Justin Vivian Bond - review
Soho Theatre, London
Brian Logan
guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 July 2011 18.00 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/jul/04/justin-vivian-bond-reviewIn interviews to promote this show, transgender diva Justin Vivian Bond – formerly of cabaret double act Kiki and Herb – has insisted he/she be referred to using the all-new personal pronoun "v". Happy to oblige – at least until v casts v's self as Henry V, which is when things will get confusing. This Soho run sees Bond showcase songs from v's debut solo album, Dendrophile. Where Kiki and Herb were high-pitched, this is drily amusing: a torch-song tour of familiar landmarks of queer culture, and of Bond's journey from teenage he to midlife v.
These are not funny songs; the laughs come from the chat in between. Bond is here to talk about gay marriage in New York; about marching for pride; and about v's love of Lena Horne and Vanessa Redgrave. Of course, those subjects – and the brittle but waspish personality Bond projects – are mainstream by queer standards. But Bond is as shimmering a performer as v's sequinned frock, and there's no resisting the charisma v brings to the book extract in which, aged 13, v and a friend are caught having oral sex by the friend's mum.
