Alternately described as a one-man show and a song cycle, the Torsten series premiered in 2014 with Torsten the Bareback Saint. Written by composer Christopher Frost and playwright/lyricist Barney Ashton-Bullock and performed by Erasure vocalist Andy Bell, the character returned in Torsten the Beautiful Libertine in 2016. Consisting of the regret-tinged remembrances of a semi-immortal who is described as polysexual -- sexuality and squandered opportunities to find love are recurring topics here -- the series' third installment, Torsten in Queereteria, followed in 2019. Like the first two Torsten shows, Queereteria is over an hour in length, and though it often splits the difference between recitative and pure song, tracks including "Let's Be Sober Another Time," the vaudevillian "If We Want to Drink a Little" (featuring Hazel O'Connor), and club-cabaret hybrid "Thou Shalt Be My Vibe" provide mini pop interludes. Part chamber ensemble and part low-key electro-pop, the set opens with a timpani roll, piano, drone, and Bell's melodic exposition on "A Hundred Years Plus Today." Later, sound effects and samples accompany the sparse "I Am of the Sea" and mid-tempo quasi-dance track "Cabaret Awayday," while piano and woodwinds dominate the arrangement of "To Know Good Men from Perverts," at least until its rock-opera closing. Midway through the song list, the R-rated "Queereteria" paints a scene of fake fur and "toothless whiplash smiles," where "...the straights dance like it's cool to be queer/Lip-synching through the trashy sounds of all my yesteryears." The show and album close with the dramatic ballad "Not Opting Out," in which Torsten anticipates death but pledges to press on. Throughout, Bell's soulful performance carries the show through bawdy, touching, and weary passages that reflect Torsten's real age. ~ Marcy Donelson

Rovi