By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Thursday 9 April, runs through 17 May 2026 RUNTIME: 130 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

‘Give me a shout if you’ve never heard of me before’, asks the RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World runner up as part of the audience warm-up. ”Don’t they sound sad?’

• Read on for reasons including how Butch is definitely our favourite and wittiest queen from Drag Race

Viewers of said TV show will already be aware of Butch’s trademark hosting skills, quick wit and fine voice as she asks: ‘Are we ready for a camp old time?’

On entry to this gorgeously old and idiosyncratically appropriate venue we’re presented with a paddle which is pink on 1 side and green on the other allowing us – the audience – to Choose Your Own Cabaret, the title of tonight’s show.

Butch is accompanied by pianist Jordan Paul Clarke and an early spillage of what appears to be water on his instrument prompts an early unscripted Mrs Overall reference from our host as she attempts to mop up, which augurs well.

The paddles are put to early use during audience votes describing an ‘earth’ song (green) or a ‘water’ song (pink) without telling us what they are, the audience plumps for wet and we’re given Part Of Your World from The Little Mermaid.

The audience quickly gets into it and when presented with a ‘slutty’ choice it can’t resist and we’d never heard Bring On The Men (watch and listen above) from Jekyll and Hyde before but what a banger it turned out to be.

Boasting sample lyrics including: ‘I like to have a man for breakfast each day, I’m very social and I like it that way, by late mid-morning I need something to munch, so I ask over 2 men for lunch’ it’s definitely 1 we’ll be popping on our playlist.

There’s gags too and, apologies if our shorthand in the dark didn’t quite do this justice to the live version, but we did rather enjoy: ‘I use they/them pronouns when I’m out of drag. Mostly as an excuse for 2 dinners.’

Elsewhere there’s a hometown diva section which might prove easier in London than at other destinations on this UK tour that provides us with Tottenham’s Adele’s Someone Like You – a little stalker-y in this version – and then straight into Rolling In The Deep which proves what an impressive singer Butch is.

Pianist Jordan Paul Clarke even sings a song from his new musical Raising Gays which shows lots of promise.

We last saw Butch at Soho Theatre in 2025 and she’s come on in leaps and bounds since then even though she can’t let the Coventry Hitler jokes lie.

Definitely our favourite and wittiest queen from Drag Race.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Kate Butch Tickets
• Have you seen a Kate Butch show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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