Latest news with #Cockettes
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Midnight at the Palace review – glittering tribute to San Francisco's flamboyant Cockettes
This riotous ensemble captures the countercultural spirit of the 1970s and the heart of the San Francisco drag outfit the Cockettes from the off. Playing the psychedelic theatre troupe made up of hippies and drag queens, these eight performers are magnetic, conjuring up a cabaret wildness between them. They sing, dance and sashay out from beyond a red curtain in outre outfits. Allen and Adcock's costumes are stone cold fabulous: a storm of fishnets, feathers, kooky dresses, long socks and bodices. There are Sgt Pepper jackets twinned with ballerina tutus and a dazzle of sequins. The choreography by Paul McGill is cheeky, quirky, cute. It is all so imaginative, and winning. The one – significant – setback is that there is just not enough to Rae Binstock's skimpy book. The Cockettes get together, make it big in San Francisco and are booked for New York, but their opening night is a flop, so they go back home. You get a sense of what this LSD-taking troupe stands for and that they become their own chosen family. But there is no filling in of the details so you do not learn much about their avant-gardism, and that they endeavoured to put their lifestyle on stage. There is a central tension between Hibiscus (Andrew Horton, whose song, A Crab on Uranus, is a highlight) and Sylvester (Gregory Haney, just as good with his song, There's a Lady on the Stage). The former refuses to go to New York but this fallout is not carried through. Hibiscus merely makes a return by the end of the play when all is well again. The bigger political anxieties of the time waver in the background via 'read all about it' news-stand summaries, from the Vietnam war to the assassination of Martin Luther King, race riots and National Guard violence against protesting students. It's broad-brush and, at times, the sense of anarchy on stage trips over into confusion. Under the direction of McGill, it is not always immediately clear what is going on. This is not helped by a sound system that seems to over-amplify voices so that lyrics are occasionally hard to discern. The singing is still sparky, with Baylie Carson, who plays Sweet Pam, especially characterful. We hang on for Brandon James Gwinn's songs as well as the dance and glitter of the performances. And despite the dearth of story, there is such zest and infectious joy to the show that it enlivens you, mayhem and all. At Big Yin at Gilded Balloon Patter House, Edinburgh, until 24 August All our Edinburgh festival reviews
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Scotsman
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Fringe Opera & Musical Theatre reviews: Midnight at the Palace + more
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Midnight at the Palace Gilded Balloon Patter House (Venue 24) ★★★★★ As the flower-power Sixties slumped into the Vietnam/Watergate Seventies, a group of misfits and non-conformists from a commune in San Francisco's notorious Haight-Ashbury district began to coalesce, staging raucous, shocking, gender- and sexuality-shaking shows for their own amusement, before taking the city by storm. You've probably never heard of the Cockettes – neither had I. But by the end of the outrageous, subversive, in-your-face but loving and affectionate Midnight at the Palace, you'll be in no doubt as to their role as short-lived pioneers in bending outdated notions of gender and sexuality to breaking point, and in embodying those freethinking ideas in their own wild lives. Midnight at the Palace | Damian Robertson More importantly at the Fringe, however, you might well have your jaw on the floor at the sheer energy blazing from the stage in writer Rae Binstock and composer Brandon James Gwinn's dazzling musical, which follows the Cockettes on their seemingly unstoppable rise and their nosedive back to the ground after their disastrous attempt to break New York. Well, attempt might be going too far: as Binstock and Gwinn point out, it was their shoddy, half-assed attitude to rehearsal that cost the Cockettes their chance at greater fame – and pointed to deeper rifts within the group between those with their eyes on the spotlights and those who doggedly retained their countercultural waywardness. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad If Binstock and Gwinn supply a succession of memorable numbers that capture the spirit and sounds of the times, it's director/choreographer Paul McGill's eight performers who bring the show to vivid life, embodying the carefully crafted chaos that lies behind so many of its achievements. Song and dance numbers are bold and in your face in designers Max Allen and Elliott Adcock's teeming, apparently thrown-together set, complete with hand-written intertitles and naive paintings of the group's beloved home city. The cast is uniformly exceptional: the corrupted innocence of Baylie Carson's Pam and the preening confidence of Andrew Horton's ringleader Hibiscus stand out, but Gregory Haney's imperious Sylvester (the only Cockette you might have heard of, as the show admits) dominates every scene he's in. Midnight at the Palace is a whole lot of taboo-breaking fun, but – like the Cockettes themselves – it also joyfully embodies all the values that it celebrates. DAVID KETTLE until 24 August Sense – A New Musical About Dementia theSpaceTriplex (Venue 38) ★★★★☆ The Smits' family members are gathering for their annual Christmas Eve traditions, but things have changed. Grandpa Albert is struggling to remember his relations' names, and awaiting the arrival of his long-deceased wife with increasing agitation. Among the younger members of the family, too, there are strains and dark secrets. