BREVIEW: BenDeLaCrème @ The Glee Club (B’ham) 29.03.18

BenDeLaCrème @ The Glee Club (B’ham) 29.03.18

Words & illustrations by Emily Doyle

The Glee Club is dark and full when compère Alfie Ordinary appears on stage. Some might recognise his pageboy haircut and Twiggy-esque makeup from a certain car advert. He’s not here to sell you a reasonably priced three-door hatchback tonight; Ordinary is hosting the evening on behalf of Eat Sleep Drag Repeat, and doing so with bells on.

Styling himself as a ‘drag prince’, he skips across the stage welcoming the crowd. Clad in a bedazzled suit jacket and shorts, he seems to be wearing as much glitter as is physically possible as he welcomes the acts to the stage. That is until he returns after the interval – kicking off the second half of the show with a sing-a-long rendition of ‘Any Dream Will Do’, Ordinary is resplendent in his very own technicolour dreamcoat.

Birmingham drag performer Paul Aleksandr is there to represent the local scene. One quarter of our city’s Dragpunk Collective, Aleksandr describes himself as a clubkid and genderfucker with “a slight Slenderman vibe”. That vibe is clear from his performance tonight. Appearing on stage in one if his now trademark creations of body paint and butchered cuddly toys, Aleksandr performs a perfectly urgent lip sync to ‘I’m Late’ from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. The forlorn-looking stuffed rabbit on his headpiece flops its ears as he gesticulates.

Eva Serration was a late addition to the line-up tonight, travelling down from Manchester to join the ESDR party. Her drag takes pop culture and cinematic tropes and weaves them into political, avant-garde drag. She cuts Lady Gaga’s mariachi tinged protest song ‘Americano’ with soundbites from Donald Trump, and proceeds to demolish a makeshift wall with a golf club.

Throughout the night we see her best Miley Cyrus, complete with a wig reveal homage to Sasha Velours’ iconic ‘So Emotional’ performance, and a fond nod to Tarantino’s bloodthirsty schoolgirl Gogo Yubari. While Serration’s drag isn’t the most polished of the night, her performance is innovative – and who at a drag show is going to complain about a bit of Trump bashing?

Lydia L’Scabies proves “the bigger the hair, the better the queen” with her inspired routine to ‘Big Spender’. The University of Brighton Performance Art graduate (where did you think drag queens came from?) gives the best comedic turn of the night with her jarring performance. Don’t let anybody tell you that lip syncing Shirley Bassey can’t be original.

A heartfelt performance of ‘Jessie’s Song’ from Toy Story 2 while dressed as a “personal massager” makes up her second turn. L’Scabies execution is bold and theatrical, but the joke is arguably played out before the song is over.

Of course, the crowd is here to see BenDeLaCrème; following her controversial departure from Ru Paul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 3, DeLa has been the subject of much discussion. Fellow competitors sarcastically dubbed the queen “BenDeLaChrist” after she ducked out of the competition early, keeping her ‘terminally delightful’ reputation intact and telling Ru Paul “I feel like a winner”. A group of fans online have taken her departure as a personal slight against them. BenDeLaCrème has something to say about this.

The opening bars of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ fill The Glee Club. In a pure white robe, DeLa makes her first appearance on stage. She takes the mic and launches into a smarting takedown of the viewer response to the series.

She performs an original song on the subject live – later revealing that she wrote it especially for this UK tour – as familiar voice samples from the TV show play throughout. DeLa produces a golden crown of thorns and shrugs off her robe to reveal a bodysuit sequined to represent the wounds of the crucifixion. She poses, and the track finishes. When the applause subsides, she wishes the crowd a happy Easter.

The rest of the show sees BenDeLaCrème charm the crowd with her trademark persona. She coaxes audience members through a lip sync and performs a fan favourite from the TV show, her burlesque comedy routine. For the unacquainted, this involves DeLa removing bra after bra, revealing increasingly ludicrous nipple tassles. It’s a crowdpleaser, although it doesn’t have the same impact as her original material.

The next day, I caught up with performer Paul Aleksandr to get his take on the evening:

“I really loved how full a show it was, and how it flowed so well – Birmingham hasn’t had that many shows like that before so it’s a wonderful new standard. 

