What I liked
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What I didn't like
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My overall impression
Imagine growing up a child of a Drag Queen, making you a Drag Prince. Your life is fabulous and filled with sequins, sparkling shoes and show tunes. Meet Alfie Ordinary, who’s from this wonderful world and regales us stories of his youth at Madam LeCoq’s Preparatory School For Fabulous Boys. His friend, Jon, however doesn’t come from such a fabulous family. His home is filled with blame, guilt, feeling wrong, and shame. Hence, Alfie tries to cheer up his mate everyday on the bus through song.
It’s a delightful premise brought to charming and hilarious reality by Alfie whose sequined costumes, selection of pop songs and delightful puppets create a rich and fab world. Alfie manages to make the familiar songs sound brand new and infused with queer meaning. Beginning with a lesson his school teacher taught him (the Village People’s “YMCA”), he then states, “And then she did what I can only describe as contemporary dance,” performing the gestures of the famous song to rapturous laughter. Later on Alfie is upstaged by a Whitney Houston puppet in a rendition of “The Greatest Love of All.” I was gasping for air I was laughing so hard.
There is a point where we are made blatantly aware that this is all artifice, that Alfie is not real and that this is just pretend. I’m not convinced it needs to be stated so explicitly, as I’m sure most are aware that this world where sequins are more important than heteronormativity is a fantasy. Alfie’s optimism and passion for all things fabulous is intoxicating and you can’t help but feel the world is little bit shinier because of it. After all, some people are fabulous, get over it.
