After fraternising with the front row, Reuben Kaye arrives onstage.
He distributes shots to every member of his backing band, cheersing and sculling. Then launches The Party’s Over: an original song, co-written with Shanon D Whitelock, after which this show is named.
Kaye plays Herod in the current production of Jesus Christ Superstar, but puts his night off to great use, swanning around the Comedy Theatre with his trademark horse-tail mic, which was inspired by a butt plug he clocked in a London fetish shop. The fact that Kaye was cancelled following a risqué Jesus joke – death threats sliding into his DMs – makes his casting in this rock opera musical beyond genius.
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Trump, Anne Frank, Joshua Taylor-Myles (a rugby league player with questionable taste in tatts), transphobia (“A world without trans people makes no sense”) – nothing’s off limits for Kaye, who delights in grossing us out and making us squirm in between laughs. So razor-sharp is Kaye’s wit that sometimes it takes a sec for punchlines to land; he often sinks into a camp, exaggerated curtsy while waiting for the penny to drop.
Pre-show music: Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) – C & C Music Factory.
Audience participation: “May I?” – Kaye asks for consent to sit in a front-row gent’s lap before somehow pretzeling his package into old mate’s face while insisting, “LOOK AT ME!”
Best bit: “Hetty regretty” – a straight relationship where the woman suspects her boyf is bi, but he doesn’t know it yet.
Top merch: Kaye’s “Cum Rag” tea towel.
The Party’s Over reminds us that laughing our way through the darkest times is powerful. Kaye’s distinctive brand of comedy – social commentary through a queer lens – aims to raise awareness and inspire change. And, yes, Judy Garland is his style icon.
