11 Cult Musicals You NEED To See

One reason why we love musicals is for their riotous campy goodness. And one film that turns this up to eleven is Canadian filmmaker and activist John Greyson’s Zero Patience.

An AIDS musical made in response to the “Patient Zero” myth perpetuated in the book And The Band Played On, Greyson’s musical presents a counterpoint to the misconceptions surrounding the epidemic that were spread in the media. Executed in a style best described as 80s music videos meets overtly cheeky sexuality, this film is far from the serious outing you’d expect from its subject matter.

The plot is just as suitably silly: famed Victorian sexologist Sir Richard Burton (John Robinson), still living thanks to discovering the Fountain of Youth, encounters the ghost of Zero (Normand Fauteaux), the young gay man accused of being Patient Zero, while working on an AIDS exhibit for the museum he curates. Over time this unlikely pair overcome their differences and form a romantic relationship of their own.

Now recognised as a substantial landmark in the queer cinema movement, Zero Patience is also known for being that film with the singing buttholes – seriously, that’s in there.