Photo:Joseph-Marzullo-_The-Stander-Group Arts Judy: I’m Still Here- A musical celebration Brian Butler thinks another star has been born By Brian Butler • 3 min read
Arts PREVIEW: Spotlight on LGBTQ+ shows at Edinburgh Fringe A glimpse at some of this year’s queer shows at Edinburgh By Brian Butler • 2 min read
Arts REVIEW: Overtures and Encores by Actually Gay Men’s Chorus Brian Butler finds a polished gemstone of a choral evening By Brian Butler • 2 min read
Brighton Fringe REVIEW: ‘Locusts’ at Lantern Theatre, Brighton Pete has a silver tongue, and he is quietly and warmly welcoming as we take our seats. The long-standing charismatic pastor greets us to his church – what he calls his “family”. It’s a plausibly pleasant beginning to a sinister tale that will unfold over the next hour. And beneath that feeling of By Brian Butler • 2 min read
Brighton Fringe REVIEW: ‘Kitchen Underwear’ by Maria Goikhberg and Kate Stamoulis Zee and Ash are lesbians at opposite ends of the interactive spectrum: the new flatmates share poetry as an interest/job, but where Ash is loud and outrageous, with endless quick-fire one-liners, Zee is introvert, suspicious, hurt and thoughtful. Ash decides unilaterally she will string her undies u By Brian Butler • 1 min read
Theatre REVIEW: ‘Sauna Boy’ @ Stage Door Theatre Dan Ireland-Reeves pulls back the curtain on the non-stop activities of a south coast gay sauna in his semi-autobiographical monodrama Sauna Boy, and there are some explicit revelations. While not shocking to regular sauna-goers, this is not your average kiss-and-tell drama. Dan has an energetic and By Brian Butler • 2 min read
Brighton Fringe REVIEW: ‘Happily Ever Poofter’ by Rich Watkins Prince Henry is the only gay in a kingdom far far away, and he longs to be in what he calls “the real world,” and find his one true man. But as Rich Watkins brilliantly portrays, Henry has one obstacle after another to overcome in his path to being who he believes he really is. […] By Brian Butler • 1 min read
Brighton Fringe REVIEW: ‘Spit It Out’ at Rotunda Theatre (Brighton Fringe) Adam – trans actress Willow MacDonald – takes us on their journey to be Emily in Alice K Stephens’ searingly honest coming-out play Spit It Out. Willow is quiet, unassuming and mesmerisingly honest in their portrayal of the fast-food server who wants to dress as a woman but initially proclaims they By Brian Butler • 1 min read
Brighton Fringe REVIEW: ‘Summoning Sondheim’ at Bar Broadway (Brighton Fringe) Grace O’ Keefe and I have something in common. We both wrote to the musical theatre giant Stephen Sondheim – and we both got replies. But Grace, along with Jordana Belaiche, decided to put that incident at the heart of their hour-long tongue-in-cheek tribute to the late maestro. Feeling his loss as By Brian Butler • 1 min read
Brighton Fringe REVIEW: ‘Where Do All The Quiet Gays Go?’ at The Actors, as part of Brighton Fringe Rob Cattanach is a gay archaeology student on a mission – to find a boyfriend or failing that, just a friend. With Rob at a mic on a stand this short piece at Brighton Fringe looks and feels like stand-up. But it’s not. Between each excruciating narrative chapter, Rob turns upstage and coming back t By Brian Butler • 1 min read
Theatre REVIEW: ‘The Tailor-Made Man’ at Stage Door Theatre, London In order to keep gay actors in the closet and their sex life out of the headlines, for decades Hollywood studio bosses said the same thing: “remember what happened to William Haines”. And what did happen is the subject of Claudio Macor’s passionate and searingly honest play The Tailor-Made Man – the By Brian Butler • 2 min read
Arts Stage Door Theatre: new queers on the block At a time when small theatre spaces are struggling to keep afloat, it’s a brave team who open a new venue – especially in London’s ‘Theatreland’. But Robert McWhir and Richard Lambert have a lifetime’s experience of getting a gallon of theatre out of a pint pot of space. Robert ran the wonderfully i By Brian Butler • 3 min read