I love how self aware DeLa is. She talked about drag, the politics of it, her leaving (RuPaul Drag Race All Stars), with humour and a real knowledge of what fans think and do. She is there, like Sasha Velour is known for, with a message of inclusivity and diversity for LGBTQ people. And she came to The Nightingale After-Party, despite a busy schedule, and witnessed the best of Birmingham’s young and old queer folk on what was the club’s busiest night of the year.” 

For more on BenDeLaCrème, visit www.bendelacreme.com 

For more on Paul Aleksander, visit www.instagram.com/paul_aleksandr 

For more on Alfie Ordinary, visit www.alfieordinary.com

For more on Lydia L’Scabies, visit www.instagram.com/lydialscabies 

For more on Eva Serration, visit www.instagram.com/evaserration

For more from Eat Sleep Drag Repeat, visit www.esdrevents.co.uk

For more from The Glee Club, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk

BPREVIEW: BenDeLaCrème @ The Glee Club (B’ham) 29.03.18

BenDeLaCrème @ The Glee Club (B’ham) 29.03.18

Words by Emily Doyle

In the wake of the scandalous third series of Ru Paul’s Drag Race All Stars, the ‘terminally delightful’ BenDeLaCrème is packing up her wigs and hitting the road – coming to The Glee Club in Birmingham on Thursday 29th March.

Door open at The Glee Club from 6:30pm to 7:30pm, with the show scheduled to start at 8pm (please note, latecomers will not be admitted). Minimum age of entry is 14, with under 16s needing adult accompaniment. Tickets for all ages are priced at £20 plus a booking fee – as presented by Eat Sleep Drag Repeat. For direct show information, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

Known for her upbeat, comedic drag and 1950’s inspired looks, BenDeLaCrème was voted ‘Miss Congeniality’ in Season 6 of Ru Paul’s cult TV show. Now a Birmingham audience can spend the evening with her (…at The Glee Club) in a show hosted by the self-styled ‘drag prince’ Alfie Ordinary, who will be coming up from Brighton to spread some bedazzled cheer.

Fresh from winning Pick of the Fringe at the Adelaide Fringe festival, with his show Help! I Think I Might Be Fabulous, Ordinary promises to deliver hosting that will be anything but. Also visiting from Brighton is Lydia L’Scabies; with a look created by people watching at her local nightclubs, L’Scabies describes herself as ‘dim, sweet, and a mite-ridden skank.’

A key player in Birmingham’s Dragpunk collective, Paul Aleksandr will be also bringing a touch of the macabre to the proceedings. Aleksandr uses his genderfuck jester persona to ‘inject some needed queerness into LGBTQ culture and society’; combining body paint, cuddly toys, and nails to rival Edward Scissorhands, his theatrical style explores new frontiers in contemporary drag and gender politics.

When reached for comment, Aleksandr had the following to say: “I’m looking forward to a showcase of modern drag culminating in BenDeLaCrème, in a venue that’s proving to be a popular choice. Eat Sleep Drag Repeat are really lovely and professional which is refreshing, and want to deliver some variety and excitement to the support acts and final show.”

BenDeLaCrème also sees drag as a tool for examining issues of gender and sexuality, albeit taking a very different approach to Aleksandr. DeLa considers drag an ‘an inherently political act’, one that she carries out with charm, delight, and an array of 1950s pin up costumes.

Over her decade long career, BenDeLaCrème has toured the world with three critically acclaimed solo shows, alongside appearing in two series of the crossover TV hit Ru Paul’s Drag Race. Now at the centre of one of the shows most shocking moments to date (no spoilers here) DeLa shows no signs of slowing down. Catch her in The Glee Club’s 420 capacity main room while you still can.

BenDeLaCrème comes to The Glee Club (B’ham) on Thursday 29th March, joined on stage by Alfie Ordinary, Lydia L’Scabies and Paul Aleksander – as presented by Eat Sleep Drag Repeat. For direct show information, including venue details and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk/performer/bendelacreme

For more on BenDeLaCrème, visit www.bendelacreme.com

For more on Alfie Ordinary, visit www.alfieordinary.com

For more on Lydia L’Scabies, visit www.instagram.com/lydialscabies 

For more on Paul Aleksandr, visit www.instagram.com/paul_aleksandr

For more from Eat Sleep Drag Repeat, visit www.esdrevents.co.uk

For more from The Glee Club, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk