Ginger Johnson Blows Off ★★★★

By The Recs PJR 2 years ago

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner Ginger Johnson swaps her crown for a crash helmet on her UK tour

Ginger Johnson is the reigning Drag Race UK champion, and known as a theatrical queen. Ditching the usual drag tropes, she builds her latest show around a supposed new career of daredevil.  Starting small (trampolining after glugging Coke), her feats of derring-do get bigger and more ridiculous, ultimately involving being shot out from a cannon.
 
The show contains a couple of witty songs that Ginger has penned with Bourgeois & Maurice. Johnson sings about being a “big shot” following her Drag Race win last year, despite arriving on stage on a motorised scooter.  Following a (planned) misadventure towards the end of the show, she wails “how the fuck did I end up here?”, though her (self-declared) emotional ballad ultimately becomes uplifting, not to mention silly.
 
It’s bawdy end-of-the-pier fun, enlivened with some real zingers.  Describing the probability of getting shot in the face with tacks during one stunt, she says it’s one in three – the same likelihood as one of the Sugarbabes developing diabetes.  Here’s to you Mutya!  One-liners range from delightfully obvious (“this will go down in the anals of history” after fart-lighting fun) to esoteric (she wields her Drag Race winner’s sceptre “like a gay Gandalf”).
A seasoned and engaging performer, this queen understands her audience and how to work them. They know what to expect and Johnson delivers.  Accompanied by her own version of Madge Allsop (the delightfully po-faced Jen), Johnson whips the audience into fervorous  participation.  She delights and terrifies in equal measure when she bounds into the crowd seeking unwilling “volunteers”.
 
Towards the end of her show, Johnson thanks the audience for taking time out from a near-cataclysmic world.  And this certainly represents an hour of irreverent and escapist fun!  

She shoots (out of a cannon), she scores – ★★★★ 4 stars

Ginger Johnson Blows Off Tour Tickets

The Ginger Johnson tour continues...

Playing until Sat 12 Oct at Soho Theatre, London

Thu 17 Oct Komedia, Bath

Sat 19 Oct Northern Stage, Newcastle

Thu 24 Oct Crescent Theatre, Birmingham

Fri 25 + Sat 26 Oct Norwich Playhouse

Sat 26 Oct Norwich Playhouse

Sun 27 Oct The Y Theatre, Leicester

Tue 29 Oct Cambridge Junction

Fri 1 Nov Sherman Theatre, Cardiff

Sat 2 Nov City Varieties Music Hall, Leeds

Sun 10 Nov Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow

Wed 13 Nov Liverpool Playhouse

Fri 15 Nov Brighton Dome, Corn Exchange

Fri 22 Nov HOME Manchester

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