Le Gateau Chocolat: ‘Say yes to the universe, and things happen’
"The highlights for me are the ones that really tug at my heartstrings" says the winner of the Culture Award at the 2023 Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards, powered by Jaguar
By Simon Button
From drag to opera, musical theatre and live art, Le Gateau Chocolat – winner of the Culture Award at this year’s Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards, powered by Jaguar – is a multi-hyphenate in the art world. The only thing you can predict about his work is that it will continue to evolve…
A unique performer, Le Gateau Chocolat’s work spans drag, cabaret, opera, musical and children’s theatre, and live art. Visit his website and you’ll get a snapshot of just some of the extraordinary things the Britain-born/Nigeria-raised multitasker has achieved. After returning to the UK to study law, he partied on the Brighton gay scene and made his drag debut in his twenties. He’s now a global icon who goes around the world spreading a message of joy on what he says is “the most extraordinary adventure”.
Congratulations on your Attitude Culture Award. What does it mean to you?
That’s a most fascinating question because nothing about how I’ve arrived at where I am today was something I plotted or aspired to do. It is the most extraordinary adventure that continues to surprise me in the most wonderful ways. What I try to lean into is honesty, and that is how I’ve approached all the work that I’ve made. I’ve always led with my heart and my identity in a way that underscores common values and humanity so that people see a human first. And this applies to both the LGBTQ+ community and to punters at large. In the past, when I used Grindr or I went into LGBTQ+ spaces, I got ‘No fags, no femmes, no queers, no blacks’. I was marginalised within a community that was already marginalised, and that’s what has coloured my work. So, to arrive at something like this award is very unexpected and very humbling because I’ve just tried to be honest and true.
Your work covers so many fields. How do you keep all those plates spinning?
I’ve always led with saying yes. I never studied [theatre], so I have been open to making and being in whatever theatrical form comes along. I haven’t boxed myself in, and it’s been an exciting cacophony of things that kind of doesn’t make sense in the most joyous of ways. Saying yes has granted me really weird and brilliant opportunities. Say yes to the planet, say yes to the universe, and things happen.
How long did it take you to become a fully formed Le Gateau Chocolat?
It started in a club night called Dynamite Boogaloo in Brighton. Every Thursday there was a cabaret night, and that was my first experience of this alternative sort of existence. I went every single Thursday. Dolly Rocket heard me singing on the floor one night, and she was like, “Hey, do you want to sing in the show?” I was like, “Yeah, sure,” and did it as a punter. Then, the next time I did it, she gave me a gold muumuu and an Afro. Another of the performers, Princess Nickers, gave me pink lipstick and I used it as lipstick, blusher and eyeshadow. That’s kind of how it started, and it was very organic. I did Shinky Shonky, the Black Cat, then Drag Idol and all these other things. But to fully answer your question is to also mention that I don’t think I’ve arrived at the full Le Gateau Chocolat yet. I feel like there’s so many things that will continue to affect the artist that I’m hoping to become. I’ve arrived at this point, but I think we’d be having a different conversation about the artist I am next year.
It’s impossible to list everything you’ve done in your career here, but could you pick a few highlights?
Definitely doing the Barbican with Basement Jaxx and performing Duckie at the South Bank in front of my mum. She shuttled between here and Nigeria, and she finally got to see the work. Five years before that, I performed it for the people I made it for — namely, my nieces. I’m sure people will look at my career and go, “Well, wasn’t that also a highlight?” but the highlights for me are the ones that really tug at my heartstrings because, again, this is not what I intended to do.
Have you ever met any resistance to your look and stage persona?
Yes, 100 per cent. I think one of the most political acts one can do is to dare to be oneself, especially when that self is of a marginalised state, because people cannot abide that you are this person, and you make no apology for it. They feel like you should apologise for the space you take up, whether it be my fatness or my queerness or my Blackness. I was booed in Bayreuth, Germany, in 2019 [in a production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser], which was an international incident.
Then, later that same year, getting £215,000 from the Arts Council, which the Daily Mail didn’t understand wasn’t for me. That money was to scaffold an entire ecosystem — orchestras, designers, stage managers and so on — but then [it] ran with the headline “Black drag queen from Brighton, who’s got a law degree, gets this money instead of a Northern comedy club”. I got a lot of hate mail about that.
Your latest show is Bark of Millions with Taylor Mac, which you’re performing at the Sydney Opera House on 20 October. What is it all about?
It’s a four-hour piece that catalogues queers through history and makes a very potent point about the reality that we’ve always been here, and we always will be. It plots everyone from Margaret Cho and Marsha P. Johnson to James Baldwin and Larry Kramer, to name just a few. It’s the most extraordinary piece, and the singers he’s assembled — my God, are they incredible! We’re doing it for the Opera House’s 50th birthday, which is amazing.
You’re singing a tribute to Dame Shirley Bassey at our Awards event. What does she mean to you?
I don’t really have the words to articulate the icon that she is. Seeing her perform is something of a religious experience. The timbre of her voice is almost operatic, and there’s such commitment and drama in her singing. Some people might be drawn to what they can consider high camp, but I see it as truth, and I think that was what propelled her to stardom. She lives in a sort of supernatural space, even though she’s human, because of all the art that she’s gifted us.
Issue 355, the Attitude Awards issue, is available to pre-order now.