Cheltenham has a rich history. A beautiful town, world famous for the Cheltenham Races Festival and an ever-expanding Literature Festival, you may also be interested to know that it had a very popular Rocky Horror Picture Show scene. This makes it the perfect place to hold a drag show.
The venue for the sold-out Oh My Drag! Presents… Good VS Evil show was The Frog And Fiddle, a quirky venue which regularly hosts band nights and gigs. It was interesting to find out that this is the first drag show in Cheltenham for 7 YEARS!!!!
I happened to find out about it from one of the performers who said they were performing in Cheltenham and then sent me a link to the page so I quickly booked some tickets. It was good to see such a diverse crowd, all there to enjoy and support the show. For some, it was their first experience of a drag show, whereas, for others, they knew exactly what to expect.
Our host for the evening was the stunning Misty Monique, a big name who has performed everywhere and really knew how to run the show. She interacted beautifully with the crowd and even performed incredibly towards the end of the show.
The highlight of her performance was at the very end when she came on dressed in black with the most beautiful feathered headdress on and lip-synced to Loreen- Paper Light whilst shooting green laser beams from her fingers. The crowd went wild and it showed how she got to the platform she is on.
We also enjoyed her Rich Girl mash-up featuring songs of the theme intertwined with spoken word. She was an energetic performer and certainly worked the crowd. Misty did a fantastic job throughout the evening and was a warm host. She even paid tribute to Blu Chyna who couldn’t make it to the show. A beautiful person inside and out.
We were introduced to 3 finalists from the popular DragWars, a local drag competition. Marla B. Zarre gave us all the vampire feels dressed head to toe in black and exposing her fangs throughout her performances and even drinking blood. My particular favourite from her sets was Taste Of Blood, an altered cover of Tainted Love. Definitely, a performer to watch out for in the future.
Luna Lakes was a ball of energy who really knew how to get the crowd going. A lip-sync dancer, who mashed up songs and spoken word throughout her 2 sets, she really set the stage alight. Dressed as a nun for the first half and a rich bitch for the second half, she used these themes throughout her performances mixing songs related to Jesus and being rich. Very clever and high energy, I look forward to seeing her again.
The current reigning champion of Drag Wars, Isabell End definitely bought the wacky and the crowd fell in love with her. She used comedy and played the character of a tarot card reader who has to shovel elephant dung (only in Cheltenham) but her character was so funny.
She even sang a few songs live – Nelly The Elephant and a tarot card reader song using members of the audience t interact with. Beautifully crazy but easy to see why she is the current champion.
Our special guest for the evening was the incredible and beautiful Paul Aleksandr from Birmingham. If you haven’t seen this performer yet, then you really have to. Paul commands the stage with the way he performs, his strong looks and thought-provoking performances.
His face is beat stunningly and the glitter in his beard and eyebrows set it off perfectly. Pauls first half performance used the Alice in Wonderland theme and in particular the white rabbit which was perched on his head. In between the songs, he interacted eloquently with the crows and showed how warm and funny he is.
Using a mash up of sound bites from the rabbit and David Bowie- time and Gwen Stefani- What You Waiting For, Paul danced around the stage using the strong movements we love to see. He also performed to Jefferson Airplane- White Rabbit word perfectly.
In the second half, we were treated to a Po from the Teletubbies costume and more incredible lip syncing. It’s easy to see why Misty asked Paul to come and be part of the show. What drag show wouldn’t be complete without a lip-sync battle? The 2 girls battling for the prize fought hard but the right person won in the end.
Overall, the 1st drag show in Cheltenham in 7 years was a huge success. Although there are no concrete plans for another at the moment, I’m sure that this will be rectified very soon. The atmosphere was incredible and the fact that it was a sell out says it all. Cheltenham is screaming out for a drag scene and let’s hope this is the start of bigger things.
Thank you again to Misty Monique for organising such an amazing show and for the performers on the bill for doing a brilliant job of entertaining us. You did Cheltenham proud and we look forward to welcoming you back in the not so distant future.
Check out the queen’s social media below to keep up to date with things drag:
@themistymonique Misty Monique
@contraryasfuck Marla B.Zarre
@delunasional Luna Lakes
@PaulAleksandr Paul Aleksandr
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