Review: HOLE!
[Soho Theatre || July 17th to August 1st 2026 || 1h 20m]
Hole? In Soho? It’s more likely than you think!
It’s difficult to know where to even begin reviewing a show like HOLE!, the new musical offering from Jake Brasch and Nadja Leonhard-Hooper, aka American Sing-Song. Set in a world in which anyone whose… well, whose hole is not permanently plugged is seemingly raptured in an ongoing event known as the Great Sucking, the show follows two teenage boys - Luke and Connor - who, on the instructions of Luke’s pastor father and the leader of the cult in which the boys have grown up, must venture to Cincinatti (or Cincidaddy, as it is later christened) to remove the plugs from a group of “sinners” so that they can be raptured as God intends. Only by doing this, the pastor claims, can the Great Sucking finally end and peace (and anal freedom) be restored to those who have been saved.
A tale of religious zealotry and gay awakening told through a series of hilarious songs (in which, for example, “anus” is rhymed with “heinous” and “devastation” with “ejaculation”), HOLE! blends ludicrous storytelling with genuine sincerity. Brasch and Leonhard-Hooper, who both write and perform all of the songs and music, as well as the myriad characters who populate this world of buttplugs and extraordinarily complicated defecation rituals, are adept at using heightened comedy and absurdist poetry to tell a genuinely heartfelt story of two boys discovering who they are and how they feel about each other, lightly ribbing but never mocking them. The quest, which takes the two twinks to the hotbed of bears, anal and fetish culture that is Soho Cincinatti, serves as a metaphor for an elongated and inevitable coming out, all as the boys discover that having one's hole filled can do so much than merely avert annihilation at the hands of a vengeful and apparently kinky overlord.
It's in the unapologetic queer silliness of the concept and the narrative that HOLE! thrives. Brasch and Leonhard-Hooper sell the story and its characters with the utmost conviction, which in turn elevates the joyous and gleefully daft milieu that they establish from the start with their glorious costumes and wigs. Surrounded on three sides by a series of instruments and props that serve as practical sound effects, they are consummate showpeople who use all of the tricks at their disposal to create an experience that feels improvised but is tightly rehearsed and carefully constructed. Yet there's a looseness and a sense of chaos to it all too, that puts the audience at ease and helps them to surrender to the madness unfolding on stage. Indeed, an unexpected show stop caused by a broken mic at this particular performance was handled with playful aplomb by the pair, demonstrating their adaptability and natural ability to hold a room in the palm of their hands.
There's something of Bourgeois and Maurice to American Sing-Song, not just in their lyricism but also in how they interact with one another and in their wry humour. As such, HOLE! feels much less strained and contrived than it might in the hands of lesser performers, which means the audience is awarded with, for lack of a better phrase, an easy way into it (sorry). Elements of it still feel like a work-in-progress and it's sometimes a little loose and sloppy (again, sorry) but it's nonetheless thoroughly entertaining and both Brasch and Leonhard-Hooper are effortlessly engaging and funny. It's a shamelessly stupid bit of cabaret but one that is treated seriously by its writer-performer duo, and is all the better for it, so if you find yourself in Soho in the next week, or Edinburgh in the next month, you can do far worse for yourself than seeking out a nice bit of HOLE!
Tickets for HOLE! are available here. The show will also be playing the Edinburgh Fringe Festival from August 5th to August 30th.