Pride Festival review: Let's Get Loco, Les Femmes and Best Roles I'll [Probably] Never Play

Zak Enayat, Frith Horan and Liam Coleman in Let's Get Loco. Photo / Supplied

Every year at Auckland Pride, there are dozens of shows that run for only a few days, meaning if you don't get along, you're going to miss out. Sometimes missing out might be out of our control – see the return to lockdown this week that disrupted the festival – but this is the sort of festival where you can't afford to sleep on any of the shows on offer.

Best Roles I'll [Probably] Never Play was one of those blink-and-you'll-miss-it shows that demands an encore performance. Across three nights, six singers took to Q Theatre's Loft to put their own spin on some classic ballads and lesser-heard gems from the great songbook of musical theatre.

The theme is in the title: each performer delivered two songs in their own style, each one originated by a character they are unlikely to ever be cast as. It's an ingenious idea, especially as the pandemic has limited our chance to experience live musical theatre. Sampling songs from Matilda, Dear Evan Hansen and Little Shop of Horrors, this was a stunning sampler of what the genre can offer, the talent of the cast undeniable with vocals you'll remember long after the lights go out.

It has all the makings of becoming a regular fixture – though any return performance could do with spotlighting the lighter side of Broadway more to balance out the slower, sadder ballads the cast favoured.

The stars of Les Femmes - Miss Manage, Miss Givings and Miss Demeanour. Photo / LK Creative

In a similar vein, Les Femmes at The Civic's Wintergarden also offered a fresh take on a voluminous back catalogue; here, audiences were treated to a decades-spanning girl group history lesson.

Hosts drag queens Miss Manage, Miss Givings and Miss Demeanour covered a broad range of groups, from The Supremes and The Pointer Sisters through to B*Witched and All Saints, but reworked the tracks into a consistently swinging cabaret style.

With stunning vocals and camp wit, combined with a live band, the three kept the essence of each song but introduced their own swinging, showgirl style that heightened Les Femmes above a simple tribute act. I've been unable to shake their jaunty, 50s take on When I Grow Up by The Pussycat Dolls, and it was just one of dozens of ingenious reimaginings.

The only shortcoming was their scripted copy tended to be quite stiff, particularly when rattling off facts out the various groups. All three Missuses were able to work the crowd and fire jokes on the fly, and embracing that live banter in any return performance would heighten what is already a well-polished show.

While both those shows have ended their seasons, there's still time to catch Q Theatre's Kylie Minogue-fuelled comedy Let's Get Loco. Starring and written by Liam Coleman and Zak Enayat, this first-time collaboration follows the sex-driven Ricky (Enayat) and hapless Martin (Coleman) as they head to Sydney to meet the latter's Instagram lover. Instead, they are greeted by his personal assistant, Charlene (Frith Horan), who's over the top personality drives a wedge between the two friends.

There is one reason to get along to Let's Get Loco, and that's Horan's frenzied energy and spot-on comic timing. She plays Charlene like Annie Wilkes by way of Kath and Kim, her extreme Aussie-ness masking a demented darker side, and it is a genius comic performance that cannot be missed.

Coleman and Enayat have written such a hysterical character that their own roles suffer as a result – both funny in their own right but unable to compete with the extremeness of Charlene. Yet it's hard to fault such a silly, over the top show that makes for a welcome break from our uncertain reality.

Let's Get Loco on at Q Theatre under level 2 restrictions until February 20.