Overture, House of Burlesque’s new show beneath Covent Garden’s Middle Eight Hotel, moves to select Friday nights this summer, and we went along to see what all the fuss is about.
Before it was QT, the underground space beneath the Middle Eight Hotel was Kingsway Hall, a 1912 recording venue with acoustics good enough to draw Luciano Pavarotti and the London Symphony Orchestra. It sheltered Londoners through the Blitz, hosted suffragette rallies and once carried Charles de Gaulle’s voice out to occupied France. House of Burlesque, the UK’s longest-running burlesque troupe under Tempest Rose, has taken all of that and built a show around it. We went on a Friday night to see whether the history stacks up against the performance, and it does.
The show: an archive you get pulled into
Overture arrives with a gimmick that could easily have felt gimmicky and doesn’t. Every guest gets a “Kingsway Archive” catalogue number on arrival, and numbers are drawn throughout the night to unlock hidden characters and archival moments woven into the performance, so the audience genuinely becomes part of the story rather than just watching it happen. Around that structure, House of Burlesque do what they do best: seductive choreography, live vocals, sharp comedy and properly accomplished striptease, all built around the venue’s own back catalogue of wartime romance and recording-studio glamour.
What sets this one apart
We’ve seen a fair amount of London burlesque, and Overture reads differently to most of it. There’s more levity here, more genuine comedy, a lighter touch than the usual smoulder-and-not-much-else format, without losing an inch of the skill that makes the format worth watching in the first place. The performers are excellent, the pacing doesn’t sag across two and a half hours, and the interval doesn’t kill the momentum the way it can elsewhere.
The London x London Take
This is a genuinely good night out, and one of the more interesting things to do in Covent Garden after dark right now. Two dates remain this summer, 14 and 28 August, and general admission starts at a reasonable £20.35, with reserved booth and table options running up to £127.20 for the full champagne treatment. Pair it with dinner at Sycamore downstairs beforehand, show tickets get you 20% off the bill, and you’ve got a proper evening rather than just an hour and a half of entertainment.
Need to Know
- Venue: QT at The Middle Eight Hotel
- Address: 66 Great Queen Street, Covent Garden, London WC2B 5BX
- Dates: Friday 14 August and Friday 28 August 2026
- Time: Doors 7pm, show 7.45pm to 10pm (including interval)
- Price: From £20.35 general admission to £127.20 for the VIP Primadonna package
“A rare burlesque night with real levity to go with the skill, built around a genuinely great piece of London history. Worth the ticket.”
