Review: SLEEPING BEAUTY, Harold Pinter Theatre
RuPaul’s Drag Race has brought drag culture to a mainstream TV audience and has created a following of loud and passionate fans who adore the unique styling and comedy of its characters. Occasionally, this culture breaks out on to the West End stage and following the recent Death Drop productions and two previous panto runs, Tuckshop now bring Sleeping Beauty to the Harold Pinter Theatre for eight performances only.
The pantomime genre with its tradition of cross dressing, innuendo and over the top comedy is a natural vehicle for the phenomenon.
They have the audience eating out of their hands from the first moment that two ensemble members pirouette across the stage to hold up crudely made cardboard signs to encourage audience participation. Indeed, you don’t expect to see high production values from an eight show West End run, and the crinkled back cloth and old battered steps and balustrade on which the whole show is set confirms that. Yet the sheer exuberant energy and presence of the performers carries the show and sweeps the audience along in a celebration of LGBTQIA+ culture.
At times, the comedy does seem to be one huge ‘in joke’ that the cast and most of the audience are in on. The Prince comments “imagine being an American in this” and some of us are “missing the cultural references” to emphasise that it is an intended part of the experience. The running gag in which each cast member appears to notice that they have lost their watch generates whoops of delight from the audience on every occasion!
The show works because the main performers have bags of experience in working an audience. Michael Marouli (Series 5 of RuPaul’s Drag Race) is fabulous as the Fairy, welcoming all of the other fairies in the house to the show and delivering the lines with a withering acerbic wit. His Brexit spell goes down well as do a succession of anti-Tory jibes. Kate Butch (also Series 5 of RuPaul’s Drag Race) as Queen Camilla is magnificent even if her jokes about strapping yourself in for a series of Princess Diana jokes do still feel inappropriate and out of place. They could both make the switch to traditional long running pantomime and join La Voix (Wycombe Swan), Ceri Dupree (Bristol Hippodrome) or Myra Dubois (Manchester Opera House) as a modern Dame. Victoria Scone (Series 3 of RuPaul’s Drag Race) is game for anything as Carabosse and revels in the role, loving the boos.
Tuckshop regular Kitty Scott Claus makes a very winsome Princess Beauty along with Ophelia Love as Villager No 4, finally getting her own song in Act 2. There are two drag kings, Kemah Bob as Handsome and LoUis CYfer as the King, and they both get their moments in the spotlight. Several of them make the pitch for a Whatsonstage Award, although it is unclear why they don’t aim higher for an Olivier or a Pantomime Award as Julian Clary’s London Palladium production has achieved!
There are some good music choices with the Fairy giving us the 1983 hit ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)’, Beauty sings ‘I Can Dance’, Camilla belts out the 1986 hit ‘Venus’, Carabosse delivers the classic ‘I Put A Spell On You’, and Beauty and the Prince duet the 1981 hit ‘Don’t Stop Believing’. Each anthem is put across in full on cabaret style.
The traditional pantomime business of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ gets an adult update with its props, the Ghost scene takes place rather awkwardly on the steps and the song sheet led by Muddles (Yshee Black), Zach Parkin and Mukeni Nel pits one side of the house against the other in ‘Padam Padam’. Pantomime would not be pantomime without these elements in its latest incarnations.
The overall effect is very recognisable as pantomime but with a large dose of adult language and themes, and a strong sense of its cultural origins. It is a show that knows its audience and what it responds to. The genre suits the style, so Sleeping Beauty is a much more successful show than the crime thriller spoof Deathdrop and if you are a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race, this is surely a must-see trip to the West End before the end of 2023.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Nick Wayne
Sleeping Beauty plays at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre until 31 December, with tickets available here: