The Auckland Pride Festival Gala and Launch ~ a performance review

The Auckland Pride Festival Gala and Launch.

Produced by Julian Cook for Auckland Pride Festival Trust

Directed by Verity George and Lisa Prager

Q Theatre Rangatira Room

Friday 08 February, 2013 at 8.00pm

Reviewed Friday 08 February, 2013

First, I have a confession: I’m a trustee on The Auckland Pride Festival Trust so there’s maybe a hint of bias, a bent view, an intimation of partiality.

Maybe.

Hopefully not.

It’s a bunch of years since Auckland had a significant queer festival and over a decade since there was a parade. The last was under the Hero banner and is remembered with affection by almost everyone who attended.

For me it was a big part of my coming out.

In those days – and I was a trustee of Hero Inc also – we battled city hall, not because the people of Auckland had anything substantial against the LGBTTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, Takatāpui and intersex) communities but because John Banks was mayor and his Deputy was David Hay and they certainly did.

So much for ‘love thy neighbour’.

The worm, however, has turned and The Auckland Pride Festival Trust has been funded via ATEED to re-establish the parade and has opted to surround it with a self-funded, two week festival celebrating all things queer and which is anchored at each end by existing iconic gay events namely Big Gay Out and Proud, the party to end all parties.

Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse, in her opening speech, reminded the audience – those who needed reminding – that any metropolis aiming to be at the top of the World’s Most Livable City list needs to be inclusive of all sectors of the community and Auckland’s super city council are proving to be exactly that.

Bless them!

As with all festivals there has to be a launch and the Auckland Pride Festival Gala was chosen to kick start the sixty event celebration. The venue was the Rangatira room at Q Theatre and it was a black tie dress up affair.

In a coup of sorts Sam Johnson was engaged as co-presenter along with the elegant Verity George. Sam was born on Valentine’s Day – so important if you happen to be gay – has studied law and politics and was, as we all know, the organiser of the Student Volunteer Army following the Canterbury Earthquakes, a feat he repeated at Japan’s prestigious Waseda University after the tragic earthquakes and tsunami there. After receiving a Special Leadership Award from the Sir Peter Blake Trust, Sam crowned it all by being named Young New Zealander of the Year in 2012.

Totally deserved.

The Rangatira Room is a magnificent performing space. It has great acoustics, is purpose built for versatility and the gantry viewing areas are sublime.

The Auckland Pride Festival Gala was designed to feature key showcase events from the whole festival and this was achieved with assurance and professionalism, no mean feat when you consider the number of performers – some experienced, some not – the variety of the segments and the fact that, as with any gala, there was no narrative through line. Credit must go to Lisa Prager and Verity George for pulling the whole thing together and producing a very classy evening indeed.

A snippet of Salon Mika opened the show featuring the kaumatua of queerdom, the divinely costumed Mika – one might whisper ‘who else?’ – supported by Te Tai Tonga kapa haka and the stunning voices of Waimihi Hotere and Megan Alatini.

From then on the show was what it was intended to be, a loosely linked succession of fabulous highlights of longer works – snippets, bit and bobs, fragments of fabulosity – and some of them were little rippers.

Edwina Thorne and The Boogie Woogie Bugle Gals from Heroes Out West ripped through a couple of numbers and had the audience totally involved with Tequila.

Singing along, I mean.

Miz Ima Starr is one of the rarest of drag artistes in that she actually sings her own songs. Direct from Australia and reversing the brain drain she has a new album completed and shared it with the audience. Hers was absolute polish as she worked the audience, a staunch blonde vision in scarlet.

It’s great to see Maree Sheehan back on the performance circuit and with a new album just released as well. If the album is all as good as How Do I Say Goodbye, the ballad she shared with the Gala audience, then it’s a must have for anyone who loves New Zealand music. Jessie Matthews provided stunning support vocals and the two women worked impeccably together.

One Night Only was drag at its lip-synched, flamboyant finest with the divine Buckwheat, the exquisitely talented Tess Tickle, the delicious Dallas Vixen and the fabulous Venus Mantrapp completely on top of their game. Nobody does traditional drag better than these sweet things and their spectacularly costumed number received the rapturous applause it deserved.

