By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2

WHEN?: Saturday 16 September 2023

It’s almost 4 years to the day since we first saw drag Girls Aloud tribute act, named Gals Aloud, at the Underbelly Festival shortly before the Gals leader Cheryl Hole was due to appear on the 1st season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.

• Read on for reasons including why the Gals deserve a longer West End run or regional tour

A great deal has happened in that time not least Covid-19 and Hole (Dick Whittington, Phoenix Theatre) finished 4th in that season with fellow Gals member Kitty Scott-Claus (RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, London Palladium) going on to be a runner up in series 3.

Towards the close of this two-hour set Hole asks the audience whether it wants more Gals Aloud in 2024 – and of course we do.

The Lyric Theatre is a leading West End venue – we recently caught the dire Aspects Of Love here starring Michael Ball – and at 915 seats it would be amazing if Nimax Theatres were able to offer the Gals a longer run at this venue and they certainly deserve a regional tour.

We haven’t written much about Girls Aloud on monstagigz because their fame came before we started writing it in 2015 but we caught the band live a lot in its G-A-Y heyday as well as seeing them multiple times at The 02 in London.

Hole is clearly the driving force here and her mastery of the band’s routines as well as Cheryl Cole’s own solo successes elevates this tribute act from the norm.

The costumes too appear to have more of a budget than in 2019 but, apart from that, much remains the same from that entertaining show.

If anything Scott-Claus as Kimberley, with thwarted ambitions to make it big in a musical (although she did star in Big The Musical at the Dominion and Shrek), makes for an even more engaging comic hostess this time around and post-Covid we even saw her outshine Hole in Dick Whittington at the Phoenix Theatre.

Ophelia Love was also in that show and she has some very funny moments here particularly bantering with Scott-Claus as unsung Girls Aloud co-writer Nicola Roberts and once again Love’s solo segment including Jones’ magnificent single Beat Of My Heart is a stand-out.

Sarah Harding’s death in 2021 after suffering breast cancer is handled sensitively and there is even a collection during I’ll Stand By You in partnership with The Christie Charity which we were pleased to part with £5 thanks to Scott-Claus’ persuasiveness.

The audience is up and dancing from the second half with the act which also includes HERR, Kyran Thraxx and Yshee Black as Javine who narrowly missed out on joining the group in ITV show Popstars: The Rivals performing her Eurovision entry Touch My Fire.

Gals Aloud certainly put on The Show and we look forward to seeing them on a far more extensive West End run and tour soon.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Gals Aloud Tickets
• Have you seen a Gals Aloud show before and do you watch RuPaul’s Drag Race UK?
• Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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