The atmosphere backstage at the Doctor Who-themed queer, adults-only cabaret night is every bit as chaotic as you might imagine. Hairspray clouds air already thick with overlapping conversations between drag kings and queens, singers and burlesque artists. In its midst, Reece Connolly adjusts his ruffled shirt and rhinestoned bow tie, and turns to his fellow performers. “This is a genuine question: do you think these are too tight?” he asks, gesturing to his black trousers. “No, they’re hot,” replies cabaret all-rounder Mariana Trench. The other acts agree, encouraging Connolly to “give [the audience] what they want”. He nods, and looks to me with mock sincerity: “This is community. This is what community looks like.”

Being a fly-on-the-dressing-room-wall backstage at the Wales Millennium Centre is a heady, exhilarating and slightly overwhelming experience. But for the stars of Gallifrey Cabaret, this scene of “gorgeous chaos” (as red-headed, red-moustached drag queen Carrot describes it) is business as usual. The show, which tours the UK with a mixed bill of drag, burlesque, live music, comedy, aerial performance and dance, is celebrating its fifth anniversary this month with an extra-special extravaganza at the Clapham Grand in London, and keeps getting bigger and better. Even fire acts and a dog have been given the Time Lord twist – albeit not at the same time.

Anyone with the slightest interest in Doctor Who will know that the show has had quite a week. After weeks of whispers, an official announcement came last Wednesday: showrunner Russell T Davies and production company Bad Wolf are out, with the BBC cancelling the 2026 Christmas special and putting the franchise out to tender. Doctor Who is entering an undefined hiatus period. When it will next materialise remains unclear.

But on this April night in Cardiff, where the glittering “LGBTQ+ARDIS” has docked in the Millennium Centre’s cabaret space for a sold-out, three-night residency, fans have no idea of what’s to come. They arrive in throngs, excitable as ever – Cardiff, as the home of contemporary Doctor Who, is a popular destination among Whovians.

But it’s Gallifrey Cabaret’s social media presence – particularly on TikTok – that has allowed the team to reach their desired crowd of nostalgia-obsessed millennials and Doctor Who’s powerful and expansive queer fanbase. The gay sex jokes at this unofficial tribute night will be off-putting to some, but drag performer So Faux says that they’re simply embracing Doctor Who’s “inherently queer” side. For all its 18+ content, this is a space where everyone is welcome, Connolly tells the crowd in his opening monologue … “as long as you’re not a cunt.” Or, for that matter, a child.

Gallifrey Cabaret (or “Galley Cab”, as the team call it) was Connolly’s idea. His partner, Carrot, was supportive, but unsure if it would work. “I was like, ‘No one’s going to come to this,’” they recall, mid-costume change in a pair of flesh-coloured shorts and a bright red wig. Yet the first show at London’s Royal Vauxhall Tavern in 2021 sold out weeks in advance – “which never happens in cabaret, especially in queer cabaret”, Carrot adds.

They knew they were on to something special. Within two years, Gallifrey Cabaret had expanded, claiming the 700-plus-seat Clapham Grand as its London base. Things really blew up in December 2024, when Russell T Davies himself came along to watch. “We went along expecting fun, songs and hoots. What we didn’t expect was so much joy. A community. A sharing. A safe space,” Davies wrote on social media.

Tonight Connolly, with his tight-trousered take on Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor, is the evening’s compere. A natural host, he’s unafraid to poke fun at himself and the audience of “neurodivergent queers” in attendance. The pronoun jokes come thick and fast, affectionately and without malice. Carrot, meanwhile, is lip-syncing as two of the Doctor’s ginger companions. First, they role-play Karen Gillan’s Amy Pond dancing (naturally) to Britney Spears’ If U Seek Amy, before returning in a wedding dress to do Raye’s Where Is My Husband! as Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble. Their wigs and facial hair match impeccably.

Connolly and Carrot are on stage at every show, along with performer-in-residence Trench. The rest of the lineup is drawn from the local scene, the performers choosing their act and music as well as making their own costumes. This is the “crème-de-la-them” of the cabaret scene, Connolly tells the crowd.

