Review | Kiki and Herb: Seeking Asylum! at Joe’s Pub in New York

Kiki and Herb’s return to the stage is the queer cabaret sensation of the year. The oddball American duo started out in 1992: Kiki (Justin Vivian Bond) is an ageing, alcoholic singer and showgirl with a more than usually colourful past and Herb (Kenny Mellman) is her simple-minded homosexual accompanist.

The appeal of their shows stemmed from the combination of absurd yet loveable characters, hilariously dry patter, and extraordinary musical mash-ups of everything from Billie Holiday to Wu-Tang Clan, Kate Bush to Joy Division. After playing Broadway and Carnegie Hall, they ducked out of the spotlight in 2007. When tickets went on sale for their comeback show – Seeking Asylum! at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan – the venue’s website crashed under the demand.

Devotees will recognise a few gags and medleys in the new show but it’s very much a fresh piece of work, and a fantastic and joyous one at that. In terms of its contents, Bond and Mellman have created a work for 2016, riffing on subjects from the Arab Spring to gender-neutral children, with plenty of attention to the current U.S. election campaign. (As a Hillary fan, Kiki can’t wait to see a Scorpio lesbian in the Oval Office.)

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The disturbing trend among southern states for transphobic bathroom laws prompts both a blistering version of Nina Simone’s civil rights track ‘Mississippi Goddam’ and the suggestion that until people can legally pee where they feel comfortable, they should just pee anywhere at all. There’s also a great sardonic lounge version of ‘Stuck in the Middle’ and mash-ups of Radiohead and Styx, Fugazi and Poison Girls, even Elton John and Shakespeare.

In terms of the performers themselves, it’s like they never went away. Part of Kiki and Herb’s charm was always the way they continually verged on drunkenness or emotional collapse. It takes a lot of discipline to look that messy and, now as then, it’s a fantastically tight show, rigorously thought through yet spontaneous in the moment. And, as well as the musical brilliance and comic genius, Kiki and Herb have still got an unparalleled rapport with the audience. We can only hope that, now they’re back, they stick around. We still need them.

Kiki and Herb Seeking Asylum! is at Joe’s Pub in New York until May 22 2016. For more information and tickets click here.

For the best deals on tickets for theatre, musicals and shows, visit tickets.attitude.co.uk.

Words: Ben Walters

Ben Walters blogs about cabaret, moving image, queer and DIY culture at NotTelevision and tweets @not_television. To read a longer version of this review, including details of how Kiki’s legs ended up wrapped around Ben’s face, click here.

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