‘I dressed as Thatcher for Halloween 13 years ago as a joke – now it’s my full-time job’

What do WhitneyHouston,Dolly PartonandMargaret Thatcherhave in common?

Well, apart from international notoriety and dedicated fan bases, they’ve all been impersonated bydrag queens.

Yes… that does include the former Prime Minister – and believe it or not, she’s one of the most popular acts on the scene.

For the last 12 years, Matt Tedford is one such performer who has put on the Iron Lady’s wig and armed himself with her handbag to entertain the crowds.

The play,Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho, is based on an alternate reality around the introduction of Section 28 – Thatcher’s bill which banned schools from ‘promoting homosexuality’.

It fuelled stigma and led to youngLGBTQ+people feeling isolated in their own schools for over a decade. Matt’s play turns this history on its head, imagining a world where Thatcher embraces the community instead.

In his show, the PM gets lost in Soho, meets gay people and becomes a disco diva.

We caught up with Matt who revealed that the show was born from a joke.

He toldMetrothat the year before Thatcher’s death he went to aHalloweenparty dressed as her.

But when she died, Matt and his friend Jon Brittain, who hosted the party, were asked to write a 15-minute sketch.

They never thought it would take off, but after rave reviews they expanded the show, and have gone on to sell out in the West End, done multiple stints at theEdinburgh Fringeand toured the world

Perhaps what keeps the show alive is that Matt and Jon adapt the show for every performance to fit the news of the day.

Most recently he performed in her hometown, Grantham in Lincolnshire, for Thatcherfest – a week of satire, centred around what would have been her 100th birthday on October 13.

He said that people in the town still hold strong opinions on the former Titan of British politics – views that are often expressed in the form of graffiti on a statue of her.

Matt said: ‘I didn’t know if it would be fans of Thatcher or people who hated Thatcher, but it turned out to be an incredibly warm crowd.

‘It was really quite touching to be on her home ground. It strangely made her almost human, for want of a better term.’

Among those in his crowd was Edwina Currie, who served in Thatcher’s Torygovernmentas a juniorhealthminister and shared a birthday with the former PM. Matt said she loved the show and there was a rendition of Happy Birthday for the pair.

His encounter with Currie was much more positive than another recent performance when he hosted a book launch with Kemi Badenoch, the current Conservative leader.

Matt said: ‘It was a room full of Tory grandees with a few Reformers thrown in. Kemi had just done her speech and I came on and said “Welcome to drag queen story hour, hosted byKemi Badenochand Margaret Thatcher.

‘That pretty much cleared the room. It wasn’t really the audience I expected.’

Despite the walkout, he said he’s never met a politician who was rude. However, he added: ‘I did once meet a woman who worked with Thatcher who said “Thatcher’s make-up wasn’t like that”.’

Matt, who insists that his show isn’t actually drag in its truest form, says he’s been asked if he’d play other former female PMsTheresa MayandLiz Truss.

He joked that the advantage with portraying Margaret Thatcher is that she is no longer alive so cannot be libelled. He added: ‘With Liz Truss, it would be the shortest play in the world.’

And what does Matt think about the success of his show? He toldMetro: ‘I’ve actually been Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho longer than Thatcher was Prime Minister of this country, so I must be doing something right.’

Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho will be inBristolOld Vic this weekend, and inBirminghamand Southampton next weekend.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us atwebnews@metro.co.uk.

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