Underbelly Festival Southbank Announces September Lineup

Summer is nearly over, you've been on holiday and the evenings are drawing in, but there's still a whole month of spectacular and affordable live entertainment to enjoy at Underbelly Festival Southbank.

Through the first half of the month, London's first major transfer from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Rouge, promises a decadent blend of sensational acrobatics, operatic cabaret and tongue-in-cheek burlesque. It is a non-stop celebration of the astonishing, the surprising and the downright sexy, receiving its London premiere after critical acclaim at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe (until 15 September).

Other huge names heading straight to London from hit runs at the Fringe include the living legend Basil Brush with both his Fun Family Show and his first ever show for adults, Unleashed (12 & 15 Sep), Tarot: a mystical circus cabaret featuring live card readings (3-4 Sep), Criminal: An Improvised Murder Mystery (5 Sep), Maisie Adam - one of stand-up's most promising young voices, with Hang Fire (9 Sep), Tiff Stevenson's hilariously personal Mother (16 Sep), comic romp through the Marvel cinematic universe MARVELus: All the Marvel movies...kind of (17 Sep), madcap musical-character-sketch comedy pioneer Dave Bibby with Cat Lad-y (18 Sep), comedy-theatre phenomenon Police Cops in Space (21 Sep), dragtastic comedy-cabaret séance Sèayoncè (25 Sep), comic powerhouse Rhys Nicholson with his Fringe hit Nice People Nice Places Nice Things (26 Sep), and women of a thousand voices and master of musical impressions Christina Bianco (27 Sep).

Other fantastic live entertainment hitting the Southbank includes the hit interactive theatrical game based on the adventures of Phileas Fogg: 80 Days: A Real World Adventure, a debut from Britain's Got Talent winner and one of the country's most distinctive and inspiring comedians Lost Voice Guy (10-11 Sep), and the capital's best new comedy mixed bill London Comedy All Stars (Every Saturday in September) featuring some of the country's hottest comedians including Hal Cruttenden, Darren Harriott, Jess Fostekew, Rosie Jones, Phil Wang & Iain Stirling (line-ups subject to change).

And there's further stonking comedy, cabaret and variety throughout the month including a gameshow with a difference from rebel Granny Ida Barr: Granarchist Bingo (7 Sep), the acclaimed hip-hop funk and soul cabaret-variety featuring the best performers of colour: Cocoa Butter Club (13 Sep), Velma Celli's cult hit A Brief History of Drag (17-18 Sep), the world's premiere drag tribute to the Girls Aloud, Gals Aloud (19 Sep), stand-up supremo Mark Dolan with new hour Is It Just Me? (20 Sep), allstars of Asian Cabaret including ShayShay, Evelyn Carnate and Lilly SnatchDragon uniting for a good cause in Cabaret Vs Cancer: The Bitten Peach (24 Sep), acid-tongued diva Myra Dubois with Dead Funny (26 Sep), Southbank institution Marcel Lucont's Cabaret Fantastique (27 Sep) and Electro Swing Project: a night of top-class circus and cabaret with a totally unique soundtrack (28-29 Sep).

Underbelly Festival Southbank is also one of the most colourful and varied venues in the city for lovers of music and dance, with September's offering including Swing Out! A Night of Live Swing Music and Dancing (2 Sep), wildly popular silent disco-cabaret hybrid The Silent Disco Show (6 Sep), a spectacular tribute to a musical great, The Carole King Story (7-8 Sep), a spectacular live rendition of some of cinema's most celebrated soundtracks: Voices of Bond (14, 23, 28 Sep), one of the world's best beatboxers and Underbelly Festival legend SK Shlomo with his intensely personal dark pop album Surrender (19 Sep), sell-out hit The Massaoke Band (20 Sep) and another incredible tribute to an icon: The Aretha Franklin Story (28-29 Sep).

Finally, school may be back but there's still family fun to be had in the form of an improvised family musical in The Showstoppers Kids Show (8 & 29 Sep) and unique and magical puppetry party The Lovely Bug Ball (21-22 Sep).

All of this takes place in one of London's most atmospheric surroundings and best outdoor bars, in the heart of the city on the banks of the Thames.

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