Image courtesy of Contact
Reviewer: Daniel Shipman
Upstaged Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I started off thinking it would be difficult to give Vogue Ball a rating out of five. Within ten minutes of the show starting though, I can see that everything about this event is five out of five. The adoration from the audience is palpable as soon as the first acts take to the stage, and it is easy to see why. The talent on display here is staggering.
This year’s theme is PS4-play (the pun admittedly works much better out loud) and so the acts are loosely themed around gaming. Where else would you see a vogue-ing Angry Bird with legs that most of us would kill for?
Darren Pritchard gives us a potted history of vogue, from its roots in the clubs of the 1960s, through the 1990s revival and up to the fashion that makes your eyes pop and dance moves that defy physics which we have the pleasure of witnessing tonight.
As brilliant as every performer is though, the audience plays a central role in this evening’s entertainment. Everyone seems in fancy dress as the true version of themselves – with the style of make-up and clothing they would wear every day if society was comfortable with it. Vogue Ball demonstrates that queer culture extends far beyond Ru Paul’s Drag Race and Eurovision. It is a glorious mess of identities which doubles up as a killer evening of entertainment.
-Daniel Shipman