ScotlandOnSunday.Scotsman.com – By Pauline Diamond
The Duchess smiles a hazy half-smile and squints into the spotlight. Unsteady in her platform heels, she sways a little, adjusts the tiara on top of her ash-blond wig and brings the microphone to her lips. “I am what I am, I am my own special creation.”
The opening lines of Jerry Herman’s Broadway hit are met with immediate cheers. The song is the unofficial anthem of gay pride and a paean to misfits, outsiders and ugly ducklings everywhere. Gloria Gaynor and Shirley Bassey have both recorded their own versions, but tonight it’s delivered in a gravelly baritone by a short, middle-aged Glaswegian man in a dress.