THE LADY BOYS OF BANGKOK | STAGE REVIEW
Roald Dahl Plass, Cardiff Bay, Tue 10 June
The Lady Boys Of Bangkok are back in town in all their fabulosity with their Red Hot Kisses tour, and you could say it’s a scorcher! Now in their sixteenth season, the bevy of almost a dozen beauties sashayed around Cardiff Bay’s pavilion in vibrant glittering finery, with plenty of false-eyelashes fluttering and feathers flying.
The Lady Boys aren’t really a drag, impressions or panto act. Instead the show is a combination of cabaret and comedy, with the cast lip-synching to stage, screen and pop hits (including Kylie, Amy, Dolly, Robbie and even Freddie M!). There are also a couple of dirty ditties thrown in for good measure.
The opening number, performed to Kylie’s On A Night Like This, was so pink, sparkly and over the top that it felt a little bit like I’d gone back in time and was at Katie Price and Peter Andre’s wedding party. While I wouldn’t call the choreography ‘show stopping’, the Lady Boys certainly are stunning and can give Las Vegas showgirls a sequined stilettoed run, or more appropriately strut, for their money. Two of the night’s best dances were done to Nicki Minaj’s Pound The Alarm and You Can’t Stop The Beat from the big-haired musical Hairspray.
Whether commanding the stage as Chicago’s arresting Matron ‘Mama’ Morton, demonstrating the risqué Pussycat Song or strutting her stuff as Tina Turner, the diva who hijacked the show was the stunning Ole. With every lip-curl and double-take she had everyone in stitches, especially when an unsuspecting male victim from the mostly female crowd was brought onstage to receive a treat he wouldn’t soon forget!
Rounding out the production are a handful of male dancers, an MC and a comedy actor named Trevor (I can’t think of Miley Cyrus the same way after seeing his take on the singer). The finale, presented to The Weather Girls’ It’s Raining Men, had the most dazzling costumes and was the luscious cherry on top of a great show.
The audience reveled in the humour (think Benny Hill but naughtier) and didn’t seem to mind the lip-synching wasn’t always spot-on or the dancing wasn’t Rockette-precise. This did make it feel more like sloppy smooches than red-hot kisses,, but maybe that’s the charm.
words RHONDA LEE REALI
