DRAG CABARET
Meat Market Nth Melbourne until Sat June 25, 2022, then touring to London's West End
Stars: **** (4)
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
This review was first published in The Age Arts online on on Friday 24 June, then in print on Thursday 24 June 2022.
Click this link: Yummy Iconic.Scroll down to the third review (past SIX and Harlequinade) to read Iconic review. (Part of a collection of reviews in The Age).
Or read review below. KH
 |
Valerie Hex with bears in Yummy’s Iconic.Credit:Jacinta Oaten |
The review:
Iconic, a wickedly audacious, flamboyant drag and burlesque show by award-winning Australian cabaret company Yummy, tantalises with high-camp acts that satirise and celebrate pop culture, divas and icons.
An excitable audience sits on three sides of a catwalk, with the front row close enough to touch artists performing acts ranging from trapeze to striptease, magic and fan dancing, all accompanied by pulsating pop tunes.
The cast sashays onto the catwalk in a parade of eye-popping, extravagant costumes fashioned from lamé, velvet, patent leather, lycra or gossamer-thin fabrics in outrageous, backless, topless or bottomless outfits that reveal muscled bodies.
The opening song, Iconic by Madison Rose, sets the tone with Yummy’s homage to supermodels and pop idols as the cast struts and dances while lip-syncing Rose’s lyrics: “I wanna walk like Tyra. I wanna look like Linda Evangelista. I wanna be Madonna.”
Queer performer Valerie Hex is the imposing, charming and witty MC of this transgressive show, and also the mastermind of Iconic, which is set to tour London’s West End.
In a fashion parade of ostentatious outfits, Hex links the acts, firing up the audience with razor-sharp humour and bold innuendo. Dressed in purple lamé, a tribute to Prince’s obsession with that colour, Hex performs a memorable magic routine to When Doves Cry, during which he hilariously destroys several magician’s doves by disembowelling, dropping or roasting.
Masterly circus artist Jarred Dewey performs three remarkable acts. His flawless, breathtaking static trapeze and pole routines display exceptional skill, strength and muscularity, and his exquisite acrobatic dance and contortion defy the laws of human anatomy and flexibility.
Jandruze performs a hot and dangerous fire-dance and turns sandwich-making into a kinky, simulated sex act with outsized bread, cheese and a bottle of mayonnaise.
Burlesque artist Themme Fatale, a guest on the program, is sassy and provocative: “Being queer is a little bit weird, hard and a little bit dangerous,” they declare, before lying on a bed of nails while an audience member stands on them. Themme returns wearing pink lamé and wild make-up, then defiantly and alarmingly staples paper money to their backside.
Hollywould, another guest, arrives in a flouncy, mauve gown then proceeds to remove it in a saucy striptease showcasing the bounciest buttocks in the show.
Iconic sends the crowd home delighted and titillated with a final tribute to gay icon, Britney Spears. “You listen to one mix tap of Britney and you turn gay,” quips Hex, and everyone leaves smiling. Reviewed by Kate Herbert
This review first published in The Age Arts. See details and link to The Age at top of this post. KH
Cast:
Valerie Hex
Jarred Dewey
Jandruze
Bendy Ben
Karlee Misis
Themme Fatale
Hollywould
 |
| Jarred Dewey-Trapeze |
No comments:
Post a Comment