Death Drop is the ultimate triple threat: it’s a Drag Comedy, a murder mystery, and a musical extravaganza – and it’s here to slay. Premiering on the West End in December, the star-studded UK Tour is making a brief pit-stop in Cardiff for only a few days – so sashay your way to the New Theatre and catch it while you can!
It’s 1991, and Lady von Fistenberg (Drag Race UK star Vinegar Strokes) has gathered a gaggle of celebrity frenemies to her mansion on Tuck Island to celebrate Charles and Diana’s anniversary – only for the guests to start dropping dead. This isn’t your grandmother’s murder mystery – and when it comes to the jokes, there’s no such thing as ‘too far’. Produced by TuckShop and Trafalgar Theatre Productions and written by Holly Stars (who also plays all three Bottomley Sisters), the show is essentially Murder on the Starlight Express: a campy, chaotic riff on the whodunnit where the one-liners fly so thick and fast, they make panto look slow.
Drag legends Willam and Ra’Jah O’Hara lead an all-star cast including Vinegar Strokes (reprising her role from the original West End lineup), Drag Race Down Under’s Karen From Finance, and drag kings like Richard Energy and George Orell who deliver some of the show’s best and most bonkers lines. The cast are incredibly game and bring a fun, raucous energy to the stage – I truly can’t remember the last time I laughed as much as I did in Death Drop.
Directed by Jesse Jones and with original songs by Flo and Joan (Oopsie Whoopsie is a real earworm), the show is a boozy, bolshy bit of escapist fun. Justin Williams’ set looks as if Dr Seuss designed Liberace’s living room, and Isobel Pellow’s costumes are a feast for the eyes: case in point, an outfit of Willam’s made entirely of bandanas (even the boots! I seriously want a pair). It leaves no 90s reference unturned and no innuendo unmilked – it’s daft, it’s dirty, and it’s an absolute delight.
Funny, filthy and fabulous, Death Drop is anything but a drag. If you’re averse to a bit of blue (cheese or comedy), you might want to give this one a miss – but if you’re up for a night of glitz, glamour and giggles, you can’t get better than this.
Death Drop is sashaying its way through to Saturday 23 October at the New Theatre.
