MY SON’S A QUEER (BUT WHAT CAN YOU DO) at Edinburgh Festival Fringe
★★★★★
“there’s lots, and I mean LOTS, of camp queer joy and comedy in the show”
Not to sound like a complete weirdo, but I’ve been following Rob Madge’s career for quite some time. I think my first encounter might’ve been a performance of them playing the Artful Dodger in a telly promo performance of Oliver! And then (or it might’ve been before) as Gavroche in the 25th anniversary concert of Les Mis. I think I shared with many others in the delight of seeing their old VHS tapes pop up on Twitter a couple of years ago of them performing as a kid in their living room. So I’m definitely a fan. I was very much also that kid who played dress-up instead of football and used to make my parents watch me “perform” (I use the term loosely) to a CD soundtrack of Disney’s biggest movie hits. Unfortunately, unlike Rob, my parents weren’t that into it and didn’t really know how to work a camcorder. But it did make this show incredibly relatable.
At the setup, we’re welcomed into Rob’s living room where they’ve been practising for their next show. We’re invited into the tech rehearsal. The stage is warm and cosy: an armchair, some drawers, and a small cabinet with family photos atop. The instrumental to zip-a-dee-doo-dah is playing as we take our seats. The show is a mix of original songs and stories from Rob about their stagey childhood, difficult times at school, and queer awakenings, broken up with a fabulous selection of family videos from the old camcorder. The opening song includes the line ‘even though the stage is small’, which might’ve been the case when this show first premiered, but it’s actually on a pretty big stage now in Edinburgh, and deservedly so! But it’s nice to get a sense that Rob’s ambitions are still even bigger.
Besides just being an incredibly talented performer and singer, Rob is also wonderfully charming. They are so easy to watch, and even easier to root for. The humour is on point, and I personally adored the very niche musical theatre references to the likes of Connie Fisher (the winner of BBC One’s talent competition to find the next Maria) and the seventh of Henry VIII’s wives… the swing in Six the Musical! I think every queer adult in the audience could relate to Rob’s first teenage crush on the Pied Piper of Hamelin. We all had our own Pied Piper, I’m sure.
Though there’s lots, and I mean LOTS, of camp queer joy and comedy in My Son’s A Queer, there’s also certainly moments of poignancy; as Rob’s school teacher knocks their confidence, and basically tells them they need to fit into a box that they don’t feel like they belong in. Rob is very grateful for their family, and acknowledges how lucky they are to have them; their dad lifting them up to help them fly, and reading in for all the other parts (sometimes even getting the lines right); their grandad who built them their very own little theatre, and their grandma who was quite happy being spun around on an office chair to replicate the tea cups at Disneyland. But they also acknowledge that not everyone is so lucky. And a message from their dad about parenting really sums up what it should be all about. I look around towards the end of the show to find it’s not just me wiping away the tears… it’s quite a lot of us. The show and Rob’s performance is incredibly touching. For some of us, perhaps there’s a sense of grief for the queer childhood we weren’t able to have. And for others, maybe some hope for the current and future generations of queer young people, who might just be lucky enough to have a family like Rob’s. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions for sure, performed with flair, talent, and total commitment to the camp theatricality of it all. My Son’s A Queer is a brilliant show. It deserves full houses, and I hope it gets them.
Reviewed 12th August 2022
by Joseph Winer
Photography by Mark Senior
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“the show is a glorious tableau of an extraordinary life and career”
Part revue, part cabaret, part catwalk, part circus; part song and dance, part autobiography, part drama, comedy, and a smattering of personal tragedy: Jean Paul Gaultier’s “Fashion Freak Show” explodes onto the London stage like nothing you’ve seen before. For just a couple of hours we are taken on a magical, whirlwind tour of half a century of culture that is “Gaultier”; the enfant terrible who somehow weaved his way into the mainstream psyche. His love affair with celebrity is teasing and affectionate, but his love for fashion is real and enduring. And by the end we have learned that ‘Freakshow’ is not just an alliterative marketing tagline, but a genuine commentary on the world we live in.
It opens with the rather grand assertion that the show is going to “trawl inside his head, his body, and penetrate his soul”. We pocket the claim with the Eurotrash wink with which it is delivered and then settle back for the spectacular journey through Gaultier’s life and career. There is no narration. No libretto. It is a feast for the senses. Film and music have influenced Gaultier’s career as much as fashion has, and “Fashion Freak Show” reveals how much he has influenced film, music and fashion in response.
It begins with his childhood teddy bear, who wore the conical bra decades before Madonna did. We catch glimpses of pivotal moments of his school life, the Folies Bergère in the sixties, his ‘grand amour’, his first fashion show, his brushes with the fashion police, the move to London. Punk, New Wave, ‘nightclubbing’ and the rise and fall of the eighties. AIDS. All the highs, the lows; the scandals and the triumphs; the public and the private. It is thrillingly brought to life by the eighteen strong cast, an impossibly talented troupe of singers, dancers, actors and acrobats. Superbly choreographed by Marion Motin there isn’t a step out of place.
But let’s not forget the theatricality of the costumes. Sensational, beautiful, grotesque, humorous. Serious and ridiculous, and ground-breaking – it is all on show. Outrage is a theme Gaultier seems very comfortable with. He is fearless, a spirit that extends beyond provocation to his ability to poke fun at himself too. A recurring send-up of US Vogue editor, Anna Wintour, is filled with teasing affection, brilliantly crafted to expose the humour alongside the masked mutual admiration.
Matching the sheer extravagance of the performances is the positivity of the message – “Yes you can!” – which is the thread of the show; and of Gaultier’s life. He is a man whose dreams have become a reality. Yet juxtaposed with this are moments of heart-rending poignancy. A slowed-down, a Capella rendition of Cole Porter’s “I Got You Under My Skin” accompanies a haunting ballet depicting the tragic death of Gaultier’s long-term partner, Francis Menuge. Rumour has it that Gaultier is to retire from staging live events, sparking the prospect that “Fashion Freak Show” could be his swan song. If so, we are still soothed by the knowledge that he will still be weaving his magic behind the scenes. But for now, the show is a glorious tableau of an extraordinary life and career. Four years in the making, it has grown from its cabaret roots at the Folies Bergère in Paris to the multi-media experience at the Roundhouse.
Protégés and icons appear throughout, as lookalikes or projections, highlighting the extent of his influence. Among the many; Madonna, Catherine Deneuve, Prince, Grace Jones (who, incidentally, was also in the audience). References fall thick and fast; from the grit of Sid Vicious to the bubble-gum of Plastic Bertrand; film-noir to Rocky Horror; the Roaring Twenties to today’s somewhat simpering twenties. It is all encompassing. “Beauty is in everything”. Gaultier is famous for his outspokenness against cosmetic surgery. Whilst in no way judgemental of people who choose that path, he prefers to celebrate the human form as it comes – in all shapes, sizes and colours. Towards the climax of the evening the ‘Freak Show’ really kicks in. As the costumes become increasingly grotesque, the underlying beauty is enhanced. Especially when the cloaks are stripped away. “We are all freaks. Freak is chic”
There is nothing like this in town at the moment. “Fashion Freak Show” is irrefutably unmissable. “What you’re seeing tonight is my childhood dream” speaks the man himself. It is safe to say that this show is everybody’s dream. Go and live it!
