Packed full of on-your-feet numbers and raucous hilarity, the rebellious new musical Midnight at the Palace dismantles the lines between art and showbiz, politics and performance. Audiences are invited to join the original ‘F*ck You Counterculture’ troupe for a night of radical joy and glitter-encrusted anarchy, inspired by the iconic and flamboyant drag ensemble from the 1970s, The Cockettes.
A fever dream of gender-bending hippies, freaks and drag queens, Midnight at the Palace invokes the real-life story of The Cockettes, an avant-garde psychedelic theatre group that took San Francisco by storm in 1969. Founded by flowers-in-guns radical Hibiscus, the group’s collaborators included disco diva Sylvester and alternative icons John Waters and Divine.
Hibiscus (then George Harris) is the renowned subject of one of the 20th century’s most recognisable photographs when they put a flower into the muzzle of a soldier’s gun during a Vietnam War protest. With their outlandish and outrageous performances, The Cockettes paved the way for artists from Prince to David Bowie, and RuPaul to Madonna. The group was praised by stars such as Tina Turner and Truman Capote, becoming a symbol of authenticity in an era of civil strife and unrest, all before an attempt to take their acid-fuelled act mainstream in New York City went horribly wrong.
Paying homage to the multi-decade journey of this legendary group, Brandon James Gwinn’s original score brings to life the electricity and excitement of The Cockettes in the 1970s for a modern-day audience. Midnight at the Palace offers a lens into this genre-pushing world in an eccentric and dazzling celebration of the queens who came before.
Music and lyrics are by Brandon James Gwinn (Two Birds & One Stone, Trixie Mattel; It Takeis Two, George Takei; Small Town Story), with book by Rae Binstock (Fosse/Verdon, The Good Fight). The Edinburgh production will be helmed by acclaimed director and choreographer Paul McGill (Fame, Man on Wire, Smash).
