The opening shows at London’s Underbelly Boulevard – Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett and Batsu! – are less edgy than you might expect, and more pricey, but there are some impressive turns
It was one of the birthplaces of alternative comedy. Then it was a sleek new theatre poleaxed by Covid. And, as a long-time sister venue to one-time fleshpot Raymond’s Revuebar, it enjoys a decades-long association with Soho’s seedier nighttime activities.
That looked like what I might be getting at Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett, which began with our fishnetted hostess draped louchely over various men in the audience. Welcome to a new era for Soho’s Boulevard theatre, now taken over by fringe mainstays the Underbelly, who will run it as a burlesque, cabaret and variety hub – a vision launched by Club Kabarett and the Japanese-American live gameshow Batsu!
