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Cult lesbian film ‘But I'm a Cheerleader’ easily could have got left in the ’90s, remembered only by superfans of its star Natasha Lyonne. But now this perky, surreal, and unexpectedly feelgood satire on gay conversion therapy has been dragged firmly and broadly successfully into musical theatre territory by songwriting duo Bill Augustin and Andrew Abrams.
It first premiered at Turbine Theatre earlier this year and now it's back, the pompom-waving star of this newish Battersea venue's LGBTQ+ centric line-up. Turbine Theatre is an unlikely venue for a musical that feels like it’s aiming at the West End: the 12-strong cast feel packed onto its tiny stage. But it's also enough to give the show a pleasing community theatre warmth and energy.
It centres on 17-year-old Megan (the winningly peppy Jessica Aubrey), who's sure she can't be a lesbian – she's a cheerleader! But unfortunately, her friends and family disagree. They collect their evidence – vegetarianism, girlie pics in her locker, her high school essay on Gertrude Stein – and present it in a hilariously staged musical number ‘The Intervention’.
Then it's off to True Directions, a conversion therapy centre where Megan and a bunch of other teenage queers are taught to obey gender roles and suppress the gay: cue ridiculous gender stereotypes in 'Step 2: Pink and Blue'.
Real-life American conversion camps are presumably pretty horrific places, full of self-loathing and religious oppression. The mood here is much, much sillier. The night I see it, Freddie Love is doing a brilliant job of filling in as camp founder Mary, bringing a deliciously camp energy to proceedings. It's not even slightly surprising when Megan falls for bad girl Graham (Megan Hill, who brings rich, bluesy vocals to her songs of rebellion) and the whole gang sneak out to local gay bar Cocksuckers.
This is determinedly sunny, feelgood theatre that brings the audience with it every (slightly ridiculous) step of the way: cast members lead us in clapping, stamping cheer sessions between scenes, and the finale spills off the stage, into the aisles. But like another cult movie turned musical, ‘Heathers’, its journey to the stage loses a lot of the strangeness and darkness that made the original so compelling. Homophobia is always ridiculous here, in a show with all the heart but little of the grit of its source matter.