Le Gateau Chocolat

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Introducing the operatic bass and larger than life musical phenomenon, Le Gateau Chocolat.

Le Gateau Chocolat attracted worldwide headlines when he performed in Tobias Kratzer’s acclaimed production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser at the 2019 Bayreuth Festival, generating controversy as the first black drag artist to have graced Germany’s most hallowed of stages, also presenting an unprecedented solo interval performance, in his own inimitable style, of music across all genres from opera to disco, musicals to pop.

Voted by Time Out London as one of its Top 10 Cabaret Stars, and winner of Total Theatre Award for “Significant Contribution to Theatre”, Le Gateau Chocolat is a one-man, wig-wearing, sequin-clad musical chameleon and a gifted and celebrated bass who has performed at prestigious venues such as Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Centre, Sydney Opera House, Wigmore Hall and at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He has worked with many contemporary composers, specifically Julian Philips (Varjak Paw at Royal Opera House), Jonathan Dove (Tobias and The Angel at the Young Vic), Jocelyn Pook (Ingerland at Royal Opera House and Anxiety Fanfare at Hull City of Culture 2017 and Royal Festival Hall) and Orlando Gough (Imago at Glyndebourne Festival Opera).

Le Gateau Chocolat has presented many solo shows including IN DRAG (Royal Festival Hall commission), accompanied by small orchestra, is an exploration of the effects of living in drag through music by artists ranging from Wagner to Nick Cave presented with trademark wit and candour, and BLACK (Homotopia commission), an intimate and confessional portrait featuring repertoire from Purcell to Nina Simone and Whitney Houston. His recent production ICONS has toured to Sydney Festival, Wales Millennium Centre, Soho Theatre, Underbelly Southbank and elsewhere. ICONS has also been presented with accompaniment from Little Coco Orchestra, a Le Gateau Chocolat initiative to support diverse musicians through the creation of an ensemble formed entirely of women of colour. This up-scaled production premiered at SPILL Festival in 2018, with subsequent presentation at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire as part of SHOUT Festival.

Le Gateau Chocolat’s work in theatre includes at the National in Rufus Norris’ production of The Threepenny Opera, Feste in Emma Rice’s final visionary production of Twelfth Night at The Globe (2017), Effigies of Wickedness – Songs banned by the Nazis (2018), a co-production between the Gate Theatre and English National Opera and Daddy Brubeck in the Donmar Warehouse’s production of Sweet Charity (2019) alongside Beverly Knight and Clive Rowe. He further appeared as part of Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music: The First Act at London’s Barbican Theatre (2019), Basement Jaxx & Metropole Orkest, Barbican and as a featured cast member of two-time Olivier Award winning cabaret and circus, La Clique and La Soirée. He is currently in rehearsal for Taylor Mac’s new work Bark of Millions debuting at the Sydney Opera house in October 2023.

His children’s show Duckie premiered at the Southbank Centre in 2016 and was included in the Guardian’s Six of the Best Shows for Children at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The show, which introduces young people to the ideas of otherness, tolerance and self-acceptance, has been presented at Theatre Royal Stratford East, Wales Millennium Centre, Roundhouse, Contact Theatre and across venues in the South-East of England.

Le Gateau Chocolat’s kaleidoscopic talent spans opera, musical theatre, cabaret, drag, children’s theatre and live art and his joyous and honest performances have endeared him to audiences globally.