Queen of cabaret Tash York returns to Fringe with two new dazzling shows

Queen of cabaret and Fringe World veteran Tash York returns to Perth in 2026 with two new shows ready to dazzle audiences! Jam-packed full of glamour, glitz and York’s signature sprinkling of mayhem, Tash York’s Chaos Cabaret hits The Hat Trick at The Pleasure Garden from Wednesday, January 28, to Sunday, February 1, with tickets on sale now. Tash York is Drop Red Gorgeous hits The Hat Trick at The Pleasure Garden from Wednesday, February 4, to Sunday, February 8, with tickets on sale now. BEC WELDON met with Tash York herself to hear all about both shows!

Hey Tash, thanks so much for joining us, and welcome back to Perth for 2026! You’re bringing two shows to the festival this year. Are these both new to Perth this year?

Always a pleasure! Yes, these are both brand new shows to Fringe World. In fact, my new solo show is brand new to the whole wide world. It will be my premiere season, so I’m very much looking forward to giving birth to it in front of you all… that sounded weird… I promise the show is much better than that.

Your show Tash York’s Chaos Cabaret was a winner for the Best Variety Weekly award at Adelaide in 2025. How do you infuse a cabaret with chaos?


Look, there isn’t much room for life without chaos when you’re an ADHD diva drag queen, but cabaret as an art form is always conversational in tone. If you think back to the best cabaret shows you’ve seen, there is always a hint of the unexpected or little moments that simply can’t be recreated night after night. Think of Chaos Cabaret as an incubator for creating more of those moments, with three fabulous fringe performers thrown into the mix and me in the driver’s seat.

Mixing drag, cabaret, circus and burlesque with a game-show-like format certainly shakes up some of the Fringe show formats audiences might be used to! What kind of shenanigans do you have in store for audiences?

You may remember I brought a show to Fringe World two years ago called Fringe As F**K, and Chaos Cabaret is a slightly more refined version of that. This time we have really leant into gamifying the experience, with the audience able to weigh in on decisions throughout the night, from what style of music we should play all the way through to choosing who should take home the title of ‘Chaos Cabaret Champion’. I also work hard to include a hugely diverse cast every night, so you can see how a drag queen, a burlesque performer, and a cabaret star might each approach recreating the sinking of the Titanic, for example. It is wild, silly, ridiculous and a lot of fun. Plus, you get to see your favourite iconic Fringe performers in a slightly different but excellent light!

When we last spoke before the 2024 Fringe World season, you were preparing to join the Shrek-inspired Swamplesque and tour Happy Hour around Australia. What’s happened in the world of Tash York since then?

It has been a very full but very fun schedule, balancing my princess duties whilst producing and performing my own shows, plus keeping up with my regular hosting gigs and being a full-time cat mother of three…

I have had a blast getting to work with the Swamplesque fam, and we had a stellar Edinburgh Fringe season, with 22 out of 24 shows selling out in the biggest venue in Edinburgh! It has certainly been a change from my humble cabaret dingy bar roots, and yet I still love both styles of performance equally! Switching between them keeps my onstage style fresh because I am constantly adapting to different shows and environments.

As well as the ogre-inspired Swamplesque and Happy Hour, you’ve been touring your own shows and recently performed alongside the Briefs Factory team in Briefs: Knickers. What keeps you connected to the stage to entertain audiences and take on these huge projects?  

I love working with different talents. That is what drew me to producing a show like Chaos Cabaret in the first place, because I get to collaborate with so many artists across a range of genres. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the cabaret community, but combining skills and creating new acts with performers from other disciplines has made my own work more unique as well. I also have a huge love for mentoring and directing, so being part of other companies’ projects gives me a chance to flex those muscles too.

Your other show, Tash York is Drop Red Gorgeous, pays homage to the legendary redheads of the stage and screen! What inspired you to structure a show around red-haired icons?

Because I myself am obviously a very natural redhead… I mean, I bought the wigs, so it counts, right? I joke, but what really draws me to redheads is their power, their strength, and the way they harness emotion. They are all so fascinatingly cool. I have always used red hair in my drag, at first without even realising I was doing it, and now I dye my hair red in my everyday life too, so it has become part of me. It has been really fun getting to the core of why we find redheads so captivating and uncovering more truth about my own crimson journey as well. ‘Crimson journey’ sounds like something you say to a 12-year-old girl about her first period… It’s not that, I promise!

You celebrate both modern and classic artists, from Adele and Ed Sheeran to Annie Lennox and Bowie! With a fair few notable redheads to choose from, what was it that drew you to the specific artists you emulate?

A lot of the music in the show is already the kind I love to sing. I have a bold, brash voice, and these artists share that same fearless sound. The show celebrates them, but it isn’t about imitation. It uses their music as a catalyst to explore my own redheaded journey and what identity really means. Ultimately it is about finding who you are and owning it, whether you are born that way or not.

Were there any regretful exclusions you couldn’t quite fit in?

I cannot say too much just yet, but there is a rather chaotic medley in the works that may help me cover all my bases. I have ADHD and am convinced I can do everything, despite the show opening in less than a month. It is fine. Truly. The real challenge has been including as many genuine, natural gingers as possible, because there are a lot of people like me who are merely perceived as redheads. I want to make sure the show celebrates the full spectrum. There is so much music I love that I wish I had another half hour just to do them all justice.

Alongside your signature brand of comedy and powerhouse vocals, you’re bringing an impressive selection of wigs for the occasion and what you describe as “glamour on a budget”—what goes into bringing each character/homage to life, from the costuming to the research to the vocal study?

Drag and cabaret have always been about making the ordinary extraordinary. Combining the two has given me even more tools to play with in characterisation and costuming. I have been a singer for a long time, with my roots—albeit naturally brown—being as a wedding band cover singer. I used to have to emulate a lot of the vocal licks and harmonies to make the band come across as ‘professional’ as possible, so with that as the foundation plus the campy cabaret drag on top, it has been a joyful process bringing these characters and homages to life.

With award-winning shows across festivals in Australia, you certainly know how to put on a show. With such a variety of cabaret show options available throughout the festival, what do you think really sets a cabaret show apart and makes it next level?

This is going to sound a bit naff, but shows built on the true essence of the performer always land the hardest. Yes, people love a polished performance, but that human element, the vulnerability, and the moments where things might go slightly off script are where connection really happens. Those moments create spontaneity, and the performers who can embrace that and handle it beautifully are, to me, the true masters of their craft. They are offering something completely unique that may never happen again, and that is pretty damn special, hey?

Tash York’s Chaos Cabaret hits The Hat Trick at The Pleasure Garden from Wednesday, January 28, to Sunday, February 1. Tickets are on sale now from fringeworld.com.au Tash York is Drop Red Gorgeous hits The Hat Trick at The Pleasure Garden from Wednesday, February 4, to Sunday, February 8, 2026. Tickets are on sale now from fringeworld.com.au