Dragging Your Heels is a sweet musical comedy written by and starring Terry Geo, and is currently strutting its stuff at Camden People’s Theatre.
It’s a show about following your dreams; in this case builder Ben finds his calling after divorce and relocation. The flyer gives the game away. Ben (a ‘bear’ with a beard) is going the drag route!
With three performers – Geo plays Ben, Tafaozwa Madubeko plays Callum (workmate and new BFF), Dolly Diamond is ‘Tammy Scowls’ – Dragging Your Heels is fun, uplifting and unapologetically queer.
Will Stead’s music offers toe-tappers throughout, and Paul T Davies’s direction offers an immediacy and positivity, plus the best use of CPT’s ‘entrance through the main door’ I’ve seen in a while.
I braved the front row, noting the first audience members in had headed to the relative safety of the row behind. You will get ‘roasted’ up front by Diamond, but that’s a piece of cake for me after seeing full frontal nudes and simulated sex here previously.
“What do you do?” Ms Diamond asked me. I had to confess, I was reviewing the show. Ha ha. Gotcha. Thus outed, I settled in to enjoy and critique what was coming up.
Ben, divorced after 20 years, is up for change. He wants to be a stand-up comedian, and he wants to embrace his bisexuality. (There’s a lot to take in, and requires a fair bit of chat between Ben and Callum to tease this out).
Callum and Tammy help Ben find a cure for his stage-fright by becoming a new character, resplendent in false eyelashes and bright orange sequins. It’s a remarkable make-up job done by Diamond in a short period of time.
Ben’s first drag routine is haltingly presented and nicely done. The trio of characters and actors display strong and powerful chemistry, with Madubeko’s cheeky smile and Diamond’s pouty rattle feeling real.
There’s more to the plot that could be tweaked out, like Callum’s attraction to Ben, but that’s something for Geo and Davies to consider as/if Dragging Your Heels develops.
I’m giving this 3.5 stars.
It’s very good, it has lots of elements I loved, and it sends the audience off on a high. I might have liked more outside of ‘Tammy’ on stage (while acknowledging that’s tricky in an hour-long show), while Ben’s story leaves you wanting more.
Catch Dragging Your Heels in the Camden Fringe until 23 Aug with tickets here.