one4review | On 17, Aug 2024

Fresh from a celebrated appearance on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, comedy crossdresser Kate Butch brings her spectacular new show to the Fringe, a musical called Bush!, emphatically with an apostrophe, in an attempt to rival other jukebox musicals like Mamma Mia! or Bat Out of Hell.

Kate inevitably begins with Running Up That Hill, the song that put Kate Bush back at the top of the charts, thanks to its use on the Stranger Things soundtrack, and which brought her to the attention of a whole new generation of devoted followers, many who seemed to be in the audience. The show is centred around Cathy, a Yorkshire lass, who has a daughter called Wow! and whose father is mauled to death by dogs. Audience members play various parts in the story, including a priest, the ghost of her father and a man called James, who cheats on her with Kashka from Baghdad, leading Cathy to travel to Iraq and cause all kinds of havoc. Great fun throughout and the plot allows for the shoehorning of various Kate Bush tracks, including Babooshka, The Man with the Child in His Eyes and finally, after teasing us throughout, Wuthering Heights as the grand finale.

The singing, which is part lip-synced, part comic, and part serious is surprisingly strong, even when attempting Bush’s falsetto style. The momentum does dip very slightly towards the end, but nevertheless, this is an energetic and very enjoyable hour of fringe cabaret which I would highly recommend catching.

****

Reviewed by Howard

The Pleasance Dome, Queen Dome
17.30 (1hr)
Until 26th August