The LipSinkers review

Just what is it that makes the LipSinkers so different, so appealing? It’s a hard thing to pin down but it basically comes down to high-octane queer exuberance of the first order. Making their Fringe debut, this hilariously entertaining four-strong alternative drag troupe – who lip-synch to imaginatively selected songs by acts ranging from Jessie J and Will.I.Am to Pulp and the Lovely Eggs – developed out of ‘Tranny Lip-Synching’ contests held a decade ago at Bistrotheque’s seminal east London experimental cabaret room (also a key locale for Jonny Woo and Bourgeois & Maurice). The sensibility is utterly leftfield: the looks are brilliantly bonkers, a kind of Primark club-kid couture encompassing plastic Macs, lacy bodies, vintage mumus and outfits made of rubber gloves; the routines are tightly choreographed, despite often giving the impression of on-the-hoof vamping; the lip-synching itself is technically spot on; the acts are sexy without really being erotic; and the chemistry between the charismatic performers – Lisa Lee, Richardette, Rhyannon Styles and Blanche Dubois – is affectionate and assured. The extra special ingredients are the implicit politics and the sheer enjoyment at work, which actually add up to the same thing. The LipSinkers are queer and loving it and my face aches from grinning when I watch them.

The LipSinkers are in the Free Fringe at the Voodoo Rooms at 12.20am to Aug 25, and Mood Nightclub at 3.50pm to Aug 24.

For more from Ben Walters in Edinburgh, follow him @not_television