The Ballad Of The Burning Star is at the Battersea Arts Centre until 8 March.
While drag acts are now commonplace around London’s cabaret joints from the Black Cap to the Hippodrome, they are still too rare a sight on the stages of theatreland. Considering the historical treatment meted out to drag musicals, who can blame them? In the 1980s, London’s La Cages Aux Folles closed early with the cast and producers largely attributing blame to the widespread homophobia around AIDS. Last year, Kinky Boots’ appearance at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade created a Twitter backlash with some intellectual pigmies labelling it “a disgrace” and “disgusting and wrong”.
Into the fray enters Ballad Of The Burning Star at the Battersea Arts Centre for a three-week run. Not shy to explore one of the most explosive political topics of the day, director Nir Paldi appears as his cross-dressing alter ego Star in a musical play about nothing less than the history of the Israeli state. Through songs, anecdotes and sketches, Paldi creates magical allusions to the country and its recent past. It has already picked up awards from The Guardian, The Stage and Broadway Baby with The Guardian’s Lyn Gardner calling it “a theatrical hand-grenade” and the Independent describing it as “political vaudeville with a vengeance”.
Here’s what Paldi has to say about his creation.
The official trailer can be found here with more information and tickets are available from the Battersea Arts Centre website.
This is a sponsored post.
Recent Comments