Apocalypse Meow: Crisis is Born, Nov 8, 2019 ****

CABARET 

Created & performed by Meow Meow, by Malthouse Theatre 

At Malthouse Theatre, until Dec 1, 2019 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

Stars: ****
 Review published in Herald Sun in print only on Tues Nov 12, 2019. KH  

Meow Meow

Meow Meow straddles a line between exotic, glamorous, European diva, and trashy, demented, pill-popping lush, in her Christmas cabaret, Apocalypse Meow: Crisis is Born.

The show, performed a month before the silly season, is Meow Meow’s Christmas offering: a frothy cocktail of cabaret songs and Christmas tunes with lashings of maudlin disappointment and recrimination.

This dysfunctional diva arrives as a hilarious, albeit irreverent parody of Mary, en route to Bethlehem (the pun’s in the title: Crisis is Born). She’s dressed in a shabby, lamè gown, sporting a pregnant belly (filled with nativity goodies), tatty halo and blow-up donkey, only to find no room at the inn – or at any reputable concert hall – for her show.

Meow Meow is a startlingly versatile singer/actor/dancer, and her effortless voice is rich, silky and dark like a brandy-soaked fruitcake.

The show starts with the confident chanteuse delivering her anti-Christmas show, staggers into a chaotic middle that is like the dreams of an addled mind, then finishes with the foggy, morning-after memories of Christmases past.

Her celebrity guests are no-shows, children keep singing at the door, it’s snowing and blowing a gale, and Santa brings useless, out-of-date gifts, so she steals her presents from audience members.

Her songs range from the Spanish love song, Un Año D’amor, to Weill/Brecht’s atmospheric Ballad of the Soldier’s Wife, 1960s ballad, I (Who Have Nothing), tunes by Nick Cave and Rogers and Hammerstein, traditional songs, plus original tunes by Meow Meow and others.

After the slightly messy middle section, we witness the most affecting moment: she sits alone, beside her band (Mark Jones, Jethro Woodward, Dan Witton), bathed in moody, blue light (Paul Jackson), singing the achingly painful, tender Would I Feel (by Meow Meow/Iain Grandage), a song of yearning for a child.

Meow Meow is exhilarating, hilarious, provocative and shambolic, and this combination cannot be explained. She needs to be seen to be believed.

by Kate Herbert

CREATED & PERFORMED BY / Meow Meow
DIRECTOR / Michael Kantor
CAST / Michaela Burger, Annie Jones, Dusty Bursill, Charlotte Barnard, Riya Mandrawa
MUSICIANS / Mark Jones, Dan Witton
MUSICAL DIRECTION / Jethro Woodward
LIGHTING DESIGN / Paul Jackson
STAGE MANAGER / Lisa Osborn

Meow Meow and band