With a cult following and wild aesthetic, legendary cabaret YUMMY traverses both entertainment and performance art
YUMMY ICONIC is bringing drag variety at its very best to Sydney! This wild new show celebrates and subverts cultural icons, legends, and superstars. With breathtaking burlesque, sensational circus, and outrageous drag acts, YUMMY has changed the world of drag cabaret.
From its humble beginnings as a club night in Melbourne to now being loved and adored internationally, YUMMY has won hearts and minds around the globe.
Expect a powerful ensemble, side-splitting comedy, and out-of-this-world costumes. They can't wait to bring their unique brand of salacious variety back to the main stage.
CAST:
Valerie Hex - The Director, Drag Queen, MC, and terrible magician
Karlee Misi - Mother of vogue house of Luna, and Polynesian Burlesque Princess
Jarred Dewey - Circus royalty
Velma Vouloir - Miss Burlesque Victoria and creator of award winning podcast “C*NTROVERSY”
Bendy Ben - Contemporary dancer and drag extraordinaire
Jandruze - Clubland icon, designer, and the world’s kinkiest sandwich maker
★★★★★ (YUMMY ICONIC) Fourth Wall Media, 2022
★★★★★ (YUMMY ICONIC) Glam Adelaide, 2022
Content Warnings:
Adult themes, coarse language, sexual references, partial nudity, strobe and flashing lights, loud and sudden noises, fire, audience interaction and participation.
In association with Sydney Fringe Festival
When
31 August - 4 September
Wednesday 7:30pm
Thursday 7:30pm
Friday 7:30pm
Saturday 7pm & 9:30pm
Sunday 6pm
Auslan performance: Thursday 1 September, 7.30pm
Runtime: 70 minutes no interval
Tickets
Premium Tickets: $109
The best seats in the house! Premium guests also get to enjoy an exclusive meet-and-greet before the show, a cocktail on arrival, and an A3 poster.
A Reserve Tickets: $62
Great seats at a competitive price.
B Reserve Tickets: $49
Good seats that won't break your budget.
Darlo Pay What You Can Tickets
We have reserved four tickets for each performance for those who face social barriers to attending theatre, especially those who identify as Indigenous and/ or Black and/or People of Colour, those who identify as transgender and gender diverse, those experiencing disability or those experiencing economic hardship. To access these tickets, please contact jacqueline@darlinghursttheatre.com
For all general enquiries, please email theatre@darlinghursttheatre.com
For Box Office please call 02 8356 9987. Box Office hours are Tuesday-Friday 9.30am-5.30pm.
Read our Covid-19 Safety Plan here.
Learn more about getting to our venue and parking here.
Meet the delicious cast of YUMMY
VALERIE HEX
Valerie Hex works tirelessly to create, enhance and extend the possibilities of drag cabaret and queer dance. Consistent across all their work, they have boldly created opportunities, taken major risks, and strived to connect and enrich diverse audiences.
Their early work, from 2007 to 2015 focused on queer dance manifestations and their current work, 2015 to present, focuses on researching and expanding contemporary drag cabaret.
A graduate from the VCA School of Dance (2007), Val has become an internationally recognised figure as a performer, choreographer, and producer. As producer and director of all eight full-length YUMMY shows, Val has lead an ensemble of drag and burlesque artists to over 30 festivals around Australia and overseas. YUMMY has earned dozens of five-star reviews worldwide, and won numerous awards including: “The People’s Choice Award” Melbourne Fringe 2021, "Best Cabaret" Fringe World 2019, "Best Cabaret Production" and "Best Cabaret Ensemble" at the Green Room Awards 2018.
Val has also performed with queer performance juggernauts Taylor Mac, Glory Box, Briefs, David Sedaris, and many more. Val was able to research and explore the choreographic possibilities within drag cabaret through a year long artist residency at Dancehouse - 'The Housemate Residency' which culminated in a first-of-its-kind two week mini-festival on queer dance in 2019. The programme Val created included 10 weeks of free queer dance classes to a large group of participants, panel discussions, workshops, and a world premiere show about queer dance history titled 'Dancing Qweens.’ Val also created a striking 10 minute video project while in residence at The Bowery Theatre/ Brimbank City Council entitled “Duets with a Shapeshifter” (Midsumma Festival 2021).
Val’s work in queer dance and drag cabaret has yielded massive significance to the sector, blazed an original and brave trail, and facilitated an artistically satisfying and sustainable career.
JANDRUZE
Jandruze is an Australian drag artiste who has taken both the realms of international cabaret and the queer underground by storm. Described as both “impossibly gorgeous” and a “master of their craft” - over the past decade they have carved out their place as the premier non-binary wet dream of the Australian stage.
A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts School of Dance; their practice ranges from drag, dance and choreography - to costume, sound and set design. A recent pivot as a DJ has revealed them to be the latest dancefloor darling of Naarm (Melbourne).
