A welcome return for Ashley’s unrivalled impersonation of Liza Minnelli.

Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne
January 23, 2016

Six years ago, myself and around 100 other eager cabaret fans, crammed into the Criterion Hotel in Sydney’s CBD to see drag star, Trevor Ashley, perform Liza on an E, his hilariously irreverent tribute to Broadway icon Liza Minnelli. It may have been cramped, far from glamorous and a little sweaty, but Ashley all but blew the roof off of that pub with the decibels of raucous laughter issuing from his adoring audience.

Since those days of pub-theatre cabaret gigs and Mardi Gras floats, Ashley’s star has risen considerably. After appearing in two of the biggest mainstream musical theatre drag roles – firstly in the Priscilla musical and as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray – Ashley has most recently hung up the frocks to star as Monsieur Thenadier in the box office smash-hit Australian tour of Les Miserablés.

You might be able to take the boy out of the drag show, but as Ashley’s latest Minnelli-inspired cabaret production shows, there’s no taking the drag show out of the boy. Liza’s Back! (is broken) is a very welcome...