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The late-night scheduling of sensitive musical Sense, from Antwerp's Plotfish company in collaboration with the Belgian Alzheimer's League, doesn't do it any favours, nor encourage the kind of close attention and consideration that the show seems to politely request. But don't let that put you off: it's a quietly spoken, poignant reflection on family ties, aging and mental decline, conveyed in a smooth, vivid production with excellent singing from its five-strong cast, and even – that rare thing on the Fringe – an elegant set (courtesy of designer Yannic Duchateau). Jens Goossens's storyline deftly sketches in some believable and relatable characters, while Femke Verschueren's music – though it remains on the inoffensive, easy-listening side of pop – is nonetheless memorable and offers plenty of opportunities for the singers to soar. Erik Goris has focus and fracturing gravitas as affable Albert, while Daan Keisse is likeably sparky as Albert's grandson Thomas, whose secret looks set to increase Albert's confusion still further. Composer Verschueren has a feisty, nimble role as Albert's remembered wife Elisabeth. With its perhaps overly careful treatment of its subject matter, you couldn't accuse Sense of breaking new ground or provoking new perspectives on Alzheimer's. And the wider fallout of Albert's decline on his family is perhaps left a little late to be fully explored. Nonetheless, it's a high-class, high-production-value show that tackles its everyday storyline with due sensitivity, and serves as a moving reminder of the universal values of compassion and family love. DAVID KETTLE until 22 August Falling in Love with Mr Dellamort C aquila (Venue 21) ★★★★☆ Wagner had Tristan and Isolde; Debussy had Pelleas and Melisande. Love, sex and death have been inseparable bedfellows in all the greatest works of musical theatre. And those iconic and doomed romantic duos from centuries past are now followed by … Jonathan and Sue? Okay, Jack Feldstein and Paul Doust's high-camp, strutting, preening musical comedy might not be quite up there with those masterworks of grand opera, but it has all the makings of a Fringe cult hit. And its gloriously silly storyline of seduction and destruction line it up right next to those operatic classics – with a hefty dose of Rocky Horror thrown in for good measure. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Though he announces himself as the Angel of Death, the mysterious Mr Dellamort seems more concerned with tidying furniture and wiping crockery in his seaside B&B when he invites a trio of unfortunates to stay and to succumb to his considerable charms. That's until Manchester-bound Ms Grimshaw makes an unexpected appearance, however, and throws his carefully laid plans up in the air. In truth, though, Mr Dellamort's paper-thin plot is hardly its most attractive feature – even if it puts a nicely progressive spin on the age-old trope of strangers gathering in a spooky isolated house. More impressive by far is the sheer panache and over-the-top chutzpah of the performances, from Robert Tripolino's preening Dellamort to the sinister simpering of Grace Farrell's Grimshaw, all soundtracked by spooky swooping from Cornelius Loy's live theremin playing. There's plenty of vocal power on display (and no lack of subtlety too), and director Abigail Zealey Bess keeps the glamour high and the pace swift. Is there much here to challenge or provoke? Not really, but with its gothic excess, its dangerous flamboyance and its attention-grabbing performances, there's plenty to charm and seduce. DAVID KETTLE until 24 August Song Society Underbelly, Bristo Square (Venue 302) ★★★☆☆ until 25 August This is a charming and intimate one-woman musical which looks at memories, our connections to ourselves and our past. The story revolves around a wacky machine designed to erase unwanted memories that fill the mind, archiving them instead by turning them into song. Featuring acoustic folk-pop melodies, Florencia Iriondo fills the air with soothing vocals. As the Songkeeper who puts the memories into the machine she has a sweet, almost whimsical presence, aided by her gentle movement and floaty costume. