Review: REUBEN KAYE: THE BUTCH IS BACK, Soho Theatre

Reuben Kaye, compère extraordinaire, one of the brightest lights on the cabaret scene and a man never knowingly underdressed, returns to London with his no-holds-barred show The Butch Is Back. The Australian spent much of the pandemic in his homeland, touring the regions and putting together this keenly anticipated platform for his ample comedic, musical and storytelling talents.

Those new to Kaye should be warned that there are few holy cows that he is unwilling to turn into beefburgers. Sexuality, gender, race, politics, economics and religion are all grist to his mill. Imagine if legendary comedians Bill Hicks and George Carlin had a bastard child in the shape of a glitterbomb and you'll have some idea of what to expect.

His energetic delivery takes some time to get used to. MCs rarely get more than a few minutes to make an impact which could explain the scattergun approach in the first part of The Butch Is Back. When not jumping from topic to topic like a frog on amphetamines, he throws in digressions aplenty ("I took a berocca and steroid before coming on. I took one of them anally. Guess which one...she's fizzing!"). His colourful use of language and occasionally brutal imagery will give those who are easily offended much to be easily offended by.

Kaye is explosive from the off and seems to be very happy to be back in London ("like giving a handjob to an octogenarian before a prostate exam, tonight has been a long time coming...the last two years were bumpier than riding a tractor through a toddlers' birthday party."). It takes him about thirty minutes to get through the initial torrent of jibes, japes, jokes and singing but that's no great struggle: his tirades are thought-provoking, his timing is admirable and his pumped-up arrangements of standards like The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy For The Devil" would fill out much bigger spaces, not least his old haunt, the Café de Paris' Titanic ballroom.

The second half of this spatchcocked show takes a very different tone. Out go the butt gags and sharp pokes at politicians and in comes a serious (well, as serious as Kaye ever gets) exploration of a childhood living with two significantly different parents. His father is portrayed as a gentle aesthete, a man to whom art is as important as oxygen while his mother is a hard-drinking heavy smoker from Germany ("she left East Berlin and then they put up the wall. Do the math.").

When he comes out to them, their responses provide an emotional highpoint. The more Kaye breaks down the complicated relationships within his family and their differing attitudes to his homosexuality, the more the line between cabaret and a live one-sided therapy session gets blurred but, in truth, he sticks the landing with aplomb.

Watching him before and since the pandemic, it is clear that Kaye has talent to spare in the musical, comedy and theatrical departments. In an age when the major streamers have resorted to handing out comedy specials to single-threat second-rate Strictly Come Dancing contestants, surely it's only a matter of time before this star deservedly becomes a marquee name.

Reuben Kaye: The Butch Is Back continues at Soho Theatre until 10 September.

Photo credit: Ayesha Hussain

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