Little Lark of London

“Did you just make a teabag joke in London?”

After performing around the world and online for years, Kristin Key has brought her new show, Lesbian Army Tour, to London. Audience members may be familiar with Key after seeing one of her many viral videos, which have garnered millions of views and gained her hundreds of thousands of fans and subscribers on a range of social media channels. To quote her introduction to the stage, “You’ve seen her on the Internet and now she’s live!”

Key’s opening act, Lee Peart, is great, talking about growing up gay in Grimsby, which he describes as a play where everyone wears gym clothes but they never actually go to the gym. Most of his set focuses on being camp versus being gay and how he relates to the stereotypes that have been created. His main story about becoming a camp version of Reverend Samuel Parris in the University of Salford’s production of The Crucible makes for some truly hilarious mental images. 

After an interval, it’s showtime for Lesbian Army Tour. Key comes out on stage and asks that audience members “please put your hands over your sports bras for the National Anthem,” though it’s not the one Americans are familiar with – it’s Key’s “Lesbian National Anthem,” one of the many songs of hers that has gone viral over the past few years, with lyrics like “I drive a Subaru” and “My purse is functional / It has Burt’s Bees.”

As one might expect from the title, the majority of the show is about Key’s life experience as a lesbian, from coming out at the age of sixteen in a religious family (and immediately going back into the closet) to the Great Kayak Fight of 2015 with her wife, Molly. There are several songs, including a theme song for her hometown of Amarillo, Texas and a gay sea shanty, “Scissor Me Timbers,” but even when she isn’t singing, Key tends to accompany her jokes with instrumentals, playing the guitar as she goes into bits about hairless cats and the Girls Just Wanna Weekend with Brandi Carlile in Mexico.  

There is a five-minute Q&A session with the audience that leads to trading lesbians between the UK and the US, including both Cate Blanchett and Kate Winslet for Jamie Lee Curtis. Key does a good job of dealing with some audience members who seem not to exactly understand the format of the Q&A, quickly acknowledging them before moving on to another question. One audience member has left a box of Yorkshire Tea on the stage for Key, which leads to a funny misunderstanding with Key hearing “chew for five minutes” instead of “steep for five minutes” and giving us the hilarious line, “Chew your tea, Ellen!”

A surprisingly delightful part of the show? The sheer number of queer people in one space, especially from older generations. Key actually tells a funny story about how Peart thought that there were more men in the audience than Key had expected, but she simply responded with, “No, look again . . . I know my audience.” Indeed, short hair is the norm at this performance – it feels like there is actually a lesbian army within the walls of the theatre! I have never felt safer in my queerness at a show than at Lesbian Army Tour. 

Ultimately, Kristin Key: Lesbian Army Tour is a joyfully queer comedy show, with Key combining her storytelling and musical talents to create a fun-filled night. If joy is considered an act of resistance, then Key should be considered one of the leaders of the rebellion with how many laughs she gave to an audience in need of them. It was a delight to see Key perform in the UK, and I hope that she returns soon!

Kristin Key: Lesbian Army Tour ran on 12 April at Leicester Square Theatre. For more information on Key and to see upcoming tour dates, click here.