Creators: Alex Woodward and Daniel Venz
When it comes to Christmas shows, many people want something light-hearted. That’s why pantomime is a perennial favourite: plenty of knockabout humour, nothing too consequential, and a chance to let one’s hair down at the end of another year.
As most pantos are family affairs, avenues for grown-ups to let their hair down and have the sort of laughs that shouldn’t be for young ears aren’t quite as common, although there are more and more adult pantomime shows springing up now. But outside that very British tradition, it falls upon an Australian troupe of comedy burlesque performers to give us filthy jokes, bawdy takes on musical standards of the season, and rather a lot of cheeky skin.
Led by Stephen Hirst’s red-headed, red-blooded Santa, the eight-strong troupe of performers turn up in an array of, sometimes revealing, outfits. Even then, it’s clear that most of the sauciness is going to come from the language in the comedy rather than the striptease. Indeed, the show’s first real bit of titillation is also the weakest, as Jack Lark rips away his sequinned suit to reveal a bra and panties. It’s all a play on how the phrases “winter wonderland” and “women’s underwear” have the same number of syllables.
Thankfully, it’s all uphill from there, high quality while pretending to be low-brow. There are nods to traditional burlesque, with Rachel MacDougall performing a fan dance striptease, but otherwise, much of the fun comes from songs and dance numbers with ribald wordplay. It helps that the quality of the performances is high, with Kirby Burgess excelling vocally and Chris O’Mara proving to be the strongest of the dancers. Alexia Brinsley and Shay Debney both bring a sweetness to their performances that reminds us how burlesque can be as affectionate as it is titillating, if not more so.
Debney’s diminutive size means that he’s cast as Santa’s little helper, culminating in being objectified in a reworked version of Aussie band Divinyls’ I Touch Myself into the inevitable I Touch My Elf. The Australian origins of the troupe also result in a performance of the country’s traditional Christmas song, Six White Boomers. There may be a quick pause where we’re asked to contemplate that the song, about a version of Santa whose sleigh is pulled by kangaroos instead of reindeer, was written by Rolf Harris, but by that point, everybody’s having so much fun it’s a lot easier to separate the artist from the art.
Between an audience-led interpretation of the Nativity and a fully naked ensemble fan-style dance with Christmas presents maintaining what’s left of the cast’s modesty, A Very Naughty Christmas achieves what it sets out to do. There are areas where it could be slicker, and there’s a feeling that the whole evening has been blocked for a stage larger than the Elephant’s – but when being naughty is this much fun, who wants to be on the nice list?
Continues until 11 January 2025
The Reviews Hub Score
Cheeky Christmas cabaret
