“It’s not a Panto!” So chastises lead villainess Allura on the first night of Tricity Vogue’s new drag queen musical ‘Heels of
Glory’. Predictably, the audience respond: “Oh yes it is!”
This well-dressed, mature audience knows what it's seeing. Because, indeed, Heels of Glory is panto. A wonderful, silly panto.
In drag.
Sedentary Gentleman last night undertook a rare Dickensian excursion
over the South Downs up to London Town to the Royal Vauxhall
Tavern. Such exertion to support this new musical from uber-burlesque
talent Tricity Vogue. After all, Tricity had performed wonderfully at the cast
and crew screening of House Trafalgar and this gentleman knew he would be in
for a treat as well as returning a favour.
The plot is simple and frothy enough: two drag queens bicker
their way into supporting their drag idol Diva at the Douche Club. The Diva is
played by the incredible, aloof Dusty Limits by way of Marlene Dietrich. When
the Diva goes missing, the two queens embark on a James-Bond-in-Drag
investigation culminating in a showdown with the evil kidnapping Allura and her
two not-men-at-all henchmen in a secret underground base. Or something.
But Heels of Glory isn’t about plot. It’s about great songs
and showing off and men in women’s clothes saying ‘bitch’ a lot. And women in
men’s clothes. And really really great songs.
Sedentary Gentlemen has not often found himself in women’s
clothes. There was that weird Christmas play version of Cinderella back in the
1990s when he played a kind of Russian Siouxsie wicked queen but apart from
that he usually stays sartorially faithful to the gender into which he was
born.
Heels of Glory turns that all on its head. In this show, the
drag queen is the norm. The self-loving, knowingly shallow, catty,
over-dramatic, dry, self-mocking way of being is our moral centre. A celebration of the transgressive, the most
transgressive aspect of this show is how un-transgressive it seems. Granted,
this was a home crowd, in a friendly venue but this show is distinctly
mainstream; in a good way.
There was a welcome, joyous half-baked feel to this
try-out performance, lapped up by the audience. One of the performers had been
recruited the night before, and his/her attempts to deliver a part via the
novel conduit of Kindle provided almost as many laughs as the scripted
material.
I think Tricity wants her show to be out there for everyone. She succeeds. Maybe more performances will trim it down a bit, get it into shape. Perhaps there is a little more room for daring but as a statement of intent, this was one great night. Perhaps it put me in mind of my own DISCO show.
It certainly made me want to get out there and DO IT!! So thanks Tricity, Dusty and all the cast.
True inspiration!
But tonight it's back to the slippers for Sedentary Gentleman. Far too much excitement for one day.
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