With his pastel face paint and long false lashes, the cult performer Jonny Woo initially suggests a butterfly with a beard. But this prettified fellow proves to have some steely skills – and a few surprises – up the sleeve of the suit he wears at the start of his hour-long show.

Woo is an icon of London’s East End gay scene, having made his name hosting trendy and fun alternative performance nights. He constructed this off-the-wall cabaret entertainment around a near-death experience. Apparently at some point his body simply shut down after years of partying excess. But this glittery, self-indulgent survivor isn’t asking for sympathy now. Just give him a microphone, plus a few big wigs, and he’s in his element.

Charismatic and confident, Woo resists cosiness or anything overtly personal. Instead he runs a gamut from Shakespeare (the “death of kings” speech from Richard II, given a stentorian delivery in a dunce’s cap) to Barbra Streisand (a defiant and, in truth, somewhat cliché-dampened rendition of Don’t Rain on My Parade).

Between the two segments he sandwiches in a handful of stories and songs. These include a motormouth tongue-twister about a pair of pill-poppers, a stint as a sporty transvestite that has him striding about in spiked heels, thigh-high legwarmers and a gold lamé leotard, and a catty little tale of tension between a mum, a tot, a spoilt feline and a deadly wasp.

Much of Woo’s material is pitched somewhere between send-up and celebration. He can be, to borrow the title of one rap routine, an empowered Woman of Mass Destruction, but also a down-and-out drag queen in a coma. Wisely, he never overplays the ironic fabulousness of his transvestite persona. The net effect is nothing like as resonant as Woo might have intended, but as a showcase for his talents it more than suffices.

Box office: 020-7478 0100. www.sohotheatre.com. Ends tomorrow. Then at the Gilded Balloon Billiard Room, Edinburgh, July 30-Aug 25 2008

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