WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE? Underbelly Festival RUNTIME: 70 minutes
WHEN? 19/9/19
Cheryl Hole (pictured centre above) thinks Gals Aloud are more likely to be performing together to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the formation of Girls Aloud in 2022 than the actual group.
- Read on for reasons including how to see Cheryl on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK
She imparts the theory at the conclusion of the last night of the Gals’ UK tour when it becomes clear that the raucous 500-strong Spiegel Tent crowd at the Underbelly Festival don’t want this to be the end for the drag tribute to one of the more memorable UK girl bands of the last two decades.
Hole is also one of the 10 contestants in the UK version of RuPaul’s Drag Race which begins on 3 October with a single episode being available at 8pm on each Thursday from then on the BBC iPlayer.
This Gals Aloud show is a mixture of lip synching and live singing that explores the band’s formation on ITV’s casting show Popstars: The Rivals and also includes an appearance by Javine, played by Tayce, who surprisingly just missed out on joining the group.
The soundtrack doesn’t just stick to the Girls’ hits and also explores some of the solo songs the band members released including the impressive Beat Of My Dream which Ophelia Love as Nicola performs brilliantly.
Drag is renowned for its caustic wit and Kitty Scott-Claus as Kimberley has much fun referencing Kimba’s West End success (she’s currently in Big!: The Musical) and her live singing is actually at times quite moving. Original song This Morning, I’m The Lead actually had us laughing out loud.
If you love Girls Aloud, you’ll lap up the re-creation of some of the girls’ finest moments with Lydia L’Scabies as Sarah scoring many comedy points.
We also very much enjoyed HERR as Nadine who convinces during a real-life episode when doubt was cast over the lead singer’s actual age in a casting show prior to Popstars.
Hole appears very much to be the leader of this pack and we can’t wait for her turn on RuPaul. In the programme she says: ‘When we first created the show back in 2017 it came from a place of wanting to live out my childhood dreams of being in Girls Aloud with all the dancing, costumes and production but just on a smaller scale.
‘I was in charge of quite a few details of the show from choreography to set list. It was definitely my baby and I care so much about the show. It’s lovely to look back at the show we created back then out of a fun, camp, one-off night and see it evolve and take off into this full length show touring the country.
‘To be able to bring the passion of Girls back to life and bring it to the fans of the Girls, revisiting the hits and all the favourite moments is amazing to watch the audience living their best lives.’
Roll on 2022 and that Gals Aloud 20th anniversary show.
monstagigz 
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