Queerguru’s Andrew Hebden reviews ‘Only An Octave Apart’ literally the hottest ticket in London right now

ONLY A OCTAVE APART☆☆☆☆☆
Wiltons Music Hall, London

You know when you are at the hottest ticket in town when you cast your eyes around and realise that sat in front of you is supermodel Kate Moss, so entranced by the show, that instead of nipping out every 5 minutes to blaze through her customary carton of cigarettes, she is prepared to sit happily and finger her Nicorette instead.

The show that has us all enraptured is Only an Octave Apart, at Wilton’s Music Hall, starring Justin Vivian Bond and Anthony Roth Costanzo. Coming to the end of its run soon you might be able to get a ticket still but we can’t promise anything. Kate may have reserved all the future seats for her entourage of ashtrays. She knows where it’s at. 

Ostensibly Only An Octave Apart is the pairing of two delightfully different musical ingredients with the intention of creating a whole new smorgasbord of sound. In this case the throaty drawling of the cabaret cougar of the Lower East Side, Justin Vivian Bond, with the Upper West Side operatic darling Anthony Roth Costanzo. They could not be more different. But the combination is heavenly. Bond has the ability to play the audience, seducing them into dirty laughs with an arched eyebrow, cynical wit, and toe taps to the rhythm of their hips. Whereas Costanzo is all classical form and a pitch-perfect switch-hitting between both the feminine and masculine roles of opera. Together they take familiar songs, whether pop, classical or jazz, to refreshing new places without losing their timeless appeal. 

Despite the abundance of torch songs and the tears there is a crackling sense of humour. Bond, who is ‘only a bee’s dick away from white trash’ has the best one-liners. While dueling with Costanzo over the difference between their musical heritages Bond delivers the ultimate put down ‘The best thing about opera is that when you wake up, you’re at the opera’. But of course, it’s all in fun. They genuinely have chemistry. Bond’s rare ability to take a specialist performer like Roth and open their art up to new kinds of audiences reminds us that great cabaret, like great opera, has its own set of techniques. But for sheer vocal genius, and a dollop of crazy,  Roth duetting alone as both the Count and Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro was impossible to beat. 

Only An Octave Apart is a charismatic show that manages to take the big emotions of opera and remind us that pop music is equally able to tackle them. While nothing gets in the way of the music the stagecraft uses the simplest of techniques to thrilling effect, making a two-person show seem like an ensemble, and two stars seem like a constellation.