WIG OUT! *** TNT

His recent season at the Young Vic has just won him a well-deserved Evening Standard award for Most Promising Playwright, but as far as Tarell Alvin McCraney is concerned, less is proving to be most definitely more. All he needed to create an initial stir with the excellent The Brothers Size was a tiny cast, a bare stage and his own unique voice. Given more resources, his identity threatens to be swamped by the presentation, even though Dominic Cooke’s cabaret style alternative to the Xmas panto (with the stalls reconfigured as a strut-your-stuff catwalk) makes for entertaining viewing.
Set in the world of the New York drag scene, its loose construction and ultra flimsy plot centre on the Cinderella Ball competition between the rival tranny Houses of Light and of Diabolique – cue outlandish costumes, totter-high heels and risqué routines – and a love story between straight looking Eric (who normally goes for butch guys) and gentle drag queen Wilson a.k.a. Nina (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett).
With a female chorus of harmonising Fates (in skin-tight Lurex and short, short, shorts) controlling the proceedings with a click of their fingers, and Kevin Harvey’s ageing Mother of the house Rey-Rey in a sleek bob wig and head-to-toe pink, this is far from your conventional seasonal offering.
No question McCraney is talented, but this lively exposé of the hierarchies which develop within a marginalised community of African American and other gay men of colour is, disappointingly, more show than content.

Royal Court Theatre Sloane Square, SW1 Phone 020 7565 5000 Until 10th January. Tickets £10-£25