Spirituals by Le Gateau Chocolat

A homily of Black Queer excellence through Negro-Spirituals 

Le Gateau Chocolat delivers a Sunday Service like no other, in an ode to two ground-breaking Black American sopranos - Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle. 

Le Gateau Chocolat is an internationally celebrated performer whose work spans drag, cabaret, opera, musical theatre and live art, with a bewitching baritone heard on stages including the Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Centre, Sydney Opera House and Shakespeare’s Globe. Renowned for productions such as BLACK, ICONS and Olivier Award‑winning La Clique/La Soirée, his work consistently explores identity, heritage and radical self‑acceptance. Spirituals marks a powerful return to the UK stage, coming to Lowry, Salford from Friday 29 to Saturday 30 May 2026.

Collaborating with renowned Musical Director Allyson Devenish (NitroVoX) and celebrated 90s frontman, vocalist, essayist and historian, Dr. David McAlmont, performing a selection of Norman and Battle's famed 1990 Carnegie Hall concert ‘Sing Spirituals’. 
 
Blurring the lines between spirituality of religion, and spiritualism of self, Gateau’s Spirituals will take our congregation on a journey of the soul. 
 
Seeing Jessy Norman and Kathleen Battle perform with an all-white orchestra opened ideas that young Gateau could barely imagine, and now lives. Where acceptance of self meant defiance of his deeply Christian Nigerian upbringing, the power in the music of these hallowed spaces was transformative – from church to Carnegie Hall, and now Lowry. 
 
Welcome to Gateau’s sacred space – his stage, his church, his dance floor – his safe space. Safe to explore to rich complexity of how songs born in slavery beget salvation; and where diaspora and drag collide the way only Le Gateau Chocolat can. 

Le Gateau Chocolat: Spirituals comes to Lowry, Salford from Friday 29 to Saturday 30 May 2026. Tickets are available now from thelowry.com