Myra DuBois: DuBois Entendre

Someone as faux glamorous as Myra DuBois does not belong on the free fringe, as she is constantly reminding us. The several entrances to the ballroom in which she is based for the month being all too accessible, there are people toing and froing from the bar. She chastises them for not including her in the round and has an ongoing feud with the rather rambunctious air conditioning that seems unnecessary for such an airy room. This is all before she has managed to begin the show in earnest.

Which comes as somewhat of a blessing in disguise as this gives her acid tongue a chance to wag over all the gathered revelers for this late night drag act, a show that’s heavier on the comedy than the musical numbers. There’s a touch of Mrs Merton in her friendly/antagonistic banter with her long suffering sound tech; a Yorkshire Lily Savage vibe about the way she dominates the room; and a touch of Bet Lynch in the handling of her perceived social status. It all feels like something you’ve seen before, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable to watch her snap at those she sees as lesser than her.

Due to the unruly nature of the free fringe and the Scooby-Doo-esque door openings of The Counting House, the show never quite gets going (DuBois perfectly sums up it as "like doing an assembly at a rough school") and a couple of magic tricks gone wrong are more filler than killer. But DuBois excels when letting loose on the naughty kids in the room.