YORK’S international drag diva deluxe, Velma Celli, hosts a fabulous evening of music, comedy and festive frolics in the Xmas Roast at Impossible York, St Helen’s Square, York, on Sunday at 6pm.
“Come and have yourself a merry Christmas,” says Velma, the Best Cabaret at Perth Fringeworld 2024 award-winning alter ego of West End musical actor and Atlantis Gay Cruises headline act Ian Stroughair, who promises “cabaret meets a partaaaaaay” with sing-alongs too.
“It’ll be a Xmas Roast with all my favourite chestnuts. Very exciting!” he says. “My costume is being made Chloe Moore, who made the black costume for my Show Queen! show at York Theatre in May. I asked her if she could now make one in red and it looks fabulous.”
Velma also will host Drag Brunch afternoons at Impossible York on December 7 and 14 at 4pm. Bookings can be made by emailing stroughair2@hotmail.com or reservations@impossibleyork.com.
Meanwhile, Velma is releasing a festive album, A Velma Celli Christmas, available to download on Spotify from today at: https://open.spotify.com/album/6jyEoguMVGkG3ajEE6hody?flow_ctx=43be02d0-6123-43f9-b9ed-c4aa84ccbb83%3A1733510690#.
Recorded in Woodthorpe, York, with The Dandys’ Andy Firth – who also produced fellow York singer and good friend Jessica Steel’s 2022 album Higher Frequencies – it features piano arrangements by Scott Roberts of It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, The Christmas Song, Last Christmas, Joni Mitchell’s River and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.
Looking ahead, Velma will be heading out on the road in 2025 for regional and West End dates. These include: March 14, Velma Celli’s God Save The Queens!, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarbough, tickets from https://shorturl.at/JwAHA; March 15, Show Queen!, Skipton Town Hall, tickets from https://shorturl.at/MJVaO; March 29, Show Queen, The Welsh Millennium Centre, Cardiff, tickets from https://shorturl.at/Fv0LR; April 4, A Brief History Of Drag, The Playhouse, Sheffield , tickets from https://shorturl.at/hDDiv, and April 18, Show Queen!, The Beggars Theatre, Millom, Cumbria, tickets from https://shorturl.at/U4W9J.
Further shows follow on May 24, Show Queen!, Cowes Fringe, Cowes, Isle of Wight, tickets on sale in the New Year; May 23, Show Queen, The Stage Door, Southampton, tickets from https://thestagedoor.org.uk/product.php/950; June 2, Show Queen!, The Duchess Theatre, West End, London, tickets from https://shorturl.at/XbL27; June 13, A Brief History Of Drag!, Hull Truck Theatre, tickets from https://shorturl.at/2saW5, and June 20, Show Queen!, Dudley Town Hall, tickets from https://shorturl.at/rnCQX.
In 2024, for a fourth year, Velma participated in Yorktoberfest in the Clocktower Enclosure at York Racecourse, playing to 600 to 1,000 revellers at each party. “It’s chaos but it’s great fun,” says Ian.
Unlike in 2022 and 2023, however, he will not be hosting Castellana in the Sophia Gardens spiegeltent in Cardiff this Christmas season. “I travelled back and forth to Wales for two years for these Christmas shows but there’s only so long you can do five-hour commutes to Cardiff, so I’m not doing Castellana this year,” he reasons.
Did you know?
IAN Stroughair will be performing at York’s Annual Community Carol Concert at York Barbican on December 15 at 2pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
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