The festive season can be isolating – so here comes drag queen Séayoncé with an “anti-Christmas” show designed to tear the tinsel down. But when the cameras start rolling in this supposed broadcast for Satan TV, the Christmas spirit possesses her, and our hostess – rictus grin plastered across face – starts parroting seasonal platitudes. So begins a battle royal between Séayoncé, her “murderous accomplice” (and pianist) Leslie-Anne and her former flame, Santa, who is bent on defending all those festive traditions under attack.
That’s the premise for Séayoncé’s Perky Nativititties, the latest show from Dan Wye’s “ghost whisperer” alter ego in theatre-curtain kaftan and turban. At its best, it’s a gleefully iconoclastic outlet for festive – or “fist-ive” – queer joy, as Séayoncé leads the audience in a 12 Days of Christmas singalong, adapted to chronicle the lurid death of a fake Santa. The best of several musical numbers recasts Ding Dong Merrily on High as a narcotic odyssey, starring Meryl Streep, Glo-o-o-oria Gaynor and a swarm of invisible bats in the sky. The pair’s Stepford Wives parody of mainstream seasonal telly, too, is delivered with a droll degree of repugnance.
