By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN?: Tuesday 12 December, runs through 6 January 2024 RUNTIME: 70 minutes (no interval)

‘I’m not the world’s biggest fan of Christmas,’ confides Johnson at the start of this festive run of a show which is less jingle bells and more jingle hells.

• Read on for reasons including how this RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner uses original songs to give us a peak inside her mind

The winner of the latest series of BBC3’s Drag Race UK is accompanied by pianist Sarah Rose here and opens with an energetic cover of I’m So Excited by the Pointer Sisters.

Elsewhere much of the material appears self-penned and gives an illuminating view of Johnson’s thought process with 1 perculiar lullaby to a precocious child (we’re guessing the title was Don’t Be Afraid Of Monsters (There Are Worse Ways To Die)) sparking both audience swaying of hands in the air and a chorus singalong.

Johnson whips out her dream journal to narrate The Next Big Thing Is Coming for a nightmareish trip home to her native County Durham where creator Donald Marshall was born.

There’s also stand-up in the form of news show-type skits and a particularly filthy tribute to TV’s Matt Baker which was laugh-out loud funny.

Soho Theatre is an intimate space and it should perhaps be no surprise that this 1st show was packed and wasn’t the most comfortable way to spend 70 minutes straight but the engagement with our host did mean the time flew by.

The songs, including 1 about stalking an attractive man she’s just met, were interspersed with two video skits to allow for costume changes inspired by her time on Drag Race UK

For us, this was a comedy review-type show better suited to the Edinburgh Festival than a late-night festive run at this venue but it was particularly well received by this audience.

Johnson is definitely the most interesting winner of the Drag Race UK series so far and we look forward to being entertained and bamboozled by whatever leaps from her complicated mind next.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Soho Theatre and Ginger Johnson
• Have you seen a Ginger Johnson show before or visited Soho Theatre? Tickets
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