Funny Girls: The History of Blackpool's Drag Palace

The idea

In the early 1990s Blackpool's gay scene already had its big nightclub, the Flamingo, and a growing cluster of bars. What it did not have was a show that brought everyone through the same door. Basil Newby, who had opened the Flamingo in 1979, wanted to create exactly that: a cabaret that gay and straight audiences, hen parties, coach trips and holidaymakers could all enjoy together, where nobody was judged.

Part of the drive came from the times. The late 1980s had brought the AIDS crisis and Section 28, a law that came after a speech made in Blackpool itself, at the 1987 Conservative conference. Newby has said that era pushed him to create something deliberately welcoming. Inside Funny Girls, his rule was simple: everyone is equal, whatever their sexuality, creed or colour.

Queen Street, 1994

Funny Girls opened in July 1994 in a small corner unit at the Promenade end of Queen Street, on the corner with The Strand. It was all-male drag cabaret with big costumes, comedy and pop, and it was a hit from the first night. One of its leading performers later remembered that the atmosphere on opening night was electric. Another recalled a tiny stage and long queues outside.

At the time drag was nowhere near the mainstream entertainment it is today, and plenty of people told Newby a drag show would never last. Instead, the venue kept expanding into neighbouring shops, and Queen Street became one of the busiest nightlife streets in town. Two names in particular became part of the furniture: Betty Legs Diamond, the long-legged leading lady who became one of Blackpool's best-loved performers, and DJ Zoe, who hosted the show from the very start and stayed for three decades.

A new home in the Odeon

By the start of the 2000s the show had outgrown Queen Street. The bar chain Walkabout was interested in the site, and the council pointed Newby towards a much bigger building that needed a new purpose: the old Odeon cinema on Dickson Road.

The Odeon is a landmark. It opened on 6 May 1939, designed by architects from the Harry Weedon practice for Oscar Deutsch's Odeon circuit, and was one of the largest cinemas the chain ever built. Its white and green faience front, fluted corner tower and long black queue canopy are classic streamlined Art Deco. In 1975 the auditorium was divided up to make extra screens, and on 11 March 1994, just months before Funny Girls opened on Queen Street, the building was listed Grade II as a remarkably complete survivor of the Odeon style. It closed as a cinema in December 1998 and stood empty.

Newby bought it for around £500,000 and spent millions bringing it back to life. More than £2 million went on converting the old stalls into the Funny Girls showbar, restoring the original Art Deco features as they went. The opening night in July 2002 had Joan Collins as guest of honour.

Royal Variety and national fame

The bigger stage brought bigger ambitions. The Funny Girls cast has appeared at the Royal Variety Performance twice. In 2005 they performed a routine called "Swine Lake", joined on stage for one night only by a dancer from English National Ballet.

The venue also became a regular on television. It appeared in the 2004 television drama Blackpool, the cast has turned up in documentaries and entertainment shows, and in 2013 a documentary filmmaker went behind the scenes of the Christmas show rehearsals to film the cast and choreographer at work. You can read more in our guide to Blackpool's LGBTQ+ history on screen.

The show

A Funny Girls show is a Las Vegas-style revue: big dance numbers, slapstick, comedy, audience participation, disco, smoke machines and costume changes every few minutes. The costumes are a legend in their own right, with feathers and hand-beaded dresses that the venue likes to say could outshine the Illuminations. Shows change with the seasons. The 2015 summer show, marking the venue's 21st birthday, opened with a tribute to Shirley Bassey and moved through Amy Winehouse, Dolly Parton, Cher, Lady Gaga, Broadway, gospel and Elvis. Christmas shows are a fixture of the festive party season.

One distinctive touch is that the performers also serve dinner in the restaurant before the show, so the line between cast and audience is blurred from the moment you sit down.

Over the years the stage has made stars of many queens. As well as Betty Legs Diamond and DJ Zoe, names that have become part of the venue's story include Miss Scarlett, Bonnie La Blue, Miss Titty Kaka, CeCe D'vyne, Kyran Thrax as the Tin Queen of Oz, and DJ Carmen. Several Funny Girls performers have gone on to lead Pride parades, front films about the town and appear in Blackpool Pride's line-ups.

Anniversaries

• 2015, 21 years: a new summer show celebrating rock and pop divas.
• 2019, 25 years: more than 1,000 people came to the anniversary weekend in July, including former dancers and bar staff, and messages arrived from around the world.
• 2024, 30 years: the venue marked three decades as the centrepiece of the town's drag scene.

Administration and rescue

The 2010s ended with a scare. In September 2018 Newby's company went into administration, and in January 2019 the Lancashire brewer Thwaites took over the estate, including Funny Girls. Newby, recovering from cancer treatment, watched from the sidelines. Then in August 2019 he bought Funny Girls back, along with the Flamingo and Buzz, just in time for its 25th birthday. A first national tour in 25 years, led by Betty Legs Diamond, was planned for spring 2020.

The building today

Funny Girls is far more than one room. The sale particulars in 2025 described a 1,700-capacity showbar, a 120-seat restaurant, a balcony with a Royal Box, and two separate units within the building, the Level 3 nightclub and Oscar's bar. Oscar's, upstairs, hosts the after-show party with karaoke and live music.

A new era

In July 2025 Newby announced his retirement, and the venue went on the market at £3.5 million. He said he wanted people who truly understood Funny Girls, rather than simply the highest bidder. In January 2026 he confirmed it had been sold, and in spring 2026 the new owner was revealed as Kane Oliver, a theatre-trained operator who runs bars and venues around the UK.

The new team, led by general manager Jack Bland and performance director Alex Lonorgan, opened their first season, Hot Girl Summer, with a bigger stage and a new runway that brings the queens closer to the audience, plus new numbers and dance routines. Miss Scarlett returned for the first time in six years. The new owners say that around two thirds of the audience on a typical night are first-timers, many drawn in by the drag boom on television, and that they want to keep everything that made Funny Girls famous while raising the standard even higher.

Why Funny Girls matters

Funny Girls did something unusual. It took drag, which for decades had lived in pub back rooms and on the end of piers, and made it the main event for a mixed audience of thousands every week. It helped establish Blackpool as one of the most LGBTQ+-friendly destinations in the country, and it gave a whole generation of northern queens a stage. For many visitors, straight and gay alike, it was the first drag show they ever saw.

Show times, prices and the cast can change, so check before you go.