Alexis Gregory’s cri/cally acclaimed Riot Act returns to West End cabaret venue Crazy Coqs, following sell-out Pride 2022, and World AIDS Day ’22 performances, and following its successful ou/ng on the West End at the Duchess Theatre, three UK wide tours, and an online digital reimagining and global streaming. This hard-hitting, but outrageously funny verba/m solo-show was created from Gregory’s interviews with a Stonewall survivor, a radical drag ar/st, and an AIDS activist. The World AIDS Day date is another rare chance to see the audience-favorite in an intimate, cabaret setting.
Writer and performer Alexis Gregory interviewed three members of the LGBTQ+ rights movement to form this poignant and entertaining show: Michael-Anthony Nozzi, a rare survivor of the 1969 Stonewall riots; Lavinia Co-op, an alternative ‘70s drag artist; and Paul Burston, a ‘90s AIDS activist. Directed by Stonewall (1995) writer and LGBTQ+ theatre legend Rikki Beadle-Blair MBE, Riot Act, and Gregory’s ‘channeling’ of the three characters, brings to life the stories of three key players in the history of the LGBTQ+ rights movement, in a breath-taking and hilarious exploration of six decades of queer history.
‘Riot Act’ is a rip-roaring, wild, white-knuckle ride through six decades of queer history, taking the audience right up to the present day; provocative, tender, truthful, funny, poli/cal and personal, these are stories of queerness, love, drag, community, family, childhood, youth, ageing, Leather Queens, and….a Hollywood diva somewhere over the rainbow. A celebration of queer activism across the decades; pulling no punches, hilarious, moving and inspiring… It’s a riot.
Alexis Gregory,
Creator, and Performer, comments, I’m really excited to be bringing ‘Riot Act’ back to London’s premier cabaret venue Crazy Coqs. My two previous dates at the venue last year were some of the most electric evenings in the show’s history. ‘Riot Act’ seems to have taken on a new life at this beautiful, intimate venue, and it is a real ‘experience’ to visit this gem of a performance space in the heart of Piccadilly Circus.
Director Rikki Beadle-Blair MBE says No mtter how many Dmes I see this extraordinary performance, in rehearsal or in performance, I get transformed to laughing, crying, goosebump- covered fanboy. From moment to moment, It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry. Sometimes we find ourselves doing both at the same time. Every single performance is a wow; both Alexis’s increasingly-nuanced performance and the audience’s hunger for untold history and unmistakable sense of joy.
The Crazy Coq Pride ’23 performance will be followed by a book signing at the venue of the published play text.
The Riot Act Pride ‘23 date follows the shows successful outings at the Duchess Theatre (West End), Arcola Theatre, Turbine Theatre and Kings Head Theatre in London, three UK tours; most recently a Pride ’22 tour, a mini tour in summer 2021, and an online digital reimagining created in partnership with Hackney Empire,
P.S. IF you are not able to make it to Crazy Coqss and/or London then there is good news you can now watch it streaming around the Globe via Broadway On Demand …….just click below
