Smash your baubles and throw your tinsel in the canal – there’s only one man climbing down your chimney this year, London – and it’s Reuben Kaye!
The award-winning, international sensation arrives at the spectacular Southbank Centre with a hotly-anticipated residency of one of the best reviewed shows of the Edinburgh Fringe 2023, The Butch is Back!
With well over 10 million views on Tik Tok, performances at the Sydney Opera House, Just For Laughs Montreal and a tour including shows in Oslo, Helsinki and Amsterdam, the OffWestEnd Award winner Reuben is finally bringing his award-winning, outrageous brand of high-camp to London.
Reuben’s three-week residency follows a fabulous summer on his first full European tour with band The Close Contacts. Earlier in the year, he shimmied across Australia delighting audiences up and down the country, finding enough time to remove his make-up to go viral for his appearance on prime time Australian TV, (Q+A, Australia’s answer to BBC Question Time) advocating for Drag Queen Story Time and protecting Trans and LGBT+ youth.
In The Butch is Back!, Reuben explores the relationship between fathers and sons through his connection to his own father as a queer, creative child and now, how it feels to process his childhood as a cabaret superstar. Drawing links between masculinity and the apocalypse, the show tears apart the social phenomenon of coming out, re-claiming slur after slur, and expertly taking down our right-wing government.
The Southbank Centre shows see Reuben backed by his four piece band and plays with a myriad genres, styles and songs from Stormzy to Geri Halliwell, Bobby Gentry, Reba McIntyre, The Rolling Stones and Janelle Monae, with Reuben barely drawing breath for the entire evening. For only fifteen nights, Kaye gives us a much needed, Swarovski studded revolt against the ever narrowing views of an increasingly conservative world. Join him on his journey to the centre of attention.
Southbank Centre, Purcell Room, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
Dates: 8 – 30 December 2023 (not 11, 18, 24, 35, 26)
Time: 8pm (120 mins, including interval)
Press Night: Wednesday 13 December 2023
Performance on Thursday 14 December is British Sign Language interpreted (BSL)
Age Restriction and Content Warnings 18+
Contains distressing or potentially triggering themes, strobe lighting, strong language/swearing
Admission: £25
Box Office: www.southbankcentre.co.uk / 0203 879 9555
