I’m sad to report that Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show has come to its final week here in London. Throughout July and August, the show has been performed at The Roundhouse in Camden, and on the evening I was in attendance, cast members kept their cool through 40 degree heat.
The show, which pays homage to the legendary French fashion designer’s career and upbringing, has been in the works for years and features a small cast with the energy of a stadium. It starts as it means to go on: with camp, extravagant, colourful joy that tells the tale of Monsieur Gaultier. Dancers cartwheeling across the stage dressed as giant teddy bears illustrate the invention of the now infamous ‘cone bra’, which before it belonged to Madonna, was originally designed for Gaultier’s childhood teddy.
