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Theatre - Gentlemen Prefer Blokes

Reviews, By steviec10, 27th February, 2009

What’s Mardi Gras without a little drag-cabaret? Trevor Ashley and Courtney Act do not disappoint with their wildly funny Gentlemen Prefer Blokes.

As you all know Courtney Act’s alter-ego Shane Jenek was injured recently in a freak skiing accident in Canada. So the curtain opens and there’s Trevor and Courtney as Jayne Russell and Marilyn Monroe, but wait, that’s not Courtney Act, it’s everybody’s favourite All Saints nurse Virginia Gay! At first it appears that Courtney is too injured to perform when all of a sudden another curtain opens and out hoons “Sydney’s most glamorous cripple, the greatest thing on four wheels” – Courtney in a motorised wheelchair.

The show had to be mostly re-written to include the ‘accident’ and to employ Virginia to perform some of the more ‘upwardly mobile’ production numbers, but as Courtney says at the end “thank god I broke my leg, the show is much funnier”. And it is. The show is riotous from beginning to end, the songs are sensational, the costumes are amazing and the dance numbers are spectacular.

Trevor is always a crowd pleaser and he has an eerie ability to channel the likes of Carol Channing and Cher to name a few. Courtney sings like a bluebird, looks gorgeous in any outfit and has certainly mastered the art of operating a motorised wheelchair.

But it is Virginia Gay who steals the show, she and Courtney compete against each other constantly, after all as Virginia sees it “we’re both reality TV show rejects” and makes it her mission to take as much stage time away from Courtney as possible. Thank goodness she comes complete with her own bottle of chloryform (borrowed from the All Saints supply cabinet perhaps?).

Cleverly between each number and to allow ample time for costume changes there are video screens depicting re-writes of some of your favourite movies – you’ll never look at _Beaches, The Devil Wears Prad_a or Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? the same way again.

Some show highlights are Courtney as Britney battling it out with Trevor as Madonna with the use of some very clevely re-written song favourites and the Wicked tribute to Gay Marriage starring Elphaba De Generes and Glynda De Rossi.

One of the great things about drag shows is just how far they can push political incorrectness and this show goes to places others have never dared go before. There are so many throw away one-liners you could publish a book of them, but I think Trevor asking Virginia what drag numbers she knows only to be screamed at, “I don’t know any drag numbers Trevor, I’m a woman!” is a goodie!

Opening night had its fair share of technical mishaps with costume malfunctions, runaway wheelchairs, microphones on the fritz and dvds not playing on cue, but regardless of whether they were accidental or part of the show, they certainly added to the entertainment value.

This is one show that will have you smiling well after the final curtain, oh and if you are under 25 and pretty, please sit in the very front row. The rest of the audience will thank you for it later…

Gentleman Prefer Blokes is playing at Civic Theatre nightly (except Mon and Tue) until March 6, 2009.

Check out Same Same’s Mardi Gras section here.