Hallelujah – A camptacular journey through drag |De Parel Speigeltent | One Night Only Jan 21 | ★ ★ ★
Bringing the sexy evangelical realness we can expect for the next four years leading into a Trump America, these ladies gave us Deep South meets the Real Housewives of Dallas.
Hosted by Veronica Jean Jones and with performances from the likes of Scarlett Adams, Perri Oxide, and Selma Bitta with guest features from Alter-Boy Andrew Edward and Kitten N’ Lou. This variety cabaret drag gospel fusion closely mimics and subverts the conservative women one might find hosting a morning show on FOX news.
Filled with tongue in cheek one liners, gags and songs about stem-cells, NutriBullets and farts, it was a high energy romp that gets dirty with the audience and makes them participate, willingly or otherwise.
The shows successes came from its topical humour and catchy gospel choir beats with highlights being Scarlet Adams NutriBullet foetus stem-cell face cream and Kitten N’ Lou’s marionette work.
Perri Oxide’s elderly and flatulent church attendee was also notable albeit the gag ran a little longer than it needed to.
The De Parel Spiegeltent was nice and breezy and most seating provided good visibility, though sitting in the booths required some neck twisting and strategic sitting in order to enjoy the show rather than your own face in the mirrored wooden columns upholding the tent.
Tech-wise the show was brilliantly coloured and lit making the show time seem very fluid and quick but there were some minor audio issues that cropped up and delayed the pacing.
The shows major let down came in its ability to consistently maintain the pace through performance via strong delivery. At times the show could get sloppy and lull the audience into checking themselves out in the aforementioned mirrored columns which drew them out of the experience.
A healthy balance of matching the timing with the material and performing with the conviction of a gospel choir would easily remedy this flaw though. Overall, Hallelujah! A Camptacular Journey Through Drag was a fun drag show even if it wasn’t the most memorable work of these talented queens.
Hallelujah: A camptacular journey through drag is part of Fringe World. Check out over 700 shows at the Fringe World website.
Kyle J Kash
