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The best drag transforms, not only the artist but the audience too. Alt cabaret star Le Gateau Chocolat (who wears blue eyeshadow like no one else on earth and should be given a MAC campaign) is the best kind of drag performer. Walk into the Soho Theatre to see his new show 'Icons' in the foulest of moods and you’ll leave feeling as light as a feather. If I’d been wearing a wig, it would’ve been snatched clean off my head.
The stage is set up as a child’s bedroom, complete with miniature bed and posters of icons, from ‘The Goonies’ and ‘Ghostbusters’ to Grace Jones and David Bowie – essentially all the pop cultural things that turned baby Pain au Chocolat into the big, brilliant Gateau we have today. It creates a sense of intimacy with the artist, as do the on-stage costume changes.
He makes his entrance through the audience towards the stage, resplendent in black sequins and a huge hat that looks like a NASA cast-off, singing Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’. And it’s awesome. What follows is a wonderfully funny, sometimes sad, journey that sees him pay tribute to his personal icons. The Madonna medley (complete with bedroom dancing) and the ‘It Should’ve Been Me’ wedding fantasy are joyous highlights that we can all relate to. Who doesn’t want to storm their ex’s wedding dressed like a Sicilian widow?
In a celebration of sassiness where even the guitarist is an attention-seeker, the hardest thing about seeing Le Gateau Chocolat is resisting the urge to join in.