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The memories being filed away appear to be low-impact moments, like the cringe-worthy embarrassment of calling your boss 'Dad,' or pronouncing the 'l' in 'salmon.' While these are far from life-changing, the story gradually reveals a memory from the Songkeeper's past that carries weight. The show is not quite absurd but it certainly includes some silly moments, particularly when Iriondo attempts to fix the machine with socks and a floppy baguette, adding a playful touch. Even the voice of Amy Sedaris bizarrely appears from the machine. Beneath the lightheartedness, the show offers deeper reflections. Like Pixar's Inside Out, it reminds us that our identities are shaped by moments and memories – both the silly and profound. It's a warm, accessible experience in an intimate venue, with a touch of audience engagement that makes us feel like welcome friends. SUZANNE O'BRIEN until 24 August Or Die Trying ★★☆☆☆ Dunedin Theatre at Braw Venues @ Hill Street (Venue 41) Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Framed as a reading for the (presumed) late poet Leah McBride's final anthology – hosted by her friend Alice – Or Die Trying serves as a seance between a ghostly, resentful Leah and Alice's guilty conscience. Both actors embody their roles in a fully believable manner: Leah prowls around the stage as if stalking her prey, while Alice is evocative of Lady Macbeth, perfectly toeing the line between grief-stricken and unhinged. Sadly, the repetitive nature of the songs and script simply doesn't allow the pair to develop beyond their initial characterisations – leaving us underinvested in Leah's eventual fate. ARIANE BRANIGAN until 10 August
Times
04-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Meet the Cockettes — the gender-bending hippies who inspired David Bowie
Decades before anyone thought up the term nonbinary, back when the word queer was still an insult, a handful of hippies embraced flamboyance, cross-dressing and, in the words of the Cockettes founding member Richard 'Scrumbly' Koldewyn, gender confusion. The Cockettes were a drag troupe formed in late-Sixties San Francisco who, inspired by a heady mix of LSD, communal living and Busby Berkeley musicals, put on wild shows with titles like Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma and Pearls over Shanghai at the Pagoda Palace, a countercultural cinema in the city's North Beach neighbourhood. Their leader, Hibiscus, aka George Harris III, combined a full beard with vintage dresses, glitter make-up and a treasure chest's worth of costume jewellery. By 1973 the Cockettes were over but not before they had become a key influence on David Bowie, the director John Waters, The Rocky Horror Show and drag queens the world over. On his first trip to San Francisco in 1971 Bowie was asked during a radio interview what he wanted to do while he was in the city. 'I want to see the Cockettes,' came the reply. Now they're back. Midnight at the Palace, a new play at the Edinburgh Fringe, celebrates the rise and fall of the world's most camp hippy revolutionaries. 'January 1, 1968, I arrived in San Francisco,' says 'Sweet' Pam Tent, 75, author of Midnight at the Palace: My Life as a Fabulous Cockette, the book on which the show is based. 'I was living on air and LSD.' 'And tomatoes from the back of the Safeway,' adds Koldewyn, the Cockettes' musical director. Back then, Koldewyn wore a giant pretzel as a hat. Now he's a sober-looking 79-year-old who, over a video call from New York, explains how the Cockettes emerged from the San Francisco counterculture. Starting it all was Hibiscus, who left a wealthy theatre-loving family in Westchester, New York, to combine the idealism of the Kaliflower Commune, a utopian community he was a part of, with drag — not something the hippies had previously embraced. 'We were an oasis in a desert,' Koldewyn says. 'In '69 I was in Golden Gate Park with my head in a guy's lap when this hippy dude walked by and said, 'What's the matter, can't you find a woman?' We influenced the gay rights movement, but at the same time the Cockettes were never political. We were just having fun.' 'We parodied everything,' adds Tent, who points out that not all the Cockettes were gay. A member of the troupe called Marshall Olds, who went heavier on the glitter than anyone, was straight, while the women embraced drag just as much as the men. 'We took the culture of the street and put it on the stage. Nothing was sacred.' • John Waters: 'It's too easy to be gay' This included performing classic show tunes while high on drugs, although Koldewyn, as musical director and designated driver, usually confined himself to the odd joint. 'Remember that time we smoked angel dust with [the blues legend] Johnny Winter?' he asks Pam Tent. 'That was weird.' 'Oh yeah. We were doing Hell's Harlots and Marshall ended up in hospital,' Tent, also now living in New York, recalls. 'Then there was the time Goldie Glitters [aka the Cockette Michael Heesy] took MDA before a show and had an epileptic fit. She was waving from a stretcher like the Queen Mother, screaming, 'They're taking me away!' while dressed as the Bride of Frankenstein. There was a lot going on back then that we wouldn't get away with today.' 'Like people f***ing in the aisles,' Koldewyn interjects. 'That happened a lot.' This has provided rich material for the new show. 