Interview: Divina De Campo: Back on The Road
- midlandsrainbow
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Drag Performer and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season one star, Divina De Campo, is ‘Back on the Road’ with her new tour that sees her team up with musician and songwriter, Ric Neale (The Piano Guy). Coming to The Crescent Theatre, Birmingham at the end of January, the show promises to be “pure January joy”.
“January can be the most miserable of all months,” Divina tells Midlands Rainbow, “It's the time when there's nothing really to look forward to, spring is still a long way away, and then, for some reason, we all decide to do Dry January, which makes it even worse. So there's not always that much to look forward to.
“We did have DragCon for the last 3-4 years, but that's not happening this year, so I wanted to make sure that there was something in my calendar for, if nobody else, me to look forward to. And it's been joyous!”
Back on the Road brings together music, comedy, and cabaret in a show that is unique every night. Divina and Ric perform 30 songs throughout the night, with 23 chosen by the audience, and the only person who knows what the song is, is Ric.
"What happens on the night is what happens, and that's what's made it really, really joyful."
“Everybody's really entered into the spirit of it, so it's been a lot of fun," Divina says. "The songs all have little stories attached to them. So, depending on what people pick, they also learn a little bit about what I've been doing for the past 20 years as well.
“The songs are all things which either Ric and I have done together, or I've been singing for a long time, or he's been performing, or he's written.
“Also, because the audience is so involved, they are absolutely integral to the show, it feels very natural. Nothing is forced… What happens on the night is what happens, and that's what's made it really, really joyful.”
This production is not the first time Divina has worked with Ric, who as well as being a talent musician, songwriter and piano player, also lectures in pop music at Leeds College of Music. The pair first worked together in 2011 on a show called ‘Dancing Bear’, “which was all about sex, politics and religion, all the things we're not supposed to talk about in polite society.
“We've managed to kind of keep working on and off with each other ever since then.
“I'm very, very lucky to get to work with him because he is just fantastic, and he's so much fun, we always have such a laugh with each other.”
Back on the Road is, however, Divina’s first opportunity to play at The Crescent Theatre, bringing her show to the Ron Barber Studio; an intimate space that is an intentional decision for this tour.
Divina explains that, without DragCon this year which usually provides an opportunity to connect with thousands of fans on a more personal level, touring in smaller spaces provides “an opportunity for me to share a space with all of those people who actually want to come and see me, who haven't had that opportunity this year.
"It was an intention of mine to have it in smaller more intimate spaces. If you're in a 600-800 [capacity] venue, there's an element of being able to have that conversation with the audience that gets lost.
Whereas, when it's a kind of 200-300 capacity, actually, I can see everybody, everybody can see me, and if I look at somebody, and I'm like, I'm gonna come and speak to you, then I can.”
Divina De Campo and Ric (The Piano Guy) come to The Crescent Theatre, Birmingham, Friday 30thJanuary, 7pm. Very limited tickets still available. The tour concludes in Mold, Wales on Saturday 31st January. Fellow Drag Race UK alumni, Kate Butch, also brings a tour to The Crescent Theatre later this year, tickets for Choose Your Own Cabaret are available now.
Divina returns to Birmingham in April as the host of the RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season Seven Tour. Our chat about the bringing a tour back to the UK drag scene is coming soon…
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