Kate Butch - Wuthering Shites ★★★★★

Perhaps driven by Kate Bush’s global resurrection thanks to the Stranger Things soundtrack, there is a veritable garden of Bushes decorating the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe. Each providing their own idiosyncratic take on the Ethereal One. Wuthering Shites is the offering from beloved RuPaul’s Drag Race alumnus, Kate Butch.

Now The Recs has been lured into Drag Race contestants’ Fringe efforts before – only to discover that ten minutes of hilarity on the popular and heavily-edited TV franchise does not a one-hour solo show make. Let us tell you: no deal with God is required here – the drag goddess named Butch has a show with everything: songs, belly laughs, intelligence and a deep warmth couched in caustic wit. And for a RuPaul Queen not always renowned for their runway looks, the most beautiful dress on the Fringe!

Descending the venue’s stairs to the strains of Running Up That Hill, the show is automatically a hot ticket by virtue of Queen’s Dome being “the hottest room in the world”. “I’m knackered” Butch declares with typical Yorkshire frankness, before revealing the concept behind the show.

This is the first workshop for a brand-new jukebox musical called BUSH! (the exclamation mark is important) featuring songs from Kate’s back catalogue. Butch informs us that it’s not going to be a biographical like the Tina Turner or Drifters musicals – after all what would this particular singer’s story be? Wrote some songs and moved to Wiltshire?

Instead we plunge into an altogether more adventurous and dramatic tale. Hilariously mocking how jukebox musicals have to bend the narrative to shoehorn the hits in, Bush! focuses on Cathy, a Northern lass. She’s asthmatic – cue Breathing. She becomes mother to an unusually-named child – cue Wow. Her father was mauled to death by government-sponsored dogs… You get the picture.

There is some good-natured audience participation playing roles within the musical – their efforts mostly dismissed by Kate Butch’s eye-rolling and faux ingratitude. The proceedings are dominated by Butch’s mercurial, magnetic personality. She switches between the caustic and the charming in the blink of an eye. She can’t disguise her affection for the musical icon while mercilessly lampooning her lyrics and videos. She wrongfoots you constantly: raucous and unpredictable comedy suddenly disappears into surprisingly-delicate moments of pleasure. This Woman‘s Work has audiences expecting jokes but are offered a beautiful sincerity instead. Similarly, a standout take on And Dream of Sheep is tender and touching.

Beneath the veneer of haphazard, Wuthering Shites is a well-constructed hour of pure entertainment by an act at the top of their game. You leave the Queen’s Dome exhausted from laughing. Forget King of the Mountain – all hail Kate Butch, the Comedy Queen of the Fringe!