'I was hearing all these stories, and it was clear that the political moment the Cockettes were existing in mirrored our current one,' Joey Monda, producer of Midnight of the Palace, says. Back then it was Richard Nixon; now it is Donald Trump. 'There is a lot to be scared and despondent about right now but the Cockettes were also in a period of political oppression and they got through it.' The Cockettes were also forerunners of trans identity. 'There we were, the first bearded drag queens,' Koldewyn says. 'We didn't hide our genitalia — in fact it got more than its fair share of glitter — because we realised that gender really doesn't matter, does it? It's what is coming from the inside that counts.' All this made the Cockettes a high society cause célèbre, attracting fans from Sylvia Miles to Gloria Vanderbilt. The future disco sensation Sylvester arrived in 1970 to audition with a gospel rendition of the theme to The Mickey Mouse Club, and everyone realised they had a seriously good singer in their midst. The Baltimore director John Waters, whose early trash classic Multiple Maniacs was a midnight movie favourite at the Palace, brought his own drag star, Divine, to meet the Cockettes in 1971, introducing an anti-flower power energy to the troupe. That's when a schism formed, with Hibiscus wanting to maintain the original communal, anticapitalist spirit and other members of the Cockettes wanting to get paid, not least after an offer came to transfer the show to New York. • The Rocky Horror Show would not get made today, claims creator Richard O'Brien 'Truman Capote and Rex Reed came to see the show at the Palace and loved it,' Tent recalls. 'Rex wrote a syndicated column, raving about how this was the only true theatre, so we got an offer to play the Anderson Theatre on 2nd Avenue. They hired a bus and we got trotted out to society parties, all dragged up.' What worked at midnight in San Francisco did not work for an early evening in New York, however, not least because expectations were so high after the show was heavily hyped. Andy Warhol, John Lennon and Liza Minnelli were among the glitterati turning out for the Cockettes' opening night, which was dismissed by Gore Vidal with the immortal line: 'No talent is not enough.' 'We were burnt out after being taken to all these parties, we hadn't rehearsed and it was a total disaster,' Tent says of the performance. 'The sound system didn't work properly so the balcony couldn't hear anything, and it was quoted as being the worst show in the history of off-Broadway.' 'One critic said it was worse than Hiroshima,' says Koldewyn with the authority of a man who has those words branded into his very soul. 'Angela Lansbury hated it so much, she threw up. The New York audience were making the scene and they wanted to be transported, but they weren't willing to go where we wanted to take them. They should have been forced to take LSD on entry just to shake them up a bit.' Fashionable New York certainly didn't know what to make of Cockettes style, a combination of Thirties dresses picked up from what Koldewyn calls 'third-hand stores', glitter, embroidery and an excess of hairiness. 'We worked hard to get that look in the show,' Monda confirms. 'The Cockettes were all about self-made self-expression. That is the ethos of the Fringe.' 'Coming out of the closet, wearing the entire closet,' Tent adds, in a neat summary of the Cockettes' style philosophy. 'Back then thrift stores were full of Thirties dresses and art deco furniture, which is the era we loved. One of the Cockettes even lived on a commune where they only drove Thirties cars.' • Debbie Harry: 'I'm pretty clean now. But I still have a dirty mind' 'Sylvester had an entire show made up of Billie Holiday songs,' Koldewyn says. 'We all used to watch Busby Berkeley films at the Palace. Everyone was obsessed with the 1930s.' In 1973 there was a final show — in the San Francisco building occupied by the apocalyptic Christian cult the Peoples Temple, just before its leader, Jim Jones, relocated the cult to Guyana and led more than 900 followers in an act of mass murder/suicide — and then the troupe dispersed. Hibiscus died in 1982, an early victim of complications from Aids. Sylvester, having become a mainstream disco superstar, followed in 1988. Koldewyn went on to form a vocal harmony group called the Jesters, while Tent worked as an accountant before taking up writing. Both say the Cockettes continue to shape their lives. 'The old spirit of the Cockettes is not forgotten,' Tent says. 'It just got buried for a while. Now it's back and I'm glad to see it.' 'Our legacy was in showing that everyone's expression is valid, especially when it is done from a place of acceptance of themselves, rather than a place of bitterness,' Koldewyn concludes. 'On top of that, we were being silly. We were saying, it's OK to be a kid again.' They sure were. Launching a gender revolution is one thing. Staging a show called Journey to the Center of Uranus is quite another. Midnight at the Palace is at the Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh, to Aug 24,
