By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2

WHEN?: Tuesday 20 August 2024, show also runs twice on 27 August 2024. RUNTIME: 60 minutes (no interval)

Malone won this year’s Olivier for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical for Operation Mincemeat and here encores with the best song from that show Dear Bill.

• Read on for reasons including how this was a chance to get to know a rising star better as he negotiates his way from his big hit to a new challenge

He left the show after 5 years playing a range of roles including MI5 secretary Hester Leggett who sings Dear Bill as she remembers the love of her life lost in the First World War as she and her team work on a convincing love letter as part of a World War Two misdirection.

Next month we reveal our longlist for our 10th anniversary monstas for the best theatre, music, TV and film of 2024 so far with the winners revealed on 30 December 2024.

Don’t be surprised to see Malone, Dear Bill and Operation Mincemeat featuring as we didn’t see the new musical until new year’s eve 2023 before it won 2 Oliviers including Best New Musical.

Tonight’s cabaret gig title reminds us of a beloved corny RuPaul’s Drag Race joke which seems similarly to have inspired Malone who explains tonight’s theme will be songs originally sung by women in keeping with the role for which he has recently been celebrated.

Malone is dressed memorably in what appear to be pyjamas complete with lilac-painted nails and it’s captivating to see and hear him performing as himself rather than a character in a show.

He plugs a 2-concert Sondheim show he appears in later this year at Alexandra Palace and sings a song from Follies – Could I Leave You? – and we can’t help but notice how clear his diction is in a song that has cutting lyrics which are so wittily yet cruelly put.

Malone even has a guest star who is the charming Holly Sumpton who is currently appearing in Mincemeat.

Inevitably such a show as this lends itself to self-indulgence and Malone’s enthusiasm for the darker musicals like Little Shop Of Horrors and Rocky Horror Show really shone through while his dressing up as a character from Grey Gardens was bizarre.

This was a welcome chance to get to know a rising star a little better as he negotiates his way from his big hit so far to a new challenge.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Jak Malone Tickets
• Have you seen Jak Malone before and what did you think of this gig? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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