Le Gateau Chocolat

Black, the latest show by this Nigerian cabaret star, is a meditation on his life as a gay, overweight drag queen with clinical depression. And its combination of childish cartoons, public service film parodies, stories of an abused childhood and plenty of singing helps to create one of the most original shows I’ve seen for a long time. His one-hour performance at the Albany in Deptford included extracts from Purcell, Wagner, Nina Simone, Leonard Bernstein, Jacobean poet John Fletcher and Whitney Houston. But the highlight was a spellbinding version of Strange Fruit that Billie Holiday would have envied. Black was heartbreaking, hypnotic and hilarious in equal measure. If only all cabaret was this good.

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