There was quite a buzz at The Boulevard Theatre for Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett. For a rainy Tuesday night in Soho, it was giddy with anticipation and high-volume glamour. The relatively new venue is named after the strip club that used to squat the same space in Walker’s Court, which itself replaced a brothel. In the ‘80s, it was a satellite for the alternative comedy scene that grew as a response to the grim reality of seemingly endless years of Tory rule. Prior to commercial success and hit TV shows, The Comic Strip and Eddie Izzard’s Raging Bull Club evolved in the original building.
This slick and impressive space opened in 2019, with much excitement about its 360-degree auditorium and high-tech versatility. In a flash, it can be reconfigured from a theatre space to a live music joint. The 200-capacity performance venue has stalls and a balcony that move independently of each other and a hydraulic stage that can rise and fall like one of them pop-up traffic bollards. Should you be inclined, there’s also a 100-cover restaurant and a rehearsal room for hire. One could call it gentrification, but it doesn’t feel as homogonous and bloodless as other aspects of Soho’s ‘development’.
Feeling cavalier, we sat at the front, fearful of audience participation, but awed at the space. It’s like Squid Games meets Star Wars via Vegas. The 360-degree thing means the audience are also part of the mise-en-scène and on the night we attended, there were performance art celebs, baffled couples from the suburbs and louche Soho characters all facing each other and pondering the tiny circular stage.
The MC of this show is the widely acclaimed Bernie Dieter, doyenne of Olivier Award-winning show La Clique and creator of Kabarett Little Death Club, which clocked up a world tour and garnered a heap of awards. Dieter excels in a quintessentially Weimar Republic vibe, but with an injection of sex positive feminism and a Westwood meets Gaultier look, that still gives a high-kicking nod to Sally Bowles. Dieter belts out original songs, tackling raw desire, countercultural diversity and debauchery. She boasts a unique voice that’s big, bracing and unlikely to be commissioned for an album of lullabies. Brecht would love her.
Dieter dives into the audience for raucous flirting, wicked piss takes and to recruit a bunch of random blokes to carry her to the stage. While holding her aloft, she demands they slip her spiky fetish heels onto her fishnet stockinged foot. Miraculously, they don’t drop her, but they DO struggle with the footwear. It’s awkward, hilarious and very gripping to watch. Dieter deserves props for bold ventures into the minds and machinations of the unpredictable paying public. She flings herself into this risky business and then shrugs off the chaos with a flick of her bob and a gutsy cackle.
The rest of the evening is a series of acrobatic vignettes that are jaw-dropping, provocative, sexy and slick. Blue Phoenix proves that men can be just as agile, erotic and mesmerising when it comes to pole dancing. Showcasing the ancient circus art of hair hanging, Bella Diosa also excels at fire eating and suspended contortionism. Looking like the kind of androgynous pixie you only see on a podium in Ibiza is Joe Keeley, who wows with aerial silks and terrifying trapeze work.
The whole affair is soundtracked by a very tight live band who morph from old school funk to gypsy stompers with flawless ease. Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett proved a hugely fun evening with high quality, slightly twisted performances. If you’ve spent any time in the Balearics or London’s queer East End dives, it’s not going to feel creatively radical. However, for most observers it’s possibly quite shocking. It’s palpably dangerous in parts, uniquely intimate and whipped together by a very skilled ensemble. This bendy, beautiful and bolshy troupe of stars proved a much-needed distraction from the reality outside the theatre and sent me into the night feeling amazed and very entertained.
Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett until 6th January 2024.
Reviewer: Stewart Who?
Reviewed: 24th October 2023
North West End UK Rating: