But I’m A Cheerleader - Turbine Theatre

I saw the early performance yesterday, having missed this first time around. Not sure why I delayed, as this is great fun.

The venue is always friendly, although not the most conveniently located one, plus you do hear trains rattling by every few minutes.

This is very much aimed at the Heathers audience. I recognised people in the audience and there are alumni in the cast. I imagine this is at least under consideration for The Other Palace, although I don't think the audience is quite there yet. With the LGBTQ themes, it is always going to be a bit more niche than Heathers and I think this was reflected quite a lot in the audience make up yesterday as well. There was a very enthusiastic woman in the front row who was mouthing along with every single word in the script.

I don't know the movie at all, so I've no idea how true the adaptation is, but the plot is just about believable but rather thin. The same could be said about many teen musicals.

Georgina Hagen really holds everything together, oozing professionalism and creating a dynamic stage presence. Noel Sullivan is on the stage, really camping it up and looking like he's having the time of his life. I was also impressed by Patrick Munday, who I remember from his Mountview days playing much more down-to-earth roles, and I never knew had such an outgoing personality hidden inside him. All of the cast are great.

They were also ad-libbing all over the place yesterday, with lots of corpsing, unless of course this is all much more scripted than I picked up on.

I certainly plan to go back before this run closes and I suspect this will have many future runs.

Saw this on Friday evening, having bought what was supposedly the last ticket via TodayTix some three hours before 'curtain up'. I paid £20, and was sat in the corner of Row N (the back row). There was a handful of empty seats on other rows. How PT-M is making any money out here, given the small number of seats, I have no idea, unless the place doubles as an ordinary bar outside of showtimes.

I knew nothing about this going in, other than that it was based on a movie, and that it was going to be queer. And my word, was it - it was supremely, delightfully gay, gay, gay, and I absolutely loved it.

I do think it's not *quite* there for a transfer (presumably to The Other Palace post-Heathers), as yet. I can't pinpoint any specific moments, but the whole thing felt like it just needed tightening up very slightly. No obvious corpsing or adlibs in the performance I saw, but perhaps I missed those moments?

I look forward to seeing this again in the future, in a bigger venue, with an increased budget!