Review by Annie Aslett

Reuben Kaye is undeniably a once-in-a-generation star. As an audience member, one is painfully aware of being in the presence of unadulterated talent. With a glorious cacophony of razor-sharp wit, show-stopping vocals, scathing crowd work, biting satire, emotional profundity and a fierce beat, the constellation of 5-star reviews adorning Kaye’s posters are not just inevitable, they are preordained.

The Butch Is Back glides deftly between surely some of the Fringe’s bluest jokes, a moving ballad about self-acceptance and self-discovery as a gay teen, and stories of Kaye’s eccentric family history, as Kaye sweeps among the audience, occasionally dropping a pointed barb at a defenceless audience member, which the rest of us dread and desire in equal measure. The show’s home is the Spiegeltent Palais du Variété, which feels as though it was erected with the sole purpose of hosting Kaye’s unique brand of queer cabaret.

Watching Kaye’s work feels like a unique experience, the audience at times enraptured in pin-drop silence but more often than not engulfed in a roar of chair-rocking laughter as Kaye fires out joke after joke. If the comedy gods were just, Kaye would produce at least a couple of duds, to level the playing field for other comics, but each seemingly off-the-cuff line is unbelievably funnier than the last.

Kaye has perfected the briefest of pregnant pauses before a punchline that feels idiosyncratic, although is surely a page out of Frank-N-Furter’s antici…pation handbook (a plea now to the theatre gods: please give us an all-star Rocky Horror with Kaye at the helm). Not just a comedic powerhouse, Kaye’s original songs are expertly penned to provide a deadly combination of wit and political statement: though you could just as happily listen to Kaye grelt (growl and belt) the phone book.

The Butch is Back has the occasional tendency to feel rushed but, as Kaye explains, this is an abridged version of the full show he is about to take on a UK/European tour. So run, no, sprint for tickets to see the show in all its glory, and feast your eyes on this transcendent drag cabaret coming soon to a city near you.