Débuting a new show style in Birmingham’s drag scene, Looser Women opened for its first show at Birmingham’s Black Box Theatre on Friday 19th July. A live podcast meets chat show meets drag show (think Loose Women but more entertaining and camp, or Race Chaser, Sibling Rivalry and The Bald and the Beautiful podcasts but with more unbridled Brummy personalities), the evening saw sofa chat peppered with performances from each of the featured drag artists.
Special guest, drag King Diablo D’Domme kicked things off in style, taking on the opening performance number. Empress gave the audience her fantastic début public performance, with a fun lip-sync that would far from suggest that it was her first time performing on a physical stage, and Mia Virgin’s chaotic and playful mix was thoroughly entertaining and a testament to the amount of time and effort put into compiling it.
Throughout it all, queen of the questions, Gina Tonic, kept the evening’s conversation moving with humorous but also very honest and authentic topics including dating as drag performers, trans identities, finding your authentic self, and the love and connection felt in the region’s drag scene. The conversation offered the audience a chance to hear a side of the performers that they perhaps haven’t seen before, and audience members were also given the opportunity to ask any of their own questions.
Sadly, the show did have to come to an end eventually, but not before the closing number from Gina Tonic. The show-stopping finale number saw Gina Tonic combine their incredible vocals in ‘Rain on my Parade’ with newly-acquired burlesque moves, that figuratively and literally left everything on the stage. This was also a personal highlight for me, as the first time I saw Gina perform at Chase Pride in 2023, they had planned to sing this song but sadly couldn’t due to losing their voice and had to pivot last-minute to a lip-sync number instead. Since then, Gina’s voice has only grown and grown in strength.
Looser Women was a sparkling showcase of British drag in all its campiness and silliness; shining a light on the talent – in a whole host of various styles – that Birmingham has to offer. Hopefully, this show will be the first of many in this style.
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