Theatre review: Dumbledore Is So Gay

It probably won't come as much of a surprise that, despite having heard nothing but good things about Robert Holtom's Dumbledore Is So Gay from its earlier fringe runs, I was still very much in two minds about whether to book for its new run at Southwark Playhouse. As someone who was a Harry Potter fan, and who even though an adult when the books were first published derived some comfort from the stories at difficult times, it's something that's been very tainted in recent years by the author's views, and that I've been happy to cut out of my life (quite successfully as it turns out - I don't think I'd realised I'd have quite so little warmth left for the play's references to the books and films.) It's particularly grimly ironic that Holtom writes about the series' appeal to LGBTQ+ people, and the way it helps a young queer boy find his identity.

Theatre review: Here Lies Love

The Cottesloe at the National Theatre was a space whose shows regularly made it into my annual Top Ten, so it's exciting to see it reopen after 18 months of remodeling, under its new name, the Dorfman. Lord Cottesloe, who used to have the whole theatre named after him, now gets a seminar room by the bogs - Dame Theatre is a cruel mistress and her whims unpredictable. Speaking of which, the show that inaugurates the renamed theatre is a disco opera about the former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos. David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's Here Lies Love follows Imelda (Natalie Mendoza) from a childhood of poverty but seemingly boundless optimism, to her escape route via a beauty pageant, which opens doors for her in Manila. Always drawn to politicians, Ninoy Aquino (Dean John-Wilson) dumps her for being "too tall" for a politician's wife, but a whirlwind romance with Ferdinand Marcos (Mark Bautista) soon sees her married to a wildly popular new president.