Instantly recognisable as Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler in her pink hoodie and pencil-thin 00s eyebrows, So Faux is representing Cardiff’s drag scene tonight. She’s going to be singing live, she tells me as she tight-lines her thick false eyelashes with an inky black pencil. Faux’s track of choice is a parody of Overload by Sugababes, featuring the tweaked lyrics: “Show me things I’ve never seen / The London blitz and a Slitheen.”

World-ranked, Manchester-based burlesque performer Cadbury Parfait has had a different journey to Gallifrey Cabaret. For one thing, she is far less of a Doctor Who nerd than the rest of the cast, and has gone for a sultry, silly striptease routine inspired by companion Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) and her medical background. The soundtrack? Doctor Jones by Aqua. “It’s cheesy as hell,” she says, chuckling as she applies blush.

For Parfait, the chance to perform in a queer space such as Gallifrey Cabaret was one of the big draws. Like all the acts, she describes the inclusivity of these crowds. Connolly agrees: “They are a gorgeous audience. They’re so warm and so up for it.” You can sense it in the room. People arrive with their friends, and leave with new ones, bonding over shared fandom around the cabaret tables. The only thing that could annoy this crowd, Connolly admits, is “if I was to go out as a host and be like, ‘Series two, episode 10,’ when it’s episode nine”.

There are people who can (and do) mouth along with every lip-sync, but you don’t need to be a Doctor Who completist to enjoy Gallifrey Cabaret. Trench remembers bringing along their parents, who hadn’t watched since Matt Smith’s era. “I was like, ‘You won’t understand every joke, but you will know enough,’” they say. “Even if you don’t know anything about Doctor Who, cock jokes are funny.” Tonight, Trench is singing live as a “Drag-lek”, a high femme take on the Doctor’s long-feared villain, the Daleks. They’re wearing a blond wig which is actually two wigs stacked one on top of the other, and a light-up, Madonna-esque cone bra layered over a sequin gown.

Interestingly, it’s often the short-lived monsters or niche side characters from the years 2005 to 2010 who receive the best response. Representing the heavily memed one-episode villain brigade tonight is local drag king Matt Hazard. Even with his costume half on, the black mohawk wig and green tinged skin are immediately recognisable (at least to a Doctor Who fan) as those of the Abzorbaloff, a grotesque alien played by Peter Kay and created, bizarrely, as part of a 2005 Blue Peter competition. His costume might be “a walking death sentence” to anyone with a latex allergy, but the screaming crowd lap it up.

Gallifrey Cabaret is proud to cater to Doctor Who’s queer fanbase, but I’m intrigued as to why the LGBTQ+ crowd have remained so loyal to this decades-old sci-fi series. “It’s camp,” Trench says, matter-of-factly. Hazard nods: “It’s so camp.” “I think it’s also the possibilities of it,” adds Connolly. “The Doctor is a gender-fluid rebel who hates authority – certainly challenges it – and loves fashion, has found family, which I think is a very queer thing.” Recently, Doctor Who found itself in the middle of a culture war over its so-called “woke agenda” (which, it has been suggested, may have played a role in the end of the show’s co-production deal with Disney). There’s something refreshing about Gallifrey Cabaret not softening those connections, but doubling down on them.

As the TV show enters another off-season with no end in sight, Whovians, frankly, could do with a laugh. Gallifrey Cabaret can facilitate them by the bucketload, but it also reminds us why this silly series about a time-travelling alien is worth fighting for. At a time when public ideas of Britishness feel increasingly exclusionary, the team behind Galley Cab take pride in the show’s national identity. “[Doctor Who] is one of the only things about Britain I actually like,” says Connolly, only to be interrupted by Trench, who suggests that Terry’s Chocolate Orange is also up there. “Right, there’s that, too,” Connolly says. But he’s certain: “I think Doctor Who, a lot of the time, represents the best of Britain.”