There couldn’t be a Pride Festival without marching boys and the new generation, the downundergear Marching Boys dressed in lycra loincloths and not much else didn’t disappoint. Those who remember the Hero Parade from days gone by might have been disappointed by the relatively small number of lithe lads but what they lacked in quantity they made up for in quality. While I admit to having little interest in the boys as objects of desire I can certainly appreciate their commitment to the body beautiful and their classy artistry was apparent throughout. While I remained emotionally unmoved – for me it’s all about the art, darling – it’s fair to say that most of the male audience members were far more actively engaged.

The end of the appropriately timed first half saw the audience given a glimpse of what to expect from the much anticipated Pride Parade – glamorous drag queens, the marching boys, roller derby girls, the URGE Bears, sparkles, glitter and noise and, of course, community.

‘We are family’, after all.

Part two introduced the audience to Gobsmacked: Showbiz and Dating starring Kiwi Jamie Burgess and Aussie Nikki Aitken. This mismatched couple – he’s as gay as it gets and she’s, well, she’s unfortunately straight – live and work together and the synergy that gets them through the day is evident in the smooth elegance of their music theatre performance which was incredibly funny and as sharp as a tack! I could sense audience members ticking Gobsmacked: Showbiz and Dating in their classy Pride programmes as a totally must see show.

Then came our own version of the burlesque style.

Queerlesque is a chic and stylish collection of circus-like vignettes – everything from staunch strong men to svelte chicks wearing next to nothing and, as we’ve come to expect from Phlossy Roxx and the team, it was raunchy and electrifying all the way.

Photographic credit: Andy Rainbow

Speakeasy was presented as three monologues, one each from the actors who will take the show to Garnet Station during the festival. It was naturalistic parody with a very sharp edge and all three performers were strikingly good.  Andrea Kelland, always one of my favourite actors, was exceptional and Thomas Sainsbury was a total delight. Verity George made up this talented trio and she proved her versatility as she slipped from the role of co-host to entertainer flawlessly.

If the night had ended there we’d have gone home happy with what we’d seen but little did we know the best was yet to come.

I’ve long been a fan of Victor Rodger’s writing so my anticipation was through the roof for his new work Black Faggot. I’d read the publicity but nothing could have prepared me – or anyone else – for the in-your-face, comic onslaught from Beulah Koale and Iaheto Ah Hi. This is extremely fine work and director Roy Ward’s actors were stunningly, wonderfully, gorgeously good. The script is skeletal and taut and, considering the content and the community it comes from, very brave work indeed. Look forward to the upcoming season and book early because this show will sell out!

Even though they didn’t end the evening I’ve saved until last my two absolute favourite acts.

Polly Filla is without doubt my favourite drag queen. I love her satiric take on life and her off the wall creativity. She’s sings it as she sees it and never fails to expose some new absurd social hypocrisy. Her new show, Kitsch in Synch, was featured and she showed just what fun you can have with a phone. My ten year old son, who was up well past everyone’s bedtime, was totally hysterical and that’s praise indeed!

 It was night for winners.

The producer and directors, the cast and crew, the audience, the politicians and sponsors, the Auckland Pride Festival Trust and the Q Theatre staff – everyone acquitted themselves splendidly – but the highlight of the evening came from Mary Jane O’Reilly’s delicious girls – it might even be said that they were ‘Best in Show’.

And I might easily say it was no surprise. MJ is one of my all time favourite people and as an artist working in dance she has few peers.

Yes, you might have guessed my pet act would feature girls and most probably sexy girls wearing nice smiles and not much else – and you’d be right – but in my own (and my lovely wife’s) defense most of the gay men I spoke to felt the same.

O’Reilly’s tastefully erotic satire Horses, a wickedly witty take on ‘being in the saddle and bondage’ absolutely stole the show and White Knights Marching Girls wasn’t far behind. Both works were lifted from O’Reilly’s In Flagrante, an edgy, neo burlesque produced by O’Reilly’s own Flagrant Productions which cocks a snook at female sexual stereotypes and shows, in scrumptiously wicked fashion, six women doing it for themselves.

The dancers were superb, the fetishistic costuming divine and the two works successfully lampooned the genre and everything associated with it – including themselves – and both works were marvelously droll. Keep your eyes open because a wee bird told me they’ve got a full length show coming up in May and that these pieces will feature so keep those peepers well and truly peeled. Until then do what I’ll be doing and check Horses out on YouTube. You’ll be stunned, so much so that you’ll have to watch it again – and again – and probably again.

The Auckland Pride Festival Opening Gala gave us all some tantalizing snippets of what the festival has in store – and it’s all very, very good.

Pride – yes, welcome back!