Diane Chorley: Modern Love
Rating: ★★★★
Venue: The Flick at George Square Studios
Diane Chorley invites us to her nightclub where everyone is welcome, The Flick. The Duchess of Canvey presides over this all singing, all dancing cabaret with a gorgeous message at its heart.
Drag star Diane recounts her rise to stardom and how her welcoming nightclub came to be. With amusing anecdotes and a range of impressive musical numbers, Diane shares how she established herself as a national icon and almost lost it all.
Stepping into The Flick is like a time portal to the 1980s with its silver strips hanging from the walls, palm trees adorning the stage and signed photos from all of Diane’s eigties icon showbiz pals providing decoration. Diane enters the stage with musical support from her pal Milky – she is a hurricane of warmth, enthusiasm and positive energy as she dives into her first musical number Welcome to the Flick. With the crowd suitably warmed up, Diane launches into the story of how she turned a local working man’s club run by the cruel judgemental Janet into the most welcoming place in town.
Diane’s anecdotes and stories are laced with amusing jokes – yet unlike many other queens, she doesn’t resort to venom or unpleasantness in her act. The humour is always good natured and Diane crafts an atmosphere of kindness and joy in The Flick. However, with fame comes risks and in Modern Love we hear about how an incident with Grace Jones and a flamethrower ended it all. Names are dropped left, right and centre with Diane crafting her star status in these many humorous stories.
The musical numbers that fill this cabaret range from the poignant to the provocative. Vairety is the key with ballads like The Night, audience participation in the D.U.C.H.E.S.S, and all out disco in the banger This Love. Diane commands the stage as she belts out these well-produced tunes and fully immerses the audience in the world of The Flick.
Diane Chorley: Modern Love boasts a surprisingly heartfelt message with the performer sharing a message of kindness and acceptance (there are even mid-show opportunities to talk to a stranger next to you – really!) encouraging us to put our technology down and embrace acceptant social spots like bars, clubs and safe spaces.
With belting musical numbers and Diane’s natural warmth and humour as a performer, it is easy to be touched by the message at the heart of Diane Chorley: Modern Love. It’s an absolute treat.