A true RuPaul's Drag Race legend is back in London this week. Having last been seen in the UK on a joint holiday show with Jinkx Monsoon (currently wowing viewers on All Stars: All Winners), BenDeLaCreme is flying solo this time around as her latest show BenDeLaCreme Is... Ready To be Committed hits our shores as part of a world tour.

Hitting the UK for a limited engagement, this show is all about... a limited engagement. The theme of the night is love as DeLa decides she is going to get married on stage in front of an audience of boozed up strangers. However, she doesn't have a ring, a dress or even a groom. What follows are a hilarious 70 minutes of song, sketches and video footage as she frantically tries to get everything organised while it all seemingly falls apart in front of her.
There are a smattering of musical numbers present throughout the jam packed speedy show including an instantly joyous opening number, setting the tone for the show, a rap number (Hamilton, eat your heart out) and an extremely bizarre but brilliant take on Beyoncé's 'Single Ladies' about all the medieval ladies. DeLa's affinity to puppets reaches new depths with uses of both an oversized Dorito and a talking bottle in the shape of a penis.

The humour is definitely an acquired taste - ridiculous at times, the writing is actually far more clever than it initially appears. If you thought I overdid it with the Cock puns in tweets over the past few months, you haven't seen anything. DeLa warns us early on that the bar is set low, but the bar is constantly met with truly clever one-liners. An undoubted highlight of the set sees DeLa host her own Blind Date segment with three potential suitors on Grindr - over the course of a few minutes, she crams in a constant barrage of innuendo and double entendres. Absolute filth - and I loved every bit of it.
Pre-recorded video that DeLa interacts with provide other highlights throughout the evening including a seriously stroppy cake-topper, and a genius extended segment "Thay Yeth To The Dreth" complete with a series of quick wedding dress changes on stage, which as DeLa announced "Changing clothes is 75% of a Drag Queens skillset". This isn't your average Drag show - you won't find DeLa lipsyncing or death dropping. What you will find is no end to her talents which consistently impresses. An extremely surreal segment near the shows close featuring a dancing cat has to be one of the craziest things I've ever seen on stage... but fantastically so.

BenDeLaCreme's stage presence carries the show. Whether you have seen her shows before, only know her through RuPaul's Drag Race or didn't have a clue who she is, you will surely have been instantly won over by her loveable charm. You get the feeling she could talk about any subject on stage for that long and it would never get boring. Thankfully, the material on offer for this show is extremely well-written, top quality and a lot of fun. Absolutely unstoppable when she hits that stage, she especially shines when she goes off script - in this instance displaying impeccable comic timing to welcome an audience member back to his seat.
Throughout the show, BenDeLaCreme ponders the question of what love exactly is. I don't know if I can answer that question but one thing I know for sure - with such a formidable talent on that stage performing a well crafted show such as this, I'm ready to commit to absolutely loving this show.
★★★★
BenDeLaCreme... is Ready to be Committed plays at Leicester Square Theatre until Saturday 11th June with dates in Brighton and Manchester next week. Tickets from bendelacreme.com
Photos by Mandi Martini and Luke Haughwout