult, very hilarious, very demure pantomime from Christopher Clegg the creator of Death Drop, Cool Rider, Gals Aloud and written by Gareth Joyner ( aka the only and only fabulous Myrna DuBois). Starring an incredible line of Drag talent including Drag Race UK Winner Ginger Johnson as Hook, Drag Race legends Kitty Scott-Claus, Cheryl Hole, Kate Butch as the Darling children, Yshee Black as Smee, Mahatma Khandi as the Mermaid, Ophelia Love returns as Villager No.4 (and Tinkerbell!), and Drag King sensation Richard Energy as Peter.
Mon 2 Dec 2024 - Mon 6 Jan 2025 Age Restriction: 16+ Only! Location: The Phoenix Theatre, London |
