The Stage

Chit Chat - What’s in a name?

Published Tuesday 23 June 2009 at 13:05 by Tabard

One section of the cultural community, however, which appears to have no problem calling a spade as a spade, so to speak, are London’s gay theatre makers.

Tabard has noticed a recent trend among this group for what some might call ‘direct marketing’, or what we have christened the Ronseal Quick Drying Woodstain approach - plays doing exactly what they say on the tin.

So, at north London venue the King’s Head, we have recently been presented with Fucking Men - Joe Dietro’s play about, well, yes you guessed it - followed by the musical comedy Naked Boys Singing which features, well… again, you get the picture.

And, if you’re a fan of those first two, you’re sure to love Gay School Musical, coming soon to the Above The Stag Theatre in Victoria, which we’re guessing is like High School Musical but with more spandex. If that’s possible.

It does all beg the question of whether other, more mainstream shows would have enjoyed even greater success had they adopted the same approach.

Calendar Girls could be renamed ‘Middle-aged Women Stripping’, The Blue Room could have been re-billed as ‘Nicole Kidman Naked’ and Equus, well, how about ‘Harry Potter sh… “. On second thoughts, let’s not go there.