The first Not Television Festival takes place August 29-31 2014 at Chelsea Theatre, featuring Red Bastard, Tomás Ford, Miss Behave and more.

Introducing the Not Television Festival!

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 One of the joys of doing a blog is that you get to celebrate the things you like just cos you like them. Since Not Television launched at the end of 2013, I’ve had the chance to do a bit of that in real life too, programming some of the acts I admire at Come […]

Anton Ego from Ratatouille (© Pixar/Disney)

The only five words you need to handle a bad review

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 With the Edinburgh Fringe just around the corner, there are plenty of performers out there bracing for the most intense experience of the year. And along with the pressures of having to create, perfect and publicise your show, there’s another looming challenge: what if you get a bad review? It’s something I’ve thought about as […]

We’re revolting! The wonder of Divine

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  Today, July 18 2014, sees the UK release of I Am Divine, a documentary by Jeffrey Schwarz about the mother of all alt-drag icons. This is a piece I wrote about Divine for the Curzon cinemas magazine. No one likes to be constantly identified with past glories and by the end of his life, […]

Critic pride! Reclaiming the ‘c’-word in my new ebook on criticism

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 I used to be wary of describing myself as a critic. It just sounds mean, or like you know better than everyone else. But I’ve thought about it and these days, it’s a term I embrace: critic and proud! The reason for this is pretty much the same straightforward reason a lot of us still […]

David Hoyle and Christeene at Vogue Fabrics, July 7, 2014 CREDIT Holly Revell

Dashing David Hoyle weds stunning bride Christeene in lavish ceremony at tropical Vogue Fabrics

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Gushing reportage of the nuptials between glamorous, trailblazing artist and performer David Hoyle and Christeene Vale, the elegant debutante who has taken Texan high society by storm

Come With Me (again), blogs about cabaret for Exeunt and WhatsOnStage, a QX Q&A

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 This Friday it’s the second edition of Come With Me If You Want To Live, the quarterly cabaret show I’m producing and presenting for Chelsea Theatre. The last one was a belter – we had to turn people away! – and this one should be every bit as good. By way of plugging it, I’ve […]

Guardian feature on the backward turn in LGBT cinema

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 I wrote a piece for the Guardian last week setting out a few of the ideas about recent LGBT cinema that I’ve been thinking about since BFI Flare earlier in the year – namely the idea of a ‘backward turn’ in which three types of film are increasingly prevalent: features with period settings; documentaries about […]

Beyond the battlefield: Nathan Evans’s queer retirement-home romcom

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 I’ve been a fan of Nathan Evans for ages – he’s a bit of a renaissance man whose interests intersect with many of my own, notably queer cabaret and film work. As a producer and performer, he’s worked on projects ranging from the RVT’s pioneering Vauxhallville variety night to making shows with David Hoyle, Fancy […]

 
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