Brian Butler

Culture

BILLY PORTER speaks -'To be black and gay in the USA is a death warrant.'

The recipient of three Emmys, a Grammy and three Tonys, he is currently making his London directorial debut staging This Bitter Earth by Harrison David Rivers.

By Brian Butler • 4 min read

Reviews

REVIEW: Titanique - "outrageously gay"

There should be a trigger warning for Titanique the musical - it’s outrageously gay and leaves little to the fertile imagination. Co-written by Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli and Tye Blue, and directed by Tye Blue, it’s a sure-fire, 5-star romp with a laugh every few seconds and quick-fire

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Arts

REVIEW: Field of Anise @ Ironworks

It’s a story of love, of belonging, and a shocking betrayal, made worse by an ending I had not seen coming and which will make you gasp. Not only is this Amir’s debut as a playwright, he also stars and directs – an amazing achievement.

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Arts

REVIEW: Glenda & Rita: LIVE @ Brighton Fringe

They really are black and white -costume, hair, make-up ; they’re monochrome humans. It’s a brilliant, bizarre & comic

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

LGBTQ Choirs

REVIEW: Resound Voices at Brighton’s Chapel Royal

The compact space of Brighton’s Chapel Royal suits the smallest of Brighton’s queer choirs – Resound Voices. The 14 singers, as always with this group, produce beautiful harmonies, and under the direction of Sam Barton they always please, surprise and entertain. Their early summer concert was entitl

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Brighton Fringe

BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: ‘Deadnamed’

Before we’re allowed into the tiny tent that is Rotunda Pip, in Regency Square, Brighton, we’re asked to leave a message on a post-it about the deceased whose funeral we are about to attend. As the lights come up – bright red – a man sits up in the coffin and says hello. This is […]

By Brian Butler • 1 min read

Brighton Fringe

BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: ‘Provocateur’

You step down into the basement of Brighton’s Lantern Theatre and you’re in The Mistress’s dungeon – complete with latex, ropes, a strap-on and whips. In a black latex dress and corset, Tish Weinman, aka Letitia Delish greets us with a smile that gives you goosebumps: “my time is expensive; what you

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Reviews

BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: ‘Second Class Queer’

A speed dating evening in a gay bar in Berlin is the unlikely setting for Kumar Muniandy’s searingly honest examination of queer identity, racism, homophobia, displacement and guilt. Krishna is a Malaysian of Indian heritage, and he is outwardly calm, witty and attractive. But underneath he has a gu

By Brian Butler • 1 min read

Brighton Fringe

BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: ‘C’est Magnifique’

His hair slicked back, gold glitter on his face; his costume is a tatty tail coat, a corset, bare chest with a pearl necklace, lacy panties and garters holding up his socks – this is Cyril, our MC at the Club Magnifique. He calls us “gays and theys”, and is out to shock and entertain […]

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Brighton Fringe

BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: ‘The Pink List’ by Michael Trauffer

It’s well documented that gay people were singled out alongside Jews to be persecuted and sent by the Nazis to concentration camps in the 1930s and ’40s. Less well known – certainly to me – was the fact that the so-called Pink Lists of such people compiled by the Nazis continued to be used as […]

By Brian Butler • 1 min read

Brighton Fringe

Brighton Fringe: all things queer and quirky

In part two of my preview of Brighton Fringe, I give you tips for more queer and quirky shows that might amuse, shock and educate. Dates and times vary, so in no particular order, here they are:  C’est Magnifique is a love letter to cabaret and musical theatre. Be swept along as our characters whisk

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Musical Theatre

REVIEW: ‘Stiletto’ @ Charing Cross Theatre

It’s Venice, it’s 1751, and everyone is at it like rabbits. A stiletto – a small, but deadly dagger is at the heart of this rumbustious romp of a musical, with book by Tim Luscombe and music and lyrics by Matthew Wilder (creator of Mulan). The hiss-boo racist and villainous Count Pietro (Douglas Han

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Brighton Fringe

Brighton Fringe: all things queer and wonderful

This year’s Brighton Fringe is as weird and wonderful as always, and with a printed brochure running to 102 pages, how do you know where to start?

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Theatre

REVIEW: Agatha Christie’s ‘Murder On The Orient Express’ @ Theatre Royal Brighton

I kick off by saying Ken Ludwig’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express just couldn’t be bettered – it is stunning in both its staging and its acting. Lucy Bailey directs a version that teeters between white knuckle thriller and camp and comic farce – and it works, oh how it w

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Theatre

Divina De Campo to bring new show ‘I Do Think’ to Komedia Brighton

The last time I spoke to RuPaul’s Drag Race and musical theatre star Divina De Campo, it was 2022 and they were about to embark on playing the lead in the cult musical Hedwig And The Angry Inch in Leeds. So on meeting again, my first question was: How was it? They told me: “It’s […]

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Theatre

REVIEW: ‘Supersonic Man’ @ Southwark Playhouse

Strange to travel from Brighton to London to see a gay musical set in … well, Brighton.  With its seaside postcard backdrop (the always inventive designer David Shields), and plastic seagulls gliding up and down, I felt at home. Writer/director Chris Burgess has created a darkly comic tale of termin

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Film

REVIEW: Mikko Makela’s ‘Sebastian’ is a warm-hearted investigation of the double life of a male sex worker

Mikko Makela’s Sebastian is a warm-hearted investigation of the double life of a male sex worker. Max is a mid-20 aspiring writer with a published short story to his name and lots of promise in the literary world. But his secret life – as a sex worker – not only supplies material for his upcoming […

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Arts

800 Not Out: eight years of writing previews, reviews and interviewing entertainment makers

In this, my 800th article for Scene magazine, I look back at the last eight years of writing previews, reviews and doing interviews with entertainment makers. Article one was in May 2017 at Brighton Fringe – Joe Orton’s murderously funny Ruffian On The Stair at the Lantern Theatre – a show memorable

By Brian Butler • 5 min read

Arts

REVIEW:  Flutter Bye @ Brighton’s Ironworks Studios.

This one-night only performance deserves a longer outing

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Arts

Brighton Fringe 2025 Previews

whacky and weird as usual Brighton Fringe has new venues – including Spiegel Gardens near the seafront and the Revel Puck Circus at the Level

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Arts

Dance Review: Sad Book @ Old Market Hove

Sad Book is a beautiful picture of one man’s sorrow and the world’s ignorance of it

By Brian Butler • 3 min read

Film

The 39th BFI Flare queer film festival to open at London’s Southbank on March 19

Lead Pic: Onda Nora The 39th BFI Flare queer film festival opens March 19 on London’s Southbank. There is a whopping total of 34 world premieres and films will represent 41 countries in the 12 days of screenings. Unfortunately you have to be present in London as only a handful of short films will be

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Film

REVIEW: ‘The Summer With Carmen’

Writer/director Zacharias Mavroeidis’ beautifully photographed movie The Summer With Carmen operates on a multiplicity of levels. It’s an on-off gay romance; it’s a love affair with the rocky gay nudist cruising area of Limanakia, south of Athens; it’s a detailed analysis of how to write a film scre

By Brian Butler • 2 min read

Theatre

REVIEW: ‘Picture You Dead’ at Theatre Royal Brighton

Brighton-born Number One crime writer Peter James delves into the shady world of art forgeries for his latest stage offering, Picture You Dead, deftly adapted from the novel by Shaun McKenna. Stephen Sondheim wrote in his masterful musical about painter Georges Seurat: “art isn’t easy,” and forging

By Brian Butler • 2 min read