Hold onto your hats, folks, for a summer of cabaret, comedy, family fun and podcasts because the Underbelly Festival is coming to town! Kicking off on the 1 July and running through until 26 September over at Cavendish Square, read on for a quick snippet of all the fun happening throughout what we hope will be the easy, breezy summer months ahead...
Comedy
Prepare to laugh a LOT, people. The Underbelly Festival comedy line-up is jam packed with a whole host of comedy ranging from hilarious, boundary-pushing cabaret phenomenon Bernie Dieter's Berlin Underground to everybody’s favourite Welshman Rhod Gilbert, stand-up master of laughs Marcus Brigstocke to beatboxing and loop station legend Beardyman. And let's not forget acclaimed Irish funnyman Andrew Maxwell, the man who made being posh funny, Hal Cruttenden, fab double act Giants and their Norwegian Europop alter-egos, Fjord, plus sketch stars The Noise Next Door.
Also playing the festival this year is supergroup sensation SORRY - recommended by the Evening Standard as one of the funniest shows to watch in 2020 - who will be treating us to an hour of hilarious improvised comedy, as well as the award-winning Dreamgun with Film Reads: Harry Potter - a hilarious new parody of The Boy Who Lived. The fun doesn't stop there either: the festival will also play host to all-female improv musical group Notflix for the first time since its five-star, sell out 2019 run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and one of our personal faves on the circuit right now, Daliso Chaponda, is also performing live. We can feel the belly laughs already.
Cabaret and Variety
We can't wait to catch Margaret Thatcher: Queen of Soho! Yep, the Underbelly Festival icon is back for 2021 with the fun-filled, drag extravaganza we've come to know and love! We're also excited to see supercilious Frenchman Marcel Lucont in the line-up with his deadpan stand-up poetry: woohoo! Joining these cabaret icons will be legendary ghost whisperer Séayoncé whose dragtastic show Hell Bent will wow audiences with all kinds of clairvoyant fun.
Family faves
While most of the above is best kept for date night and not suitable for kids, there's still plenty of action happening that the whole famalam can join in with too. We can't wait to catch circus show, Hotel Paradiso which will most deffo surprise and delight audiences with its family-friendly fun, plus we absolutely want in on the family dance party: Baby Loves Disco. There are also appearances by CBBC’s Sam & Mark, plus old school legend, Basil Brush features too! Oh, and prepare to chuckle long and hard at Comedy Club 4 kids, tap your toes at improvised musical Showstoppers kids show (pictured top), and enjoy fam-faves like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (a charming production featuring a cast of handmade puppets), Mama G’s Story Time Roadshow (an interactive panto and storytelling extravaganza) , and another classic reinvented in Stiles and Drewe's - The 3 Little Pigs A Very Curly Musical Tale!
All the deets
When: 1st July to 26 September 2021 Where: Cavendish Square, London W1
There's tons more in the lineup, so get on over to the Underbelly Festival website and start booking your tix, stat! And to put minds at ease, the entire festival will be a COVID-safe affair with socially distanced venues plus open, outdoor areas for food and drink.
See you there, folks!
* All photos supplied by Underbelly Festival.
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