They say love is a many-splendored thing, and on Friday night I was lucky enough to catch five of those splendours at A Spudding Romance, a Valentine’s spectacular hosted by local drag collective SPUDS (Strange People Undertake a Drag Show). This is the second SPUDS show I’ve covered with Daily Info and on both occasions I’ve had an absolute blast. SPUDS has a lot in common with its namesake foodstuff - delicious, versatile and, when it comes to the Oxford drag community, a staple ingredient.
Our compère for the night, Professor Alfrida Knippel, carried proceedings with a befuddled charm and ready wit that had more than a shade of Dame Edna about it, even down to the horn-rimmed dimanté specs. I’ve been following the esteemed Professor for some years now and it’s a delight to see her in person. Her twist on the bisexual barely-subtext of Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’ (including a much appreciated nod to one of my favourite musical numbers from Crazy Ex Girlfriend) was one of the night’s biggest crowd-pleasers.
The talent on display from the cast as a whole covers a broad range of aesthetics and disciplines - where Professor Knippel leaned into the campy comedy stylings, SPUDS newcomer Lujane brought the glamour in a skintight bodysuit, busting moves on the OFS stage floor that would have me sore for a month (though occasionally this was at the expense of the lipsync - picking well-known tracks like ‘Big Spender’ and ‘I Need a Hero’ is a double-edged sword, both a great audience crowd pleaser and a dead giveaway if you don’t have them down to the letter).
We were also treated to two very different flavours of burlesque. Peaches Paramour goes for old school pinup style, playing it sweet and coy with a purr-fect feline striptease to ‘The Stray Cat Strut’ and a tale of robot romance to last through space time, complete with LED whip and a bodysuit straight out of The Jetsons. The Dumb Belle adds some spice with a steamy fan number drenched in red light, and closes the show by disrobing from full ‘just buried my third husband’ attire to perform a gritty yet sensuous chair routine to ‘I Hate You’ by Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes. It’s hot, wild and confrontational, and a great counterpart to Peaches - what better combination than sweet and sour?
Top showing however must go to Sera Tonin, especially taking into account the fact that she was a late addition to the night’s cast. Her first routine, a frenetic and filth-spliced take on Taylor Swift’s ‘Wildest Dreams’ had the house in stitches, and with her follow-up, a Truman Show/Stepford Wives pastiche of Meghan Trainor’s ‘Dear Future Husband’ featuring one very special grocery item, Sera boasted probably the strongest narrative and tightest (ahem) concept of the lineup.
The Old Fire Station tech crew can’t go unacknowledged either - the lighting design was a real boon to the performances across the board, expressive, multilayered and perfectly cued to match the key beats of each mix. Where concepts might have otherwise lagged in places, the atmospheric shift added that extra momentum to keep them flowing.
I will say that there were moments when the night felt a little less slick than its last instalment. The audience participation portion of the night suffered from a few technical and logistical hiccups, including props taking a while to find or indeed malfunctioning while onstage. There were one or two instances when Professor Knippel’s blustery delivery read less as a bit and more as being genuinely confused as to where things were.
The general crowdwork and transitions between acts also felt like they could have benefited from a bit more pre-prep. While not a single act is a dud, a few are only tenuously related to the overarching Valentine’s theme, and the introductions connecting those dots are occasionally flimsy. There could also have been a lot of fun to be had in engaging with the couples, friends, or polycule members that responded to the audience callouts, but the show held back from that direct contact in a way that cause that potential energy to sputter slightly.
But while the show’s production values sometimes stumble, there’s more than enough talent in the room for it soon to be back on its six-inch heels. Raucous, friendly and welcoming, SPUDS is always a delight even if the strings occasionally show. Roses are red, violets are blue; I’ll be at the next one, and you should come too.