A staple of the vibrant Australian club scene, they collaborate regularly with such events as BARBA Party, HONCHO DISKO, Thick’n’Juicy and Poof Doof amongst a host of others and major credits include extensive touring with YUMMY Productions (London,Edinburgh, Auckland and Australia), RISING Festival (Melbourne) and Sydney Mardi Gras (Sydney), DARK MOFO (Hobart) - as well as collaborations with both independent artists and major institutions such as Tanzer, Lee Serle, Antony Hamilton, The Huxleys, Chunky Move, NGV, ACCA and Holly Durant to name but a few.
With a unique blend of sultry seduction and high camp Jandruze is sure to leave you panting for more.
JARRED DEWY
Jarred Dewey is a widely respected circus artist known for his lithe virtuosity, sense of design, and capacity as a collaborator.
He began his training in circus as a teenager at Cirkidz, a youth circus based in his home town of Adelaide. In 2007 he moved to Melbourne to study at the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA), graduating in 2010.
He has since worked extensively with Brisbane based contemporary circus company CIRCA as a full-time ensemble acrobat for nine years. During his time with CIRCA he has devised, toured and performed in 13 different productions (including OPUS, Wunderkammer, PEEPSHOW, and more) in over 30 countries worldwide.
He has also been featured in the 2016 London season of La Soirée in Leicester Square, has featured in numerous productions by YUMMY, co-divised and performed in his own Green Room Award winning show 'Party Ghost,’ and was an original cast member of the Circus Oz production ‘Model Citizens’ directed by Rob Tannion in collaboration with Kate Fryer.
BENDY BEN
Benjamin Hancock is a dancer, choreographer, & performance artist, who is based in Melbourne, unceded Wurundjeri country. Featured in works by Australiaian choreographers, Lucy Guerin, Prue Lang, Melanie Lane, Antony Hamilton, Lee Serle, Sue Healey, Martin del Amo, Narelle Benjamin, & Gideon Obarzanek.
As a solo artist, Benjamin often inhabits fantastical dispositions that invite audiences to embrace parallel masculinities and femininities. Presenting solo performances at Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin Inc, Performance Space, National Gallery of Victoria, Mona Museum & New Orleans Biennial.
Benjamin has also collaborated with contemporary artists, such as Dylan Martorell, Belle Bassin, Lichen Kelp, and Fayen d’Evie, to develop and perform works presented at leading Australian galleries including the Art Gallery of NSW, Ian Potter Museum of Art, & Heide Museum of Art. He received an Australian Dance Award (2017), Helpmann Award Nomination (2017), and Green Room Award (2016) for his outstanding performance in Lucy Guerin Inc’s ‘The Dark Chorus’.
Acclaimed as a performance artist in drag cabaret, Benjamin often plays with the spectacle of camouflage & masks, within egalitarian choreographies of drag. These performance entities have resonated beyond the club scene, leading to commissions at Aesop, Tourism Australia, NGV, Mona Foma & Dark Mofo, ACCA, ACMI. Benjamin graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2008 with a Bachelor of Dance, & was the recipient of the inaugural VCA choreographic award in his final year.
VELMA VOULOIR
Velma Vouloir is part neon dream, part silver screen queen with a gaze that would set fire to the coldest of hearts. With legs for days and enough curves to cause a car crash, her fusion of classic showgirl and contemporary exotica never fails to captivate.
Velma works extensively in burlesque as a highly sought after performer, MC & mentor. With a background in theatre, dance & circus, Velma brings a rich history of performance practice to her stage persona as a professional peeler.
The winner of Miss Burlesque Victoria and Miss Burlesque Australia’s “Miss Classic” in 2018, Velma performs regularly throughout Australia & aborad both as a solo artist as well as a cast member of queer drag cabaret YUMMY. She's a celebrated icon of Melbourne burlesque as well as a sought after performance coach who teaches regular classes at Maison Burlesque, one of Melbourne's dedicated burlesque hubs.
Velma is also the host and producer of C*ntroversy: The Podcast - a show which celebrates, discusses and explores eroticism through histories of art, sex, media and the prolific figures within it & was recently awarded 'Australia's Best Sex & Relationships Podcast 2021' by The Australian Podcast Awards.
KARLEE MISI
Karlee Misi (she/her) is a Maori/Niuean Performing Artist, residing and working on Gadigal Land of the Eora Nation.
A triple threat performer (Singer dancer actor), she has spent the past 17 years teaching and performing in a wide range of disciplinary spaces including professional Musical Theatre ('Barnum’ 2019 StoreyBoard, Diana Morales in 'A Chorus Line' 2013 Australian Tour TML, 'Hairspray' 2012 Dainty), movies, TVC’s, corporate and commercial.
Karlee is the Mother of the Australian Kiki Vogue house, House of Luna, founded in 2017. Some of Karlee’s credits include; 'The Empire Strips Back’ Burlesque stage-show Tour, Dark Mofo Festival Hobart, Headliner performer at The Australian Burlesque Festival, The Imperial Hotel Sydney, ‘La Femme’ The Vanguard Sydney, Unicorns, Heaps Gay, ‘The Witch of Kings Cross’ docudrama, Eora’s Vogue Balls including Sissy Ball and West Ball.