REVIEW: Reuben Kaye Is Finally Able To Bring His Award Winning THE BUTCH IS BACK To Sydney, Delighting An Eager Audience At Enmore Theatre

Saturday 1st July 2023, 8pm, Enmore Theatre Newtown

International icon of intelligent cabaret, Reuben Kaye, has finally been able to present THE BUTCH IS BACK in Sydney and the 1600 strong audience at Enmore Theatre couldn’t have been happier to have the Melbourne born Glamazon grace the Sydney stage after the April show was cancelled due to security and safety concerns.  For this show, Kaye is backed by Musical Director Shannon D. Whitelock on piano and his newly rebranded band “Emergency Contacts”, which comprise Mariela Versola on saxophone, Alex Silver on trombone, Bernice Tesara on Trumpet, Alana Dawes on Bass guitar and John McDermott on drums. 

Reuben Kaye has built a reputation as an irreverent and intelligent multidisciplined cabaret performer who uses his stage and his profile to speak up for the LGBTQIA+ community while providing a safe space for the queer community and challenging the comfort and understanding of those that don’t necessarily relate to the queer community and their experiences.  THE BUTCH IS BACK delivers this in spades with an evening of social commentary, personal stories, and brilliant camp cabaret.  He is highly cerebral and eloquent and ensures that he keeps up to date with the politics and social structure of whichever city he is playing to, providing observations and opinions on both broader global and national subjects and more topical local events including news that has only just broken in the past 24 hours.  As with his other performances, Kaye weaves in new songs and stories with a few ‘old favorite’ numbers.  He doesn’t shy away from the severity of the reasons for the April show being cancelled and he knows how to hold the audience in the palm of his hand as some moments beg for silent response and some are delivered for laughs. 

Reuben Kaye often draws on his own experiences growing up as a flamboyant, dramatic queer kid in a society where the other kids seemed to think the only way to deal with his difference was to bully and beat him up and THE BUTCH IS BACK is no different.  For this show, Kaye centers on the performance on his relationship with his late father, an artist that always loved and supported his son even if he didn’t quite understand how to express it.  With a work that gravitates into the serious much more than some of his other shows, Kaye delivers some beautifully poignant songs around the stories and there are some wonderful connections made.

Part of Reuben Kaye’s fame is linked to his stunning costumes and striking makeup.  Many fans will have at least seen footage of Kaye’s French Rococo Pannier skirt and the Sydney audience was treated to a live view of this magnificently theatrical garment that only the lithe statuesque Kaye could pull off as he pranced around the stage for his opening number.  With flawless makeup that highlights his beautiful bone structure, his signature extreme lashes and a hairstyle modeled off the late Princess Diana, Kaye’s expressions can be easily seen from the balcony lounge seats. 

THE BUTCH IS BACK is another wonderfully risqué, camp and boundary pushing performance from Reuben Kaye.  The audience reactions throughout prove that he has a strong following of like minded queers and allies that support his bravery in speaking up and speaking out in defense of the LGBTQIA+ community particularly the drag performers and Trans community that have more recently been the target of hate crimes and vitriol.  The security measures that the Enmore Theatre and the NSW police put into place for this event ensured that patrons felt safe from the threats that had been sent to Kaye prior to the original cancelled concert.  Regardless of whether you’ve seen Reuben Kaye before, and even if you’ve seen THE BUTCH IS BACK already, Kaye’s ability to update and refresh a show to reflect current events and his ability to improvise ensures that it is highly unlikely that you’ll see the exact same show twice.

While Reuben Kaye’s THE BUTCH IS BACK season at Enmore Theatre was a one night engagement, he is taking THE BUTCH IS BACK and LIVE & INTIMIDATING on tour in Australia, the UK, Europe and he will be making his North American debut at Montreal JUST FOR LAUGHS. 

https://www.reubenkaye.com/tour-dates

Photos: Ashley Mar

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