Fringe theatre & musicals reviews: FUCCBOIS: LIVE IN CONCERT | MAN!FEST: The Drag Boyband Musical | Doughboys
Our latest Fringe theatre and musicals round-up features three drag king shows, two of them boyband-based, the other a comedy set in the trenches during World War One.
FUCCBOIS: LIVE IN CONCERT ★★
Assembly George Square Studios (Venue 17) until 31 August
MAN!FEST: The Drag Boyband Musical ★★★
Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 31 August
Doughboys ★★
Greenside @ Riddles Court (Venue 16) until 22 August
There are some brilliant drag king shows out there. The two boyband musicals at this year’s Fringe FUCCBOIS: LIVE IN CONCERT and MAN!FEST: The Drag Boyband Musical – in which women and non-binary performers play men – demonstrate what happens when the form gets repackaged and neutered for a mainstream audience of fans who are now in the golden 30- to 50-year-old age bracket for producers looking for a West End transfer.
FUCCBOIS: LIVE IN CONCERT could have been a provocative parody of masculine and feminine stereotypes and a musical industry that sells cliches to teenagers discovering their identities. Instead, it does the opposite; allows an audience who might not otherwise go to a drag show to laugh along with four interchangeable ‘men’ who sing about using women for sex while claiming to be feminists in a way that renders feminism nonsensical.
Endless thrusting replaces the tightly choreographed and occasionally iconic synchronised dance moves that boybands are known for. “We’re the fuccbois” this unsubtle pastiche sings, picking out ladies to loom over who are encouraged to take selfies for social media to activate the show’s marketing machine heart.
There’s a more entertaining sea shanty and some good jokes about ghosting (Slow Fade), but also high-octane delivery feels aimed straight at anyone looking to ride the Crazy Mouse at the end of Brighton Pier.
A ban on women driving cars, which is still the case in Afghanistan, is paired with a joke that they can’t park. “This is what a feminist looks like,” they encourage us to sing. No, it isn’t. The Troubles in Ireland (Funday Bloody Funday) get a look in and possibly also Russian’s war in Ukraine (a sea of red flags), but they’re shut down as quickly as they’re set up. A strip routine finishes things off, before a producer – who’s been dealing with real as well as scripted tech issues – shuts it all down.
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MAN!FEST: The Drag Boyband Musical is more rough, ready and real with the ‘boys’ – played by Maddie Bell, Hollie Jameson-Clarke, Esther Dracott, and Emily Benucci – in laid-back t-shirts and jeans, but here capable of tight four-part harmonies and sleek dance moves, accompanied by an acoustic guitar and backing tracks that aren’t always identical to the ones before.
In this show, the band also have better defined characters: angsty Tray who’s writing his own lyrics, former head boy and “wordsmith” Ewan, repressed fitness fanatic Cody and babyish Ruben, singing about being a “co-dependent” “pet” until he removes his chastity ring. This act attracts the attention of not only the screaming fans but also interchangeable managers (which the cast also play) who want to award one ‘boy’ the ultimate prize: a solo career.
It’s an amusing, understated production, written by the cast, with dry northern delivery and a lightly subversive story that draws in eating disorders and being secretly gay when the focus is supposed to be on getting “12-year-old girls to fancy you”.
These boys are, as they say, “hard working and talented”, the tunes are catchy and the script at least credits its audience with understanding a 4/4 time signature to an extent that it can make a joke out of it. It’s a show fuelled by the good nature behind the pre-packaging of boybands at their best, but it also largely characterises their fans as silly girls who can’t think for themselves, with a conclusion of “boys will be boys” no closer to adding anything new.
While it’s not a boyband show, Doughboys explores women dressing as men from a different perspective: that of the trenches of the First World War, when they took on masculine alter-egos so that they would be able to take part in battle.
Unfortunately, the real-life stories of these women, who mostly came from Eastern Europe, are buried not only in history but also this chaotic farce, in which three cross-dressing US soldiers flail around the front line like skittles, desperately trying to sleep with, impress or evade the British Sergeant Haddock.
Drawing on an admirable love of BBC sitcoms, which clearly includes Blackadder, the play feels like a pantomime rather than a satire, with a particularly large performance from the Sergeant who’s in danger of upstaging Private Sam Sandes and her friends – although perhaps not Bella Bianconi, who keeps showing him her breasts.
With everything going “a little bit queer”, stronger jokes are needed than ones formed from gender stereotypes and double entendres. A final dance routine that is as enjoyable as it is incongruous concludes the frivolity. Sally Stott
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