There's a certain delicious irony in a show called FAGA: The Trump Cabaret landing at Darlinghurst's Qtopia during Sydney's Pride Fest. The orange menace, recast and playing to a queer crowd. If that premise alone makes you smile, writer-producer Nicholas R.T. Reynolds has already won half the battle, and he wins the rest of it too.
Reynolds, whose production collected the FIFA Fringe Prize and an Adelaide Fringe overall nomination on the 2026 festival circuit, delivers exactly what the title promises: a bawdy, brazen, Las Vegas lounge-act romp through the life and times of Donald J. Trump. Part biographical timeline, part musical parody, part political roast. The show moves at pace, landing its punches with the kind of commitment that earns forgiveness for the occasional groan-worthy gag.
The physical and vocal work here deserves genuine applause. The POTUS affectations, that particular combination of half-squint, chin-jut and wandering superlative, are nailed with alarming precision, walking the line between impersonation and caricature with sure-footed confidence. This is not a lazy sketch impression. There's real craft in the performance, and the vocal choices, especially in the musical numbers, are consistently funny and surprisingly tuneful.
The structure follows a loose biographical arc. Early real estate gambits, the bankruptcies, Trump University, the lurch into politics, all punctuated by a supporting cast of recognisable figures. RFK Jr., Melania, and a cognitively uncertain Joe Biden all make appearances, and the show doesn't shy away from the full gallery of current White House identities, JD Vance and Steven Miller among them. A knowing nod to NSW Premier Chris Minns drew an appreciative local response, a smart piece of in-room calibration.
The musical parodies are the show's sharpest weapon. New lyrics draped over familiar melodies are a classic cabaret tool, and Reynolds uses them well. The undisputed highlight, however, is a call-and-response sequence using INXS's Never Tear Us Apart, reimagined as a duet between Trump and the spirit of Jeffrey Epstein. It is, depending on your constitution, either the most inappropriate or the most brilliant moment in the show. Possibly both. The audacity is commendable.
A Q&A section invites the audience in, and the crowd, clearly delighted to be there, obliges with enthusiasm. It's the kind of participatory energy that distinguishes live cabaret from its recorded counterparts, and the show earns it.
FAGA has reportedly faced unusual headwinds in Sydney. META and Reddit declining to carry advertising, leaving Grindr as the reliable alternative. It's a faintly absurd situation that the show itself might well have written. The result has been smaller houses than the production deserves, which is a shame. This is a confident, award-recognised piece of work that plays to genuine strengths: sharp writing, committed performance, and the particular freedom that comes with knowing your audience is entirely on your side.
"Woke is dead, Comedy is back," the show declares. Whether or not you buy the thesis, FAGA makes a reasonable case that political satire with real theatrical cheer is very much alive and kicking
FAGA: The Trump Cabaret plays at Qtopia Sydney's The Loading Dock, 10–12 June 2026.
Tickets: https://tickets.qtopiasydney.com.au/Events/FAGA-The-Trump-Cabaret-
(images: Tim Stackpool)
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