Lady Boys of Bangkok: Dancing queens

Are they women or men. No matter, says Richard Fitzpatrick, because the Lady Boys of Bangkok are great fun.

SHORT and softly spoken, Urasak Suthajinda, aka Sak, is the artistic director of the Lady Boys of Bangkok. He choreographs the Thai cabaret troupe’s dances, and greets audiences with a mandate: “The Lady Boys of Bangkok are here for entertain you!” But Sak is probably best known for his version of Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’.

Sak starts the number looking like Shirley Bassey, but as the song meanders its way through the loving, the laughing and “the share of losing”, he slowly sheds his elaborate costume, the wig and the make-up, to reveal a man. He has become Sinatra by the song’s end.