Fri 1-Sat 8 June
Picture the scene: decadent costumes, beating drums and more glamour in one room than you can possibly imagine. Yes, the Lady Boys are back in South Wales with their most colourful show yet.
due to popular demand, The Lady Boys of Bankok return to Cardiff for the second year running this JuneĀ with their new Carnival Queens show.
Described as āpacking more glitz, more glamour and more gigglesā than any other cabaret show in the UK, audiences will be treated to the atmosphere of a Thai carnival during their eight-night stint in the specially erected Sabai Pavillion on the Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff Bay.
Featuring 16 of āBangkokās most entrancing beautiesā (who happen to be men), their show combines 300 intricate handmade costumes, Latin beats, and hit songs from James Bond and The Muppets with a dash of the absurd.
Lady boys or ākathoeysā as they are known in Thailand are male transsexuals that have come to be known around the world for providing elaborate and spectacular cabaret performances.
With Thai food available on the night from Chef Miss Khanittha Pornngarm and two fully stocked bars, thereās plenty to get you in the mood of the occassion and to dance along with the Carnival Queens.
These all-singing, all-dancing Ladyboys are sure to present an unforgettable show bursting with colour, copious outfit changes and infectious music.
Tickets: Ā£14. Info: 0871 7050705 / www.whatsontickets.com or www.ladyboysofbangkok.co.uk
WIN LADY BOYS OF BANGKOK THEATRE TICKETS
Described as āpacking more glitz, more glamour and more gigglesā than any other cabaret show in the UK, audiences will be treated to the atmosphere of a Thai carnival during the Lady Boys Of Bangkokās stint in the specially erected Sabai Pavillion on the Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff Bay from Sat 1-Sat 9 June. Weāve got five pairs to give away. Q: What is the name of the Lady Boyās new show?
Send your answer to [email protected] by Sat 1 June for your chance to win.
LADY BOYS Q &A with artistic director Phillip Gandey:
What is the story behind the Lady Boys of Bangkok phenomenon?
Lady Boys in Thailand have been around for centuries. Historically in their country they were considered the third sex and they originated as performers. Lady Boys performed at weddings or maybe in market places, very much like troubadours or travelling players. The entertainment tradition died out although Lady Boys remained prevalent in Thailand and now there is something like half a million of them.
Lady Boys making a career out of performing re-emerged 25 to 30 years ago as a tourist entertainment and has gained so much popularity that in Bangkok there are now five or six multi-million pound purpose-built theatres which just host Lady Boysā shows. Lady Boys as performance artists have re-established themselves as a big part of Thailandās culture and I first discovered the show about 14 years ago, when I was doing a stopover in Bangkok.
I was bowled over by their talent and beauty and bought the Lady Boys of Bangkok over to the Edinburgh Festival, very much as they were, doing a lot of Thai, Chinese and Korean numbers with very little comedy. We had massive publicity but very little in the way of ticket sales, although sales did build as the festival went on. The next year we didnāt bring them over, but so many people asked us about them that we came back in year three. At this point I started directing the show myself and added more comedy and western numbers so the performance has evolved and improved every year and we now produce a brand new show every 12 months.
What can audiences expect from a typical show?
The Lady Boys of Bangkok is real melting pot of glamour, music and comedy.
The fact that it is a cabaret show is also a big thing for us.
Back in the 70s and 80s there were lots of cabaret clubs in Britain but they are almost all gone now so itās great for the younger generations who have missed out on the fun of a cabaret show to come and sit round a table, with their friends, enjoy a nice meal and some drinks and not be in a formal, regimented, theatre environment.
At the opposite end of the scale this also means we are popular with an older audience too who loved cabaret in the past and want to experience a modern cabaret show which has all the production values of a West End show.
When the Lady Boys first came over they did take themselves a bit too seriously and what I did as a director was to tell them that they look absolutely fantastic but the whole show needs to be much more tongue in cheek. We are a fun, hip, edgy show but we never go cross the boundaries of good taste.
What challenges have you encountered in putting on the shows so far?
There are a few challenges we encounter when producing the Lady Boys of Bangkok show.
The first big challenge is getting the Lady Boys in the country. Every year it is a little bit of a struggle as immigration gets confused by a dozen beautiful Thai Lady Boys clutching male passports trying to enter Britain. The first year we had an absolute nightmare. Although the Lady Boys live as women 24 hours a day they are required to keep male passports by Thai law. The immigration officers at Heathrow couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw 12 beautiful women armed with male passports trying to get through at the same time. They were initially refused entry by officials at Heathrow and it took a lot of explaining to the Home Office to tell them these women were all performers coming to Britain for a big show called the Lady Boys of Bangkok.
Although they are now much more used to seeing these gorgeous girls showing their male passports we have to give the Home Office plenty of advance warning to make sure they’ll let them through and it was no different this year.
With regards to the production of the show, the comedy is now the most important ingredient, but it is also the most difficult to execute. British humour is very difficult to translate to someone from Thailand who has a very limited knowledge of not only the language but also of British comedy and its heritage. To translate it I literally have to go on stage and act out the whole thing so the Lady Boys understand not only the significance and the subtlety of the Western facial expressions which they need to perform but also the part which gives the comedy its real punch – timing.”
How has the audience response been so far and how does the new show differ from last yearās?
More and more we have realised how much the audience likes to participate and this year itās not just the comedy acts that will be down there. Weāre also bringing the girls offstage to dance in amongst the audience. We are very conscious that some of our numbers work better with a certain amount of audience involvement and so, in the last few years, the show has gone more in that direction.
The production really is a show of two halves, in the first half we do some show tunes ā this year featuring Phantom and also a lot of the comedy. Then, in the second half, we do the torch songs and, at the end of the show, the dance numbers that really get the audience on their feet.
This year the show is called Carnival Queens so we do a big Queen tribute and then a Latin-American carnival finale which has got the crowd whooping and singing. Itās great to see the buzz from the audience, even if youāre feeling down a Lady Boys show canāt fail